Thursday, September 28, 2006

Ritual Sex and the Cult of Diana

The other night, I caught this documentary on the city of Ephesus. During Roman times, the city had a huge temple to Diana. The documentary stated that followers of her cult would have sex in the temple as part of their offering. Furthermore, I remember reading once that Caligula allegedly was in this cult, and would take part in the same ritual.

My question: Why would Diana be at the center of a cult that involved ritual sex when Diana was always perceived as being chaste? You'd think (at least I would think) that her cult would resemble the Vestals in this regard.

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