RITUAL CHASTITY. – In non-Christian religions ritual chastity (c. rituale) refers to the observance of sexual continence prior to the celebration of a rite or an action deemed to be influenced by sacro-magical, supernatural powers. In the practice of all religions, in order to come into contact with the “sacred,” one must be in a state of purity (“à ‘vizi, castitas’”), which is attained through fasting, abstinence from certain foods (the Latins used castus, castimonia with the meaning of privation), or even abstinence from sexual contact.
The aversion to sexual contact stems from the belief that it weakens one’s strength, diminishes spiritual clarity and the freedom of the spirit, rendering man less capable—and therefore less suited—to come into contact with the divine world, and, in the case of primitive peoples, to master the forces of nature and life. In women, sexual intercourse also violates the potential for fertility inherent in the condition of virginity and, in any case, weakens II.
Moreover, the pollutions associated with sexual intercourse are regarded as a miasma that renders the individual impure and thus unworthy of approaching the divinity, and all the more so, as in the case of the priesthood, of serving as an intermediary between the deity and mankind.
The idea that sexual purity is necessary for approaching the divine world is confirmed by the fact that in many rituals children and prepubescent youths are entrusted with the rite and considered the most suitable intermediaries between the community and the gods.
Ritual chastity is especially required on the night preceding the celebration of the rite, but it may also be imposed for more than one day. Among primitive peoples, sexual abstinence is prescribed during the time of sowing, to ward off adverse weather conditions, or to ensure success in hunting, fishing, or warfare. During these activities, the women of the participants observe strict sexual abstinence, supplementing it with songs and dances to strengthen the force of the man who is away, a force that would otherwise be weakened by their infidelity and place him at a disadvantage in confronting the animals to be captured or the enemy.
In Brahminical India, one who offers a sacrifice, in addition to external purification and fasting, must strictly abstain from sexual contact (Aipastamba-grihya sūtra, X, 14, 10); even the horse destined for the great annual sacrifice (asvamedha) must not mate; and if, despite the vigilance to which it is subjected, it transgresses the norm, an expiatory sacrifice is required.
In Greece, on the second day of the Antesteria (late February), the basilissa, wife of the archon basileus, before proceeding to the hierogamy with the effigy of Dionysus, must observe ritual chastity together with the fourteen matrons who form her retinue; in the Thesmophoria, which fall in the month of Pianepsion (late October), Athenian women must abstain for three days from food and sexual contact.
The thirty-year chastity imposed on the Vestal Virgins (Plutarch, Numa, 10) served to strengthen their function as guardians of the hearth of the State and its prosperity, symbolized by the penus or storeroom of provisions. This fertilizing power inherent in virginity is also attested by the rite that took place in the temple of Juno Sospita at Lanuvium, where, if the serpent sacred to the goddess ate the meal offered to it by a virgin, it was considered a good omen for the fertility of the year (fertilis annus erit [Propertius, IV, 8, 14]).
In Rome, during the secret festival reserved for women, the Bona Dea (May 10), they had to abstain from sexual intercourse (Plutarch, Quaest. rom., 20). In the Eastern religions that spread in Rome during the Hellenistic period, sexual abstinence is widely documented. The Bacchanalia, prohibited by the Senatus consultum of 186 B.C., involved ten days of abstinence, including sexual abstinence (Livy, XXXIX, 11).
Concerning Isis, Plutarch (De Iside, 2) states that the goddess, through the prescribed sexual abstinence, curbed “unbridled voluptuousness” in men. The complaints of Tibullus (I, 3, 23), Propertius (II, 28, 61; 33, 1, 5; IV, 5, 33), and Ovid (Amores, I, 8, 13; III, 9, 33) are well known regarding the strict reserve of their respective lovers during the recurring festival of the goddess (cf. also Juvenal, VI, 535).
As for Cybele, Hippolytus (Ref. haer., V, 9) states that her initiates had to observe ritual chastity during the days of her festival. The duration of this abstinence was nine days, according to Ovid (Met., X, 435). Finally, Mithras, a severe god who does not admit elements of voluptuousness into his myth, could boast among his followers of virgins and the continent: “habet et virgines, habet et continentes” (Tertullian, De praescr. haer., 40).