[61] Strabo, Bk. XII. p. 557.
[62] Strabo, Bk. XII. p. 559.—Heyne, Ch. G. “Comment. de Sacerdotio Comanensi de Religionum cis et trans Taurum consensione,” (Commentaries on the Priesthood of Comana, and generally on the Similarity of Religions on the nearer and farther side of the Taurus range), Comment. Soc. Reg. Götting. Vol. XVI. pp. 101-149.
[63] Strabo, bk. VIII p. 378., Τό τε τῆς Ἀφροδίτης ἱερὸν οὕτω πλούσιον ὑπῆρξεν, ὥστε πλείους ἢ χιλίας ἱεροδούλους ἐκέκτητο ἑταίρας, ἃς ἀνετίθεσαν τῇ θεῷ καὶ ἄνδρες καὶ γυναῖκες· Καὶ διὰ ταύτας οὖν ἐπολυοχλεῖτο ἡ πόγις καὶ ἐπλουτίζετο. οἱ γὰρ ναύκληροι ῥᾳδίως ἐξανηλίκοντο, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἡ παροιμία φησίν, Οὐ παντὸς ἀνδρὸς ἐς Κόρινθον ἔσθ’ ὁ πλοῦς. (And the temple of Aphrodité was so rich that it possessed more than a thousand Hetaerae attached to its service as Hieroduli, whom both men and women dedicated to the goddess. And so for this reason the city was frequented by multitudes and grew wealthy; for shipmasters used readily to visit the port, and on this account says the proverb: It does not fall to every man to sail to Corinth.) Comp. the Commentators on Horace, Epist. I. 17. 36. Alexander ab Alexandro, Genial. dier. lib., VI. ch. 26., Corinthi supra mille prostitutae in templo Veneris assiduae degere et inflammata libidine quaestui meretricio operam dare et velut sacrorum ministrae Deae famulari solebant. (At Corinth more, than a thousand prostitutes were wont to live always in the temple of Venus and with lust ever a flame to give their lives to the gains of harlotry and to serve the goddess as handmaidens of her rites).
[64] Solinus, Polyhist. ch. 2. Festus, F., under word Frutinal (an Etruscan name of Venus).—Micali, “L’Italia avanti il Dominio dei Romani,” (Italy before the Dominion of the Romans). II. p. 47.—Heyne on Virgil, Aeneid bk. V. Excursus 2.—Bamberger, “Uber die Entstehung des Mythus von Aeneas Ankunft zu Latinum,” (On the Origin of the Myth of Aeneas’ Coming to Latium), in Welcker and Näke’s Rhein. Museum für Phil., VI. 1. 1838. pp. 82-105.
[65] Servius, on Virgil, Aeneid bk. I. 720.—Julius Capitolinus, Vita Maximin. ch. 7. Baldness was in Antiquity, and particularly at Rome, as it is still, frequently one of the sequelae of sexual excesses.
[66] Richard Payne Knight, An account of the Remains of the Worship of Priapus, lately existing at Isernia, in the kingdom of Naples: in two Letters,—one from Sir William Hamilton to Sir Joseph Banks, and the other from a Person residing at Isernia. To which is added a discourse on the worship of Priapus and its connexion with the mystic Theology of the Ancients. London (published by T. Spilsburg) 1786. pp. 195. 4to., with 18 Copperplates. Comp. with regard to this rare work C. A. Böttiger in Amalthea, vol. 3. pp. 408-418., and Choulant in Hecker’s Annalen, Vol. XXXIII (1836). pp. 414-418.—J. A. Dulaure, “Les Divinités génératrices, ou sur le Culte du Phallus,” (Divinities of generation, or on Phallic worship). Paris 1805., a work which to our regret we have been unable to make use of.
[67] Hence in Orpheus, Hym. V. 9., the Protogonos (First-born) i. e. Eros, is called Πρίηπος ἄναξ (King Priapus).
[68] “Voyage aux Indes et à la Chine,” (Journey to the Indies and China), Vol. I.—Schaufus, “Neueste Entdeckungen über das Vaterland und die Verbreitung der Pocken und der Lustseuche,” (Latest Discoveries as to the Original Home and Dissemination of the Pox and Venereal Disease). Leipzig 1805., pp. 31 sqq., from which we give the quotation that follows in the text.
[69] The beggars or Fakirs in India wander about the country in thousands, almost uncovered, (Augustine, De Civit. Dei, chs. 14, 17.) and excessively dirty (Havus “Historicae Relatio de Regno et Statu magni Regis Magor,” (Historical Account of the Reign and State of the great King Magor). Antwerp 1605. p. 1695); after their visits unfruitful wives especially become fruitful (δύνασθαι δὲ καὶ πολυγόνους ποιεῖν καὶ ἀῤῥενογόνους διὰ φαρμακευτικῆς,—and they can make even the barren have many children by means of their drugs,—Strabo says, Bk. II.). The people bestir themselves to do them every honour and the men quit their villages, so as to leave the monks a free hand. Papi, “Briefe über Indien,” (Letters on India), p. 217.—P. von Bohlen, “Das alte Indien,” (Ancient India), Königsberg 1830. Vol. I. p. 282.
[70] Strabo and Arrian, Indic. 17., already in their time state, at any rate of the nobler Indian women, that they could have been allured to profligacy at no price, except at that of an elephant. According to von Bohlen (“Das alte Indien,”—Ancient India, Vol. II. p. 17, Vol. I. p. 275.) it would seem that not the slightest trace (?) can be found of the immoral life of the Indian priests in Antiquity, on the contrary that chastity was the first thing needful to gain them respect and honour, and their whole literature is never ready to extol a priest or hero more highly than when he has withstood the enticements to unchastity. Hence what is asserted of the Devâdasis or Priestesses of the gods as being courtesans for the Priests is also in the main untrue, since it rests, as in the case of the Hieroduli, chiefly on a confusion with the Bhayatri (Bayaderes, the Hetaerae of the Greeks), or holds good only for particular places (Häfner, “Landreise längs der Küste Orixa und Koromandel,”—(Journey along the Orissa and Coromandel Coast). Weimar 1809. Vol. I. pp. 80 sqq.—Papi, “Briefe über Indien,” (Letters about India), p. 356.—Wallace, “Denkwürdigkeiten,” (Memorabilities), p. 301.)—In this connection should be mentioned also the narrative of the Jesuit—in other respects suspicious—in the edifying letters addressed to Schaufus, ch. I. p. 40, that during his residence in a Hindoo town he had been informed, that it would be unsafe at the present moment to allow foreigners to visit the Devadâsis, on the contrary that there was nothing to fear from those attached to the Pagoda of the place. Even if we admit the truth of this narrative for more modern times too, still the conclusion that Schaufus draws from it, that in Hindostan every Pagoda is a brothel, is surely somewhat hasty.—Some other legends of the origin of the Lingam ritual in India are given in Meiner’s “Allgem. kritische Geschichte der Religionen,” (Universal Critical History of Religions), Vol. I. P. 254.