Читать книгу Love Potions Through the Ages: A Study of Amatory Devices and Mores онлайн

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In Carthage, a spot outside the city was consecrated to Astarte, the goddess of generation, and called Sicca Veneria. Among the Phoenicians a similar spot, intended for the same purpose, that is religious fornication, was known as Siccoth Venoth.

In Biblical antiquity, the primary concept was for man to be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth. To this end, concubinage was consequently not frowned upon and was practiced pari passu with marriage. Maid servants were commonly taken by their masters as concubines, as in the case of Hagar, and also in that of Reumah. Lot even gave his maiden daughters for the satisfaction of the lustful inhabitants of Sodom. Later, he committed incest with these daughters.

The servant women of Jacob, Bilhah and Zilpah, became his concubines. These are instances, among many others, that illustrate cases of adultery and fornication that do not appear to have had a condemnatory stigma or reproach attached to them. For the object in these circumstances was procreation and propagation and that was the primal function enjoined upon man.