巴比伦建国于三千多年前,是当时高度文明的国家。在性风俗方面,则显得相当奇特和淫乱,以致连放荡不羁的亚历山大,都对巴比伦人的性风俗感到吃惊。在《圣经》记载中,巴比伦被描述得形如淫窟,是道德败亡的可耻代表,这是由于该国的特殊制度所致。据希腊学者希罗多德记载,在每个巴比伦妇女的一生中,都要到阿芙洛蒂忒的神庙当圣妓,跟一些陌生男子交合,但她们在庙内并不算是妓女, Babylon was founded more than three thousand years ago, when it was a highly civilized country. In the aspect of sexual custom, it is rather strange and adulterated that even the bohemian Alexander is surprised at the Babylonian customs. In the biblical account, Babylon was portrayed as a form of indecency, a shameful representation of moral decline, due to the special institutions of that country. According to Herodotus, a Greek scholar, during each Babylonian woman’s life, she went to the temple of Aphrodite as a prostitute and interfered with strange men, but they were not regarded as prostitutes in the temple,