[130] Ellis, Ew̔e-speaking Peoples, p. 141.
[131] Ellis, Tshi-speaking Peoples, p. 121 sq.
[132] Strabo, Geographica, xvii. i. 46. Cf. Wiedemann, Herodots zweites Buch, p. 269.
[133] Warneck, quoted by Ploss-Bartels, op. cit. i. 534.
[134] Ward, View of the History, &c. of the Hindoos, ii. 134.
[135] Driver, Commentary on Deuteronomy, p. 264. Cheyne, ‘Harlot,’ in Cheyne and Black, Encyclopædia Biblica, ii. 1965.
[136] Hosea, iv. 14. Cf. Cheyne, in Encyclopædia Biblica, ii. 1965.
[137] Deuteronomy, xxiii. 17 sq.
[138] See Westermarck, The Moorish Conception of Holiness (Baraka), p. 85.
Of a somewhat different character was the religious prostitution which prevailed in ancient Babylonia, in connection with the worship of Ishtar. Herodotus says that every woman born in that country was obliged once in her life to go and sit down in the precinct of Aphrodite, and there consort with a stranger. A woman who had once taken her seat was not allowed to return home till one of the strangers threw a silver coin into her lap, and took her with him beyond the holy ground. The silver coin could not be refused because, since once thrown, it was sacred. The woman went with the first man who threw her money, rejecting no one. When she had gone with him, and so satisfied the goddess, she returned home, and from that time forth no gift, however great, would prevail with her.[139] Several allusions in cuneiform literature to the sacred prostitution carried on at Babylonian temples confirm Herodotus’ statement in general.[140] A cult very similar to this was also found in certain parts of the island of Cyprus,[141] at Heliopolis in Syria,[142] and at Byblus.[143] In the worship of Anaitis the Armenians even of the highest families prostituted their own daughters at least once in their lives, nor was this regarded as any bar to an honourable marriage afterwards.[144] Although such practices were generally excluded from the ordinary Greek worships of Aphrodite, unchastity in the temple cult of that goddess is reported to have occurred at Corinth[145] and in the city of the Locri Epizephyrii, who, according to the story, vowed to consecrate their daughters to this service in order to gain the goddess’s aid in a war.[146]