Mylitta

Mylitta ( ancient Greek Μύλιττα ) was in persian temporal Babylon by the Assyrians and Persians revered goddess who according to Herodotus of Aphrodite or Urania Aphrodite of the Greeks is to be equated.

According to the 1st book of the Histories of Herodotus , every Babylonian virgin supposedly had to sit in the holy grove of Aphrodite once in her life with a wreath of cords on her head and be the first to give her a piece of silver in the honor of the mylitta Lap throws with the words "Truly I invoke the goddess Mylitta", revealing. Some women - according to Herodotus - had to wait three or four years before they could fulfill this commandment of the goddess, since no suitor could be found. This has been taken as an example of temple prostitution , but more recently several authors have spoken out against such an interpretation.

The name designates (with the not uncommon change from b to m) the great Babylonian goddess Belit - »mistress« (= nickname of Ištar , = Baaltis - wife of Ba'al / Bēl). According to Herodotus, Urania was also venerated by the Persians (Historien I., 131), they had learned this from the Assyrians and Arabs: "The Assyrians call it Aphrodite Mylitta, the Arabs Alitta, the Persian Mitra." Ktesias mentioned the Babylonian goddess Aphrodite / Molis, the wife of Zeus / Bēlos , perhaps the Mylitta. According to Huber, Mylitta is also equated with the Babylonian Mulliltu or Mullittu, known from proper names, and the Assyrian Mulliššu / Mullissu ( NIN.LÍL ).

literature

Stephanie Dalley: ^d NIN.LÍL = mul (l) is (s) u, the treaty of Barga'yah, and Herodotus' Mylitta. In: Revue d'Assyriologie et d'Archaeologie Orientale. Volume 73, 1979, pp. 177-178.
MJ Edwards: Herodotus and Mithras: Histories I. 131. In: American Journal of Philology. Vol. 111, No. 1, 1990, pp. 1-4.
Irene Huber: Ktesias and Babylonia: about a non-existent quantity in the Persica. In: Josef Wiesehöfer, Giovanni Lanfranchi, Robert Rollinger (eds.): The world of Ktesias. Stuttgart 2009, pp. 130–161, http://www.achemenet.com/document/HUBER_Ktesias_und_Babylonien_10-02-09.pdf .
Manfred Krebernik: Ninlil. In: Reallexikon der Assyriologie 9. de Gruyter, Berlin - New-York 1998–2001, pp. 452–461.
Gernot Wilhelm : Marginalien zu Herodot, Klio 199. In: Tzvi Abusch, J. Huehnergard, Piotr Steinkeller (Eds.): Lingering over Words: studies in ancient Near Eastern literature in honor of William L. Moran. Atlanta 1990, p. 505.

Individual evidence

↑ Histories. I. 199
^ Stephanie Budin: The Myth of Sacred Prostitution in Antiquity. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2008; Tanja Susanne Scheer, Martin Lindner (ed.): Temple prostitution in antiquity. Facts and fictions. (= Oikumene - Studies on Ancient World History. ), Vol. 6. Verlag Antike, Berlin 2009.
^ Eduard Meyer : Mylitta . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 2.2, Leipzig 1897, column 3307 ( digitized version ). & History of Antiquity , Volume I § 146 ( digitized version ).
↑ on the problem of miter see MJ Edwards: Herodotus and Mithras: Histories I. 131. In: American Journal of Philology. Vol. 111, No. 1, 1990, pp. 1-4.
↑ Irene Huber: Ktesias and Babylonia. About a non-existent quantity in the Persika. In: Josef Wiesehöfer, Giovanni Lanfranchi, Robert Rollinger (eds.): The world of Ktesias. Stuttgart 2009, pp. 130-161.

[1] Histories. I. 199

[2] Stephanie Budin: The Myth of Sacred Prostitution in Antiquity. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2008; Tanja Susanne Scheer, Martin Lindner (ed.): Temple prostitution in antiquity. Facts and fictions. (= Oikumene - Studies on Ancient World History. ), Vol. 6. Verlag Antike, Berlin 2009.

[3] Eduard Meyer : Mylitta . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 2.2, Leipzig 1897, column 3307 ( digitized version ). & History of Antiquity , Volume I § 146 ( digitized version ).

[4] the problem of miter see MJ Edwards: Herodotus and Mithras: Histories I. 131. In: American Journal of Philology. Vol. 111, No. 1, 1990, pp. 1-4.

[5] Irene Huber: Ktesias and Babylonia. About a non-existent quantity in the Persika. In: Josef Wiesehöfer, Giovanni Lanfranchi, Robert Rollinger (eds.): The world of Ktesias. Stuttgart 2009, pp. 130-161.