By some accounts, the institution of sacred prostitution in Egypt indicated that there existed a certain regard for women. However, other accounts indicate a disregard for the female sex and an association of woman with weakness.
The phallus was the true symbol of power. Herodotus (480-425 BC) reports, for example, that Ramses II marked the graves of his enemies - who had died in a cowardly fashion - with images of the female sex.
