Hieros gamos, (from and γάμος gamos 'marriage') or hierogamy (, ἱερογαμία 'holy marriage') is a sacred marriage that takes place between gods, especially when enacted in a symbolic ritual 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 mythology contexts, notably in alchemy and hence in Jungian psychology. Hieros gamos is described as the prototype of Fertility rite.
Ancient Near East
Sacred sexual intercourse is thought to have been common in the Ancient Near East
[James Frazer (1922), The Golden Bough, 3e, ] as a form of "Sacred Marriage" or hieros gamos between the kings of a
city-state and the
of
Inanna, the Sumerian goddess of love, fertility and warfare. Along the
Tigris and
Euphrates rivers there were many shrines and temples dedicated to Inanna. The temple of
Eanna, meaning "house of heaven"
[é-an-na = sanctuary ('house' + 'Heaven'='An' + genitive) John] in
Uruk[modern-day Warkāʼ (arabic), Biblical Erech] was the greatest of these. The temple housed Nadītu, priestesses of the goddess. The high priestess would choose for her bed a young man who represented the shepherd Dumuzid, consort of Inanna, in a hieros gamos celebrated during the annual Duku ceremony, just before
New moon, with the autumn Equinox
(Autumnal Zag-mu Festival).
Greek mythology
In
Greek mythology, the classic instance is the wedding of
Zeus and
Hera celebrated at the Heraion of Samos,
[Walter Burkert warns that "the Hera festival is much too complicated to be understood simply as Hera's wedding" (Burkert, Greek Religion, J. Raffan, tr. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1985) §II.7.7 "Sacred Marriage" 108.] along with its architectural and cultural predecessors. Some scholars
[For example 'H. Sauer, in Der Kleine Pauly, s.v.] 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 with
Iasion, enacted in a thrice-ploughed furrow, a primitive aspect of a sexually-active Demeter reported by
Hesiod,
[Hesiod, Theogony 969f.] occurred in
Crete, origin of much early Greek myth. In actual
cultus,
Walter Burkert 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".
[Burkert 1985:108.] The best-known
ritual example surviving in classical Greece is the
hieros gamos enacted at the
Anthesteria by the wife of the
Archon basileus, the "Archon King" in Athens, originally therefore the queen of Athens, with
Dionysus, presumably represented by his priest or the
basileus himself, in the Boukoleion in the
Agora.
[S.M. Kramer, The Sacred Marriage Rite (Bloomington:Indiana University Press, 1969); Karl Kerenyi, Zeus und Hera. Urbild des Vaters des Gatten und der Frau (Leiden:Brill 1972) 83-90.]
The brief fertilizing mystical union engenders Dionysus, and doubled unions, of a god and of a mortal man on one night, result, through telegony, in the semi-divine nature of such as Theseus and Heracles.
Tantric Buddhism
In
Tantric Buddhism of
Nepal,
Bhutan,
India and
Tibet,
yab-yum is a ritual of the male
deity in union with a female
deity as his consort. The symbolism is associated with Anuttarayoga tantra where the male figure is usually linked to compassion (
) and skillful means (
upaya), and the female partner to 'insight' or 'wisdom' (
prajñā).
[Keown, Damien. (2003). A Dictionary of Buddhism, p. 338. Oxford University Press. .]["Yab Yum Iconography and the Role of Women in Tibetan Tantric Buddhism." The Tibet Journal. Vol. XXII, No. 1. Spring 1997, pp. 12-34.] 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 is a Sanskrit term used in Tantra most often translated as sexual union in a ritual context. It is the most important of the five Panchamakara and constitutes the main part of the Grand Ritual of Tantra variously known as Panchamakara, Panchatattva, and Tattva Chakra.
The symbolism of union and polarity is a central teaching in Tantric Buddhism, 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 dealt with in his book
Symbols of Transformation.
Wicca
In
Wicca, the
Great Rite is a ritual based on the Hieros Gamos. It is generally enacted symbolically by a dagger (known as an
athame) being placed point first into a chalice, 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.
See also
External links
