An ivory Aphrodite is celebrated by her hierodules in myrtle bowers.
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In many religions, there are one or more layers of assistant priests. In the Ancient Near East, hierodules served in temples as assistants to the priestess. In ancient Judaism, the Priests (Kohanim) had a whole class of Levites as their assistants in making the sacrifices, in singing psalms and in maintaining the Temple. The Priests and the Levites were in turn served by servants called Nethinim.
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Property could only descend through his legitimate family. Vestals frequently adopted daughters, usually other vestals, to care for them in their old age. Adoption had to be with consent of the natural parents, who usually executed a deed making over the child, who thus ceased to have any claim upon them. But vestals, hierodules, certain palace officials and slaves had no rights over their children and could raise no objection.
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Mahatala-Jata is served by "balian", female hierodules, and "basir" transgender shamans metaphorically described as "water snakes which are at the same time hornbills". Similar transgender shamans, the "manang bali", are found in the Iban Dayak people. Girls fated to become manang bali may first dream of becoming a woman and also of being summoned by the god/dess Menjaya Raja Manang or the goddess Ini. Menjaya Raja Manang began existence as a male god, until his brother's wife became sick.
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The tithe seems to have been considered the rent due to the god for his land. It is not clear that all lands paid tithe; perhaps only such as once had a special connection with the temple. The Code deals with a class of persons devoted to the service of a god, as vestals or hierodules. The vestals were vowed to chastity, lived together in a great nunnery, were forbidden to enter a tavern, and, together with other votaries, had many privileges.
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Continuing his journey to the great Lake Diuturna, Severian is drawn into a local conflict on the side of a group of islanders being enslaved. He discovers that his old companions Dr. Talos and Baldanders are the oppressors. Severian makes his way through their lakeside castle, discovering that Baldanders is an inventor and scientist who conducts experiments on people, and in fact created his own homunculus in the form of Dr. Talos. Severian encounters the otherworldly hierodules within, who unexpectedly prostrate themselves in front of him.
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Severian travels as far into past as he can and a primitive tribe accepts him as their divine king Apu-Punchau. After teaching and helping them for decades, he finally decides to leave, but is then killed by the tribe in their panic. He wakes inside a tomb and is once again accompanied by the Hierodules Ossipago, Barbatus and Famulimus, as well as the dead body of Apu- Punchau. It is revealed that Severian is an eidolon, a ghost-like being become material, and that he actually died on Tzadkiel's ship.
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Procuring, however, was severely forbidden. In Cyprus (Paphus) and in Corinth, a type of religious prostitution was practiced where the temple counted more than a thousand prostitutes (hierodules, Gr: ιερόδουλες), according to Strabo. Each specialized category had its proper name, so there were the chamaitypa'i, working outdoor (lie-down), the perepatetikes who met their customers while walking (and then worked in their houses), and the gephyrides, who worked near the bridges. In the fifth century, Ateneo informs us that the price was 1 obole, a sixth of a drachma and the equivalent of an ordinary worker's day salary.
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The king would then partake in a "sacred marriage" ceremony, during which he engaged in ritual sexual intercourse with the high priestess of Inanna, who took on the role of the goddess. In the late twentieth century, the historicity of the sacred marriage ritual was treated by scholars as more-or-less an established fact, but, largely due to the writings of Pirjo Lapinkivi, many have begun to regard the sacred marriage as a literary invention rather than an actual ritual. The cult of Ishtar was long thought to have involved sacred prostitution, but this is now rejected among many scholars. Hierodules known as ishtaritum are reported to have worked in Ishtar's temples, but it is unclear if such priestesses actually performed any sex acts and several modern scholars have argued that they did not.
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