The assimilation of marriage to agriculture and fire is consistent and pervasive throughout myth, ritual, language, literature, and science. By contrast, prostitution and concubinage are as consistently marked as a kind of anti-marriage and anti-agriculture. They are, like the gardens of Adonis, an illusory game, not a serious or useful occupation, and threaten to drain a man of his virility and lead to premature senility, sterility, and death without issue.