Note 909 — OMPHI,

I have mentioned that they were sometimes called Petora, and by the Greeks Pitura. This, probably, was the name of those liba, or cakes, which the young virgins of Babylonia and Persis, used to offer at the shrine of their God, when they were to be first prostituted: for, all, before marriage, were obliged to yield themselves up to some stranger to be deflowered. It was the custom for all the young women, when they arrived towards maturity, to sit in the avenue of the temple, with a girdle, or rope, round their middle; and whatever passenger laid hold of it was entitled to lead them away. This practice is taken notice of, as subsisting among the Babylonians, in the epistle ascribed to the prophet Jeremiah; which he is supposed to have written to Baruch. v. 43. Ἁιδε γυναικες περιθεμεναι σχοινια εν ταις ὁδοις εγκαθηνται θυμιωσαι τα ΠΙΤYΡΑ· ὁταν δε τις αυτων αφελκοθεισα ὑπο τινος των παραπορευομενων κοιμηθῃ, την πλησιον ονειδιζει, ὁτι ουκ ηξιωται, ὡσπερ αυτη, ουτε το σχοινιον αυτης διεῤῥαγη. This is a translation from an Hebrew or Chaldäic original; and, I should think, not quite accurate. What is here rendered γυναικες, should, I imagine, be παρθενοι; and the purport will be nearly this: The virgins of Babylonia put girdles about their waist; and in this habit sit by the way side, holding their Pitura, or sacred offerings, over an urn of incense: and when any one of them is taken notice of by a stranger, and led away by her girdle to a place of privacy; upon her return she upbraids her next neighbour for not being thought worthy of the like honour; and for having her zone not yet broken or [909]loosed. It was likewise a Persian custom, and seems to have been universally kept up wherever their religion prevailed. Strabo gives a particular account of this practice, as it was observed in the temple of Anait in Armenia. This was a Persian Deity, who had many places of worship in that part of the world. Not only the men and maid servants, says the author, are in this manner prostituted at the shrine of the Goddess; for in this there would be nothing extraordinary: [910]Αλλα και θυγατερας ὁι επιφανεστατοι του εθνους ανιερουσι παρθενους, ἁις νομος εστι, καταπορνευθεισαις πολυν χρονον παρα τῃ Θεῳ μετα ταυτα δεδοσθαι προς γαμον· ουκ απαξιουντος τῃ τοιαυτῃ συνοικειν ουδενος. But people of the first fashion in the nation used to devote their own daughters in the same manner: it being a religious institution, that all young virgins shall, in honour of the Deity, be prostituted, and detained for some time in her temple: after which they are permitted to be given in marriage. Nor is any body at all scrupulous about cohabiting with a young woman afterwards, though she has been in this manner abused.