WOMEN UNDER POLYGAMY
however, continued to exist." At a later period, after defeats in warfare and impoverishment, the poorer classes resorted to the selling of their daughters in prostitution.
Herodotus refers to the sacred prostitution of women at the Temple of Mylitta, the Venus of the Babylonians. Generally speaking, prostitution is comparatively uncommon in polygamous countries, and its introduction often arises from the coming of strangers from the monogamous nations. The religious rite observed in the Babylonian temple was by no means a purely commercial transaction. Once in her life every woman in ancient Babylon was compelled to sit in the Temple of Mylitta until chosen by a man. The wealthy women came in carriages attended by their servants. The women sat in a row, and the men passed up and down. When a man had made his choice, he threw a piece of silver into the woman's lap, and she was bound to accompany him. After "absolving herself from her obligation to the goddess," the woman returned home, and was regarded as chaste. The plain-featured and the deformed were often obliged to remain in the temple for a considerable time. "Some wait for a space of three or four years," relates Herodotus. The money given to the women was devoted to the temple of the goddess.
Herodotus describes this custom of the Babylonians
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