Page:Herodotus and the Empires of the East.djvu/96

 CUSTOMS, RELIGION, AND LANGUAGE.

has supplemented his historical remarks with comments on manners and customs of the different peoples. In some of these he misrepresents and exaggerates the actual condition of society. This is true of the Ishtar worship. Prostitution in the service of this goddess, as Herodotus declares (I., 199), was practiced in various temples, notoriously at the Nanâ temple at Erech. But this was doubtless confined to the women who dwelt in the temple (Ḳadištu). That the offering of chastity was demanded once from all virgins is not substantiated by the cuneiform records. We can suppose that Herodotus erroneously represents as a universal custom certain lewd practices, which existed in individual temples. We must believe that in his time the effeminating influence of the Persians was sapping the moral vigor of the Babylonians, and that the offering of chastity may have been especially prevalent in the vicinity of certain temples and at certain feasts.

Herodotus describes the dress of the Babylonians as follows: " Their dress is a linen coat which reaches to the feet. Over this they wear a second coat of wool, and a white mantle as a wrap. . . . They let their hair grow long, and bind their heads with turbans." (I., 195.) The representations which are preserved on the Assyrian and Babylonian palaces confirm these (90)