Now the most shameful of the customs of the Babylonians is as follows: - Every woman of the country must sit down in the precincts of Aphrodite once in her life and have sex with a man who is a stranger. […] Here when a woman takes her seat she does not depart again to her house until one of the stranger has thrown a silver coin into her lap and has had sex with her outside the temple, and after throwing it he must say these words only: “I call upon the goddess Mylitta in your behalf.” Mylitta is the Assyrians’ name for Aphrodite. The silver coin may be of any value; whatever it is she will not refuse it, for that is not lawful for her, seeing that this coin is made sacred by the act. She follows the man who has first thrown, and does not reject any. After that she departs to her house, having discharged her duty to the goddess, nor will you be able thenceforth to give any gift so great as to seduce her. So then as many as possess beaty and statue are speedily released, but those who are ugly remain there much time, not being able to fulfil the law; for some of them remain even as much as three or four years. In some parts of Cyprus too there is a custom similar to this.
- Herodotus The Histories Book 1, 199
Some may wonder, from the last piece, why the mythos of a country’s founding matters.
To which, I will reply:
Athens - The City claimed a female warrior philosopher as it’s protector, and became the main center for philosophy and exporter of military power during Greece’s day in the sun. With some occasional boy and lesbian love mixed in.
Rome - Godly spawned men, kings, and kingly fratricide… leading to an empire claiming to be living gods, kings and lots of… kingly deaths.
The U.S.S.A. - Overthrowing a king for Equalitas, Libertas, and Fraternitas. By a bunch of well off aristocracy owning slaves. And… now we are a bunch of debt slaves, ruled by oligarchs, seeking equality of outcome, freedom to pursue Usury, Sex, Sodomy, and Abortion (U.S.S.A, after all), and Fraternity with the whole world, including criminals invited into our own homes.
The British - Brutus was an invader from Troy, founded the Britons, and ruled an empire by right of conquest bringing civilization and rule of law. Then the British Empire expanded.
But, here in the U.S, we still worship pagan gods.
We just call them different names, as the Egyptians called Aphrodite Mylitta.
We call the god of Fortune and Wealth the Free Market, or the invisible hand of the market place.
We make sacrifices to the god of war, Mars, daily in Ukraine and Israel.
Bacchus just got his most highly watched festival at the Superbowl
You see, reading Herodotus’ Histories, you come to understand…
The pagans knew you could call a god whatever you wanted.
It was still a god.
It still had power.
And if you sacrificed to it….
The god, the demon as St Paul said, still owned you.
If you found a country upon it’s principles…..
It will run your country.
Into the ground.
Dust unto dust.
Thus, to get free, you have to break the god.
His idols.
And look beyond him.
For those who doubt…
Well.
Just look at the outcomes of Histories.
To the other gods they sacrifice thus and these kinds of beasts, but to Ares as follows: In each district of the several tribal territories they have a temple of Ares set up in this way - bundles of brushwood are heaped up about 1,800 ft/sq, but less in height; and on the top a level square is made, and three of the sides rise sheer but by the remaining one side the pile may be ascended. […] They sacrifice one man in every hundred of all the enemies whom they take captive in war, not as they sacrifice cattle, but in a different manner. They first pour wine over their heads, and after that they cut the throats of the men, so that the blood runs into a bowl; and then they carry this up to the top of the pile of brushwood and pour the blood over the sword. meanwhile below by the side of the temple they are doing thus: they cut off all the right arms of the slaughtered men with the hands and throw them up into the air, and then when they have finished offering the other victims, they go away; and the arm lies wheresoever it has chanced to fall, and the corpse apart from it.
- Herodotus Histories Chapter 4, 62