Why was there assumption that women would choose to be priestesses > rather than worshippers, and the assumption that men would not want to be > priests?
Simply because that is the common understanding/assumption of how a temple of Ishtar worked historically – it was a female operated temple (as far as I can tell from reading). Your questions brought up the issue that women might want to worship. That deserves consideration. I’m sure men would want to be priests, but I’m not sure the priestesses want priests in their temple. It is up to them to decide. > I ask because this opens up a very interesting angle on the social > dymanics related to sacred sexuality and especially to sacred prostitution.
