Greetings My Faithful Readers!
This links list is about medieval attitudes regarding Prostitution and Women's Sexuality. I learned a lot while researching this list. For instance, for many of our medieval counterparts, prostitutes were considered a necessary part of society. Doctors and Church fathers were polar opposites regarding whether or not abstinence was healthy. And, since most young men didn't marry until age 24 or later, you can readily see how the attitude that prostitutes saved the "gentle women" (that'd be the noble Mom, Daughter, and Sister) from certain ravishment came about.
If you read this particular list for titillation, you might be surprised at what you find. Only one site is light-hearted, and even that one manages to spread some information with its cheesy illustrations of fancy women. Oh yes--there are no illustrations of naked people in this links list. Sorry to disappoint you, but there you have it. We're safe in knowing that this list is completely visually clean. There is, however, the odd reference to body parts and bodily function.
So, dive in, learn something, and understand our chosen culture a little better.
Cheers
Aoife
m/k/a Lisbeth Herr-Gelatt
Riverouge, Endless Hills, Aethelmearc
Tanja Garrett: Thesis
http://mcel.pacificu.edu/history/dept/students/theses2000/garrett/garret...
(Site Excerpt) Augustine did not condone "unnatural sex," but he understood
human nature in that there would always be a demand for sex, "Banish
prostitutes and you reduce society to chaos through unsatisfied lust."
Brown University: Prostitution in the Middle Ages: Prostitution and Canon Law
http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Italian_Studies/dweb/society/sex/prosti...
(Site Excerpt) It was accepted as fact that young men would seek out sexual
relations regardless of their options, and thus prostitution served to
protect "respectable" townswomen from seduction and even rape. In 1358, the
Grand Council of Venice declared that prostitution was "absolutely
indispensable to the world".
Medieval Sourcebook: Corpus Iuris Civilis: The Digest and Codex: Marriage Laws
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/cjc-marriage.html
(Site Excerpt) Where a freedwoman is living in concubinage with her patron,
she can leave him without his consent, and unite with another man, either in
matrimony or in concubinage. I think, however, that a concubine should not
have the right to marry if she leaves her patron without his consent, since
it is more honorable for a freedwoman to be the concubine of a patron than
to become the mother of a family.
ORB: Rape and Prostitution
http://www.the-orb.net/textbooks/anthology/beidler/rape.html
(Site Excerpt) They also institutionalized prostitution as a form of rape
control. In an age when economic and social conditions were such that few
men married before the age of 24 (women tended to marry at a younger age),
those who managed the cities openly recognized the need to protect their
wives and daughters by providing for regulated and organized prostitution.
Indeed, the city leaders often set aside a specific part of town--usually
away from the center but not too far away--for prostitution.
Brothels, Baths and Babes: Prostitution in the Byzantine Holy Land
Claudine Dauphin
http://www.ucd.ie/classics/96/Dauphin96.html
(Site Excerpt) Graeco-Roman domestic sexuality rested on a triad: the wife,
the concubine and the courtesan. The fourth century BC Athenian orator
Apollodoros made it very clear in his speech Against Neaira quoted by
Demosthenes (59.122) that 'we have courtesans for pleasure, and concubines
for the daily service of our bodies, but wives for the production of
legitimate offspring and to have reliable guardians of our household
property'.
HOOKER HEROES: Prostitutes Who Changed the World
by Blake Linton Wilfong
http://wondersmith.com/heroes/index.htm
(Site Excerpt) Of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, only the pyramids
of Egypt remain standing today--and according to legend, one of them was
built for the famous prostitute Rhodopis. Originally a Greek slave, Rhodopis
lived in the sixth century B.C. During her childhood, she worked in the same
household as the slave Aesop, the renowned author of fables. She was
eventually taken to Egypt to work as a prostitute. In what is surely one of
history's greatest true love stories, a Greek wine merchant named Charaxus
became so enamored of Rhodopis that he paid a huge sum of money to buy her
freedom.
Sex, Society, and Medieval Women
***Warning: Frank talk about bodily functions***
http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/medsex/medsexfrm.htm
(Site Excerpt) Moral authorities grudgingly acknowledged sex to be not
inherently sinful, but very strictly delineated the ways in which sex could
be used without spiritual consequences. Medical authorities, by contrast,
considered sex to be an essential part of bodily health, noting that
abstention could lead to a dangerous buildup of the "seminal humor."
History 398Y, "Sex in History"
Essay 2: Analytical Essay
http://alcor.concordia.ca/~shannon/398YBibliographies.htm
While this is an assignment for a college course, sources are given for the
subject material.
About: Romanesque Churches and Sexual Symbols
http://goeurope.about.com/cs/sex/a/sexual_carvings.htm
(Site Excerpt) I am not necessarily a fan of Cathedral gazing when I travel.
This year, a book I read, called "Images of Lust: Sexual Carvings on
Medieval Churches" by Anthony Weir and James Jerman, changed all that.
"Sexual imagery in cathedrals? Is he mad?," I can hear you asking. Well,
madness is besides the point--I have pictures.
Casting Stones: The Theology of Prostitution
by Rita Nakashima Brock
http://www.mlode.com/~ra/ra3/castingstones.htm
(Site Excerpt) While the money paid to prostitutes is paid for an unlawful
purpose, according to Aquinas, the giving itself is not unlawful and the
woman could retain what she received. In other words, prostitutes protect
the "good" women of the family from the demands of male sin.
Ruth Mazo Karras, Professor of History, University of Minnesota http://cla.umn.edu/rmk/ The home page of a noted expert on Medieval Sexuality and women's roles in history. Her works are listed.
