There are a lot of words denoting a woman of easy virtue in Russian. Some of them are common, others are swear words. Also, some words came from the past and are now perceived by native speakers as an outdated lexical layer. An example of such a phenomenon is the “harlot." Let's get acquainted with the shades of the meaning of this word.
General interpretation
The harlot is a woman who leads a depraved, vicious lifestyle, in this sense the word was first used in the Bible. At the same time, debauchery meant not so much an erratic sex life, but idolatry and the rejection of the Christian faith. The word "fornication" comes from the Pre-Slavic root, in many Slavic languages there are other derivatives:
- In Slovenian and Croatian it means “mistake”.
- In Czech and Polish - “delusion”.
In the Russian language there are cognates with no abusive connotation: to get lost, wander, delusion.
The concept
What is a “harlot" in the understanding of past eras and in the modern sense? According to scripture, this is a woman who indulges in vices and violates divine records.
In the modern world, a harlot is a woman leading an inappropriate lifestyle - cheating on her husband or entering into erratic intimate relationships. The male option is fornicator. Note that the biblical meaning has been changed and concretized - if in ancient times there were many vices attributed to harlots, then our contemporaries perceive only one thing - lust.
A whole class of "indecent women" - courtesans - existed in Palestine, Sumer, Babylon. Often, extreme poverty pushed them on a similar path.
Babylonian harlot
This character is widely known in the Bible now. Who is this? For the first time this symbolic image appears in the Revelation of John the Theologian. An angel appeared to the apostle and showed him judgment in the wilderness. In this case, the harlot is a woman in luxurious attire, sitting on a terrible beast. Holding a cup in her hands, she embodied all human vices.
What did the Babylonian harlot look like?
- The woman sat on a crimson seven-headed beast,
- The harlot’s clothes are scarlet and porphyry, richly decorated with gold and jewelry. Crimson is an outerwear, similar in cut to a mantle worn by noble people for special occasions. Its primary color is purple. Porfira is a long-sleeved cloak, an attribute of the rich and monarchs.
- The beast had 10 horns, symbolizing 10 kings, who "will take power for an hour."
Often, artists who decided to embody the image of a Babylonian harlot wife in their canvases and engravings painted her a very bright and attractive woman.
Image interpretation
However, the angel explained to John that he did not see an ordinary woman, but a symbol of the great city, which awaits a difficult fate. The city itself is not called in the prophecy, therefore its name evokes various versions among researchers:
- Rome, less often - the Roman Empire itself. Researchers cite a number of evidence supporting the hypothesis: the seven heads of the beast were interpreted as seven hills on which the great city was located. Also, the heads were identified with the Roman emperors of the time, of which there were actually seven (more precisely, nine, but two ruled for a very short time and did not do anything significant). John Chrysostom wrote that Rome will fall under the yoke of the Antichrist, who himself will be defeated by Christ. Researchers believe that, since Revelation was written during the period of persecution of Christians, it was Rome in their mind that acted as the main stronghold of the Antichrist the beast.
- Jerusalem. This ancient city was also located on seven mountains and was destroyed, coinciding in time with the Apocalypse.
- A generalized concept of the city, the whole world.
The image of the Babylonian woman is still considered one of the most difficult to interpret: there is no single version explaining its meaning. And the word “harlot" itself is a concept quite rarely found in the speech of modern native speakers, most often used in an ironic context in relation to a woman of easy virtue.