[139] Herodotus, i. 199.
[140] Jeremias, Izdubar-Nimrod, p. 59 sq. Jastrow, Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 475 sq. Mürdter-Delitzsch, Geschichte Babyloniens, p. 41.
[141] Herodotus, i. 199. Athenæus, Deipnosophistæ, xii. 11, p. 516 a.
[142] Socrates, Historia ecclesiastica, 18 (Migne, op. cit. Ser. Græca, lxvii. 123). Sozomen, Historia ecclesiastica, v. 10 (Migne, Ser. Græca, lxvii. 1243). Eusebius, Vita Constantini, iii. 58 (Migne, Ser. Græca, xx. 1124).
[143] Lucian, De Syria Dea, 6.
[144] Strabo, xi. 14. 16.
[145] Ibid. viii. 6. 20.
[146] Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, ii. 636. Athenæus, xii. 11, p. 516 a.
Various theories have been set forth to explain the religious prostitution of the Babylonian type. It has been interpreted as an expiation for individual marriage, as a temporary recognition of pre-existing communal rights at a time when “communal marriage” in the full sense of the term had already ceased to exist.[147] It has been supposed to be nothing but ordinary immorality practised under the cloak of religion.[148] It has been represented as a form of sacrifice, either as a first-fruit offering[149] or as an act by which a worshipper sacrifices her most precious possession to the deity.[150] To Dr. Farnell it seems to be “a special modification of a wide-spread custom, the custom of destroying virginity before marriage so that the bridegroom’s intercourse should be safe from a peril that is much dreaded by men in a certain stage of culture; and here, as in other ritual,” he adds, “it is the stranger that takes the peril upon himself.”[151] But why should the stranger have been more willing than the bridegroom to expose himself to this danger? Considering that the act was performed at the temple of the goddess of fecundity, I think its object most probably was to ensure fertility in the woman; this, in fact, is directly indicated by the words which the stranger, according to Herodotus, uttered when he threw the silver coin into her lap:—“The goddess Mylitta prosper thee!”[152] And from what has been said in a previous chapter about the semi-supernatural character ascribed to strangers, about the efficacy of their blessings and the benefits expected from their love,[153] we can see why a stranger was appointed to confer the blessing upon the girl.[154]
[147] Avebury, Origin of Civilisation, p. 559.