''Hieros gamos'', (from and 'marriage') or hierogamy (, 'holy marriage') is a sacred marriage that takes place between gods, especially when enacted in a symbolic

ritual A ritual is a repeated, structured sequence of actions or behaviors that alters the internal or external state of an individual, group, or environment, regardless of conscious understanding, emotional context, or symbolic meaning. Traditionally ...

where human participants represent the deities. The notion of ''hieros gamos'' does not always presuppose literal sexual intercourse in ritual, but is also used in purely symbolic or

mythological Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

contexts, notably in

alchemy Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...

and hence in

Jungian psychology Analytical psychology (, sometimes translated as analytic psychology; also Jungian analysis) is a term referring to the psychological practices of Carl Jung. It was designed to distinguish it from Freud's psychoanalytic theories as their s ...

. ''Hieros gamos'' is described as the prototype of fertility rituals.

Ancient Near East

Sacred sexual intercourse is thought to have been common in the

Ancient Near East The ancient Near East was home to many cradles of civilization, spanning Mesopotamia, Egypt, Iran (or Persia), Anatolia and the Armenian highlands, the Levant, and the Arabian Peninsula. As such, the fields of ancient Near East studies and Nea ...

as a form of "Sacred Marriage" or hieros gamos between the kings of a

Sumer Sumer () is the earliest known civilization, located in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (now south-central Iraq), emerging during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age, early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. ...

ian city-state and the

High Priestess The term "high priest" usually refers either to an individual who holds the office of ruler-priest, or to one who is the head of a religious organisation. Ancient Egypt In ancient Egypt, a high priest was the chief priest of any of the many god ...

es of

Inanna Inanna is the List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian goddess of war, love, and fertility. She is also associated with political power, divine law, sensuality, and procreation. Originally worshipped in Sumer, she was known by the Akk ...

, the Sumerian goddess of love, fertility and warfare. Along the

Tigris The Tigris ( ; see #Etymology, below) is the eastern of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian Desert, Syrian and Arabia ...

and

Euphrates The Euphrates ( ; see #Etymology, below) is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of West Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia (). Originati ...

rivers there were many shrines and temples dedicated to Inanna. The temple of

Eanna E-anna ( , ''house of heavens''), also referred to as the Temple of Inanna, was an ancient Sumerian temple in Uruk. Considered the "residence" of Inanna, it is mentioned throughout the ''Epic of Gilgamesh The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is ...

, meaning "house of heaven" in

Uruk Uruk, the archeological site known today as Warka, was an ancient city in the Near East, located east of the current bed of the Euphrates River, on an ancient, now-dried channel of the river in Muthanna Governorate, Iraq. The site lies 93 kilo ...

was the greatest of these. The temple housed

Nadītu ''Nadītu'' (; sometimes romanized as ''naditu'', with the long vowel omitted) were a social class in ancient Mesopotamia, attested only in the Old Babylonian period. They were associated with the tutelary gods of specific cities, and are often con ...

, priestesses of the goddess. The high priestess would choose for her bed a young man who represented the shepherd

Dumuzid Dumuzid or Dumuzi or Tammuz (; ; ), known to the Sumerians as Dumuzid the Shepherd () and to the Canaanites as Adon (; Proto-Hebrew: 𐤀𐤃𐤍), is an List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian and :Levantine mythology, Levantine de ...

, consort of Inanna, in a hieros gamos celebrated during the annual Duku ceremony, just before Invisible Moon, with the autumn Equinox (Autumnal Zag-mu Festival).

Greek mythology

Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

, the classic instance is the wedding of

Zeus Zeus (, ) is the chief deity of the List of Greek deities, Greek pantheon. He is a sky father, sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus is the child ...

and

Hera In ancient Greek religion, Hera (; ; in Ionic Greek, Ionic and Homeric Greek) is the goddess of marriage, women, and family, and the protector of women during childbirth. In Greek mythology, she is queen of the twelve Olympians and Mount Oly ...

celebrated at the

Heraion of Samos The Heraion of Samos was a large sanctuary to the goddess Hera, on the island of Samos, Greece, 6 km southwest of the ancient city of Samos (modern Pythagoreion). It was located in the low, marshy basin of the Imbrasos river, near where it ...

, along with its architectural and cultural predecessors. Some scholars would restrict the term to reenactments, but most accept its extension to real or simulated union in the promotion of fertility: such an ancient union of

Demeter In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Demeter (; Attic Greek, Attic: ''Dēmḗtēr'' ; Doric Greek, Doric: ''Dāmā́tēr'') is the Twelve Olympians, Olympian goddess of the harvest and agriculture, presiding over cro ...

with

Iasion In Greek mythology, Iasion () or Iasus (), also called Eetion (), was the founder of the mystic rites on the island of Samothrace. Family According to the mythographer Apollodorus, Iasion is the son of the Pleiad Electra and Zeus, and the ...

, enacted in a thrice-ploughed furrow, a primitive aspect of a sexually-active Demeter reported by

Hesiod Hesiod ( or ; ''Hēsíodos''; ) was an ancient Greece, Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer.M. L. West, ''Hesiod: Theogony'', Oxford University Press (1966), p. 40.Jasper Gr ...

, occurred in

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

, origin of much early Greek myth. In actual '' cultus'',

Walter Burkert Walter Burkert (; 2 February 1931 – 11 March 2015) was a German scholar of Greek mythology and cult. A professor of classics at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, he taught in the UK and the US. He has influenced generations of student ...

found the Greek evidence "scanty and unclear": "To what extent such a sacred marriage was not just a way of viewing nature, but an act expressed or hinted at in ritual is difficult to say". The best-known

example surviving in classical Greece is the ''hieros gamos'' enacted at the

Anthesteria The Anthesteria (; ) was one of the four Athenian festivals in honor of Dionysus. It was held each year from the 11th to the 13th of the month of Anthesterion, around the time of the January or February full moon. The three days of the feast were ...

by the wife of the ''

Archon basileus ''Archon basileus'' (, ') was a Greek title, meaning "king magistrate"; the term is derived from the words ''archon'' "magistrate" and ''basileus'' "king" or "sovereign". Background. Most modern scholars claim that in Classical Athens, the ''a ...

'', the "Archon King" in Athens, originally therefore the queen of Athens, with

Dionysus In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ...

, presumably represented by his priest or the ''

basileus ''Basileus'' () is a Greek term and title that has signified various types of monarchs throughout history. In the English language, English-speaking world, it is perhaps most widely understood to mean , referring to either a or an . The title ...

'' himself, in the Boukoleion in the

Agora The agora (; , romanized: ', meaning "market" in Modern Greek) was a central public space in ancient Ancient Greece, Greek polis, city-states. The literal meaning of the word "agora" is "gathering place" or "assembly". The agora was the center ...

. The brief fertilizing mystical union engenders

, and doubled unions, of a god and of a mortal man on one night, result, through

telegony The ''Telegony'' () is a lost epic poem of Ancient Greek literature. It is named after Telegonus, the son of Odysseus by Circe, whose name ("born far away") is indicative of his birth on Aeaea, far from Odysseus' home of Ithaca. It was part o ...

, in the semi-divine nature of

Greek hero Hero cults were one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion. In Homeric Greek, "hero" (, ) refers to the mortal offspring of a human and a god. By the historical period, the word came to mean specifically a ''dead'' man, vene ...

es such as

Theseus Theseus (, ; ) was a divine hero in Greek mythology, famous for slaying the Minotaur. The myths surrounding Theseus, his journeys, exploits, and friends, have provided material for storytelling throughout the ages. Theseus is sometimes desc ...

and

Heracles Heracles ( ; ), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a Divinity, divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of ZeusApollodorus1.9.16/ref> and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptive descent through ...

Tantric Buddhism

Tantric Buddhism ''Vajrayāna'' (; 'vajra vehicle'), also known as Mantrayāna ('mantra vehicle'), Guhyamantrayāna ('secret mantra vehicle'), Tantrayāna ('tantra vehicle'), Tantric Buddhism, and Esoteric Buddhism, is a Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition that emp ...

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

Bhutan Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the north and northwest and India to the south and southeast. With a population of over 727,145 and a territory of , ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

, yab-yum is a ritual of the male

deity A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over some aspect of the universe and/or life. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines ''deity'' as a God (male deity), god or god ...

in union with a female

as his consort. The symbolism is associated with

Anuttarayoga tantra Classes of Tantra in Tibetan Buddhism refers to the categorization of Buddhist tantric scriptures in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhism inherited numerous tantras and forms of tantric practice from medieval Indian Buddhist Tantra. There wer ...

where the male figure is usually linked to compassion (') and skillful means ('' upāya-kauśalya''), and the female partner to 'insight' or 'wisdom' (''prajñā''). Yab-yum is generally understood to represent the primordial (or mystical) union of wisdom and compassion.The Marriage of Wisdom and Method
By Marco Pallis

Maithuna ''Maithuna'' (Devanagari: मैथुन) is a Sanskrit term for sexual intercourse within Tantra (Tantric sex), or alternatively for the sexual fluids generated or the couple participating in the ritual. It is the most important of the Pancham ...

is a

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

term used in

Tantra Tantra (; ) is an esoteric yogic tradition that developed on the India, Indian subcontinent beginning in the middle of the 1st millennium CE, first within Shaivism and later in Buddhism. The term ''tantra'', in the Greater India, Indian tr ...

most often translated as sexual union in a ritual context. It is the most important of the five

Panchamakara Panchamakara or Panchatattva, also known as the Five Ms, is the Tantric term for the five substances used in a Tantric practice. These are (alcohol), (meat), (fish), (grain), and '' '' (sexual intercourse). Taboo-breaking elements are only p ...

and constitutes the main part of the Grand Ritual of Tantra variously known as

, Panchatattva, and

Tattva According to various Indian schools of philosophy, ''tattvas'' () are the elements or aspects of reality that constitute human experience. In some traditions, they are conceived as an aspect of the Indian deities. Although the number of ''tat ...

Chakra A chakra (; ; ) is one of the various focal points used in a variety of ancient meditation practices, collectively denominated as Tantra, part of the inner traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism. The concept of the chakra arose in Hinduism. B ...

. The symbolism of union and polarity is a central teaching in

, especially in Tibet. The union is realized by the practitioner as a mystical experience within one's own body.

Alchemy and Jungian psychology

The hieros gamos is one of the themes that

Carl Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and psychologist who founded the school of analytical psychology. A prolific author of Carl Jung publications, over 20 books, illustrator, and corr ...

dealt with in his book ''

Symbols of Transformation A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise different concept ...

''.

Wicca

Wicca Wicca (), also known as "The Craft", is a Modern paganism, modern pagan, syncretic, Earth religion, Earth-centred religion. Considered a new religious movement by Religious studies, scholars of religion, the path evolved from Western esote ...

, the Great Rite is a ritual based on the Hieros Gamos. It is generally enacted symbolically by a dagger (known as an

athame An athame or athamé (, , , or ) is a ceremonial blade, generally with a black handle. It is the main ritual implement or Magical tools in Wicca, magical tool among several used in ceremonial magic traditions, and by other neopagan religions, neo ...

) being placed point first into a

chalice A chalice (from Latin 'cup', taken from the Ancient Greek () 'cup') is a drinking cup raised on a stem with a foot or base. Although it is a technical archaeological term, in modern parlance the word is now used almost exclusively for the ...

, the action symbolizing the union of the male and female divine. In British Traditional Wicca, the Great Rite is sometimes carried out in actuality by the High Priest and High Priestess.

References

External links

The Archetype of the Holy Wedding in Alchemy and in the Unconscious of Modern Man
Remo F. Roth, Ph.D. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hieros Gamos Ancient Greek religion Inanna Marriage and religion Marriage, unions and partnerships in Greece Religious rituals Religious sex rituals