A Study of the Greek Priestess - A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Department of Literature, Science, and Arts of the University of Michigan for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy #250561

The purpose of this treatise is to consider more fully the custom of having resemblance in sex between divinity and priesthood, and to show by detailed evidence to what extent such a custom prevailed among the Greeks and upon what underlying principles it was based. Cults of the Greek States, I, p. 320: As a rule, the Greek goddess was served by priestesses and worshipped with the sacrifice of female victims; but in the ritual of Athena, as of Aphrodite, we find not infrequently the male victim and the priest. I bid., IV, p. 33 (speaking of the priestess of Poseidon at Thebes): Certainly this is a singular exception to the usual rule of Greek ritual that a male deity should be served by a male ministrant. Cf. Ibid., IV, p. 223.