Histories

​Now, the most shameful of the laws among the Babylonians is this: every native woman must sit in the temple of Aphrodite once in her life and have intercourse with a stranger. And many who do not deign to mix with the others, because they are proud of their wealth, drive to the temple in covered carriages and stand there, and a large crowd of attendants follows behind them.

​But the majority of them do as follows: many women sit in the sacred precinct of Aphrodite, having a crown of cord around their heads; some are arriving, and others are departing. And passages marked out by ropes run in every direction through the women, through which the strangers pass and make their choice.

​Once a woman sits down there, she does not return home before one of the strangers casts money into her lap and has intercourse with her outside the temple. And when he casts it, he must say this: “I invoke the goddess Mylitta upon you.” Now, the Assyrians call Aphrodite Mylitta.

​The money may be of any amount whatever; for she will by no means reject it, for it is not lawful for her to do so, for this money becomes sacred. She follows the first man who casts it, and rejects no one. And when she has had intercourse, having discharged her sacred duty to the goddess, she departs to her home; and from that time on, you cannot give her any sum so great that you will win her.

​Those who are endowed with beauty and stature depart quickly; but those of them who are ugly wait a long time, being unable to fulfill the law; indeed, some of them wait for a period of three or four years. In some parts of Cyprus too, there is a law similar to this.