“ Hieros Gamos (Greek ιερός γάμος, “holy wedding”) or Hierogamy (Greek ιερογαμία, again “holy wedding”) means a coupling (sometimes marriage) of a deity and a man or a woman, often having a symbolic meaning and generally conducted in the spring. It is an ancient ritual in which participants believed that they could gain profound religious experience or an exchange of knowledge through sexual intercourse. Participants assumed characteristics of deities, often channeling the deities in question, and by their union provided symbolic and literal fertility for themselves, the land, their people and the good of the Polis. This was often done by the monarch and hierodule of the dominant religion.
