Ovid's Book I.....Chapter ?

218. In Cyprus it appears that before marriage all women were formerly obliged by custom to prostitute themselves to strangers at the sanctuary of the goddess, whether she went by the name of Aphrodite, Astarte, or what not. Similar customs prevailed in many parts of Wetern Asia. Whatever its motive, the practice was clearly regarded, not as an orgy of lust, but as a solemn religious duty performed in the service of that great Mother Goddess of Western Asia whose name varied, while her type remained constant, from place to place. Thus at Babylon every woman, whether rich or poor, had once in her life to submit to the embraces of a stranger at the temple of Mylitta, that is. of Ishtar or Astarte, and to dedicate to the goddess the wages earned by this sanctified harlotry.

ASIDE: In my spare time I've been reading the late Stegg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy and can't help but notice how far society has come from this. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo as well as its Sequel all have a central theme based upon the raping of women. The book has served quite well as a basis for current thoughts of women's rights in comparison with Mythologies as well as Bible as Literature. So, if you're interested in the metamorphosis of women's rights throughout time and culture, I'd invite you to read a truly thrilling set of present day novels to gain a deeper perspective. (warning: Contains far more brutal language and pictorial texture than Ovid's or the Bible)

Prologue- This most definitely describes Ovid in a moment; From "bodies becoming other bodies" to "Changes" to "Seamless" to "Weave", everything describes the interchanging circle of life.

The Creation- Poetic as a Johave writer, descriptive as the Priest, and much more entertaining than a simple boom and particles finding meaning. Favorite line: "The god placed above these winds the ether, without weight, a fluid free of Earth's impurity."

The Giants- odd, boring passage added to the fact that I've found no other textual evidence of this Myth in any other sacred texts leads me to believe that the Giants must have been Babelers, incapable of speech let alone writing. Favorite line: "heaped mountain peak on mountain mass, star-high"

The Flood- As again in this case the beginning always seems to be cleansed by water, and apocalypse's always has fire and brimstone; a complete destruction of the heavens and the earth compared to just the earth. Favorite line: "He brought to mind that, in the book of fates, this was inscribed: a time would come when sea and land would burn, a conflagration that would overturn the place of the sky-in fact destroy the stunning fabric of the universe.

Deucalion and Pyrrha- Just as we now throw salt over our shoulder to keep away bad luck, The Gods threw us.

Python- Story of how we make games out of the things that are horrible in order to make them less frightening. "London bridge is falling down" "Ashes, Ashes, we all fall down!"