Excerpt: In the Service of Aphrodite

Corinth, in the year 44 C.E.., was resurrected by Julius Caesar and the very empire that destroyed the city one hundred years earlier. The destruction of 144 B.C.E. was done by killing the men and enslaving the women and children, because of their defiance of the cruel and degraded leaders of Rome. Rebuilt because of its strategic location, Corinth was a place of great wealth and even greater access to pleasure. Because of the city’s location on a isthmus, or a narrow strip of land, between the Adriatic and the Aegean, and merely miles away from the Mediterranean Sea, it was an ideal center for trade.

Corinth was also an ideal center for an industry that would bring many more people to the city: worship. It grew into a place where polytheistic worshipers, sailors, and merchants mixed in a booming industry tied to temples, where gods like Apollo and Poseidon were worshiped in the form of sacrifices of animals, the meat of which was given to the poor around the city. But it was the goddess Aphrodite who was center most to the identity of the city. At its highest point of activity, the Temple of Aphrodite boasted over 1000 temple prostitutes. For a fee, men from all over the Roman Empire would come and indulge their every desire. And for their money, they received a night “worshiping” with one of the slaves who served the goddess by handing over her body. In return, the men that they served believed that they would receive not only a night of debauchery to suit their tastes, but also the “blessing” of the goddess of love.

Aphrodite might promise her followers love, children, prosperity, or power. But the women serving the men who came to the temple received none of these things.

But just six years after the city of Corinth was brought back to life by Julius Caesar, another man arrived in the city. And he brought with him the promise of another type of resurrection.