And the verb which they use for
prostituting
oneself for money is ?
Athenaeus - Deipnosophists
On which account they tell a story of king Archidamus, that when one wife was offered to him who was very handsome, and another who was ugly but rich, and he chose the rich one, the ephors imposed a fine upon him, saying that he had preferred begetting kinglings rather than kings for the Spartans.
And Euripides has said:-
Firstly, a form that is worthy of a kingdom.
And in Homer, the old men among the people marvelling at the beauty of Helene, are represented as speaking thus to one another [ Il_3'156 ]:-
They cried, "No wonder the Trojans and Achaeans
Have suffered woes so long for this woman;-
Her countenance is like to an immortal goddess! "
And even Priamus himself is moved at the beauty of the woman, though he is in great distress. And also he admires Agamemnon for his beauty, and uses the following language respecting him [ Il_3'169 ]:-
Say, what Greek is he
Around whose brow such martial graces shine,-
So tall, so awful, and almost divine!
Though some of larger stature tread the green,
None match his grandeur and exalted mien.
And many nations have made the handsomest men their kings on that account. As even to this day that Ethiopian tribe called the Immortals does; as Bion relates in his History of the Affairs of Ethiopia. For, as it would seem, they consider beauty as the especial attribute of kings. And goddesses have contended with one another respecting beauty; and it was on account of his beauty that the gods carried off Ganymedes to be the cupbearer of Zeus [ Homer, Il_20'235 ]:-
The matchless Ganymedes, divinely fair,
Whom Heaven, enamoured, snatched to upper air.
And who are they whom the goddesses have carried off? are they not the handsomest of men? And they cohabit with them; as Dawn does with Cephalus and Cleitus and Tithonus; and Demeter with Iasion; and Aphrodite with Anchises and Adonis. And it was for the sake of beauty also that the greatest of the gods entered through a roof under the form of gold, and became a bull, and often transformed himself into a winged eagle, as he did in the case of Aegina. And Socrates the philosopher, who despised everything, was, for all that, subdued by the beauty of Alcibiades; as also was the venerable Aristotle by the beauty of his pupil [Theodectas] of Phaselis. And do not we too, even in the case of inanimate things, prefer what is the most beautiful? The fashion, too, of Sparta is much praised, I mean that of displaying their maidens naked to their guests; and in the island of Chios it is a beautiful sight to go to the gymnasia and the race-courses, and to see the young men wrestling naked with the maidens, who are also naked.
[21. ] G And Cynulcus said:-
And do you dare to talk in this way, you who are not "rosy-fingered", as Cratinus says, but who have one foot made of cow-dung [ Aristophanes, Frogs_294 ], and carry around the leg of your namesake the poet [Myrtilus]? You spend all your time in wineshops and inns, although Isocrates the orator has said, in his Areopagitic Oration [ 49 ], "But not one of their servants ever would have ventured to eat or drink in a wineshop; for they studied to keep up the dignity of their appearance, and not to behave like buffoons. " And Hypereides, in his oration against Patrocles (if, at least, the speech is a genuine one), says that they forbade a man who had dined at a wineshop from going up to the Areopagus. [22. ] G [567] But you, you sophist, spend your time in wineshops, not with your friends (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ), but with prostitutes (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ), having a lot of female pimps about you, and always carrying about these books of Aristophanes, and Apollodorus, and Ammonius, and Antiphanes, and also of Gorgias the Athenian, who have all written about the prostitutes at Athens. Oh, what a learned man you are! how far are you from imitating Theomander of Cyrene, who, as Theophrastus, in his treatise On Happiness, says, used to go about and profess that he gave lessons in prosperity. You, you teacher of love, are in no respect better than Amasis of Elis, whom Theophrastus, in his treatise On Love, says was extraordinarily addicted to amatory pursuits. And a man will not be much out who calls you a pornographer [? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ], just as they call Aristeides and (? ) Pausias and Nicophanes painters [? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ]. And Polemon mentions them, as painting these subjects exceedingly well, in his treatise On the Pictures at Sicyon. Think, my friends, of the great and varied learning of this grammarian, who does not conceal what he means, but openly quotes the verses of Eubulus, in his Cercopes:-
I came to Corinth; there I ate with pleasure
Some herb called basil [ocim? n], and was ruined by it;
And also, trifling there, I lost my cloak.
And the Corinthian sophist is very fine here, explaining to his pupils that Ocim? n is the name of a harlot. And a great many other plays also, you impudent fellow, derived their names from courtesans. There is the Thalatta of Diocles, the Corianno of Pherecrates, the Anteia of Eunicus or Philyllius, the Thais, and the Phani? n of Menander, the Opora of Alexis, the Clepsydra of Eubulus - and the woman who bore this name, had it because she used to distribute her favours by a water-clock, and to dismiss her visitors when it had run down; as Asclepiades, the son of Areius, relates in his History of Demetrius Phalereus; and he says that her proper name was Metiche.
As Antiphanes says in his Farmer:-
A courtesan is a positive
Calamity and ruin to her keeper;
And yet he is glad to nourish such a pest.
On which account, in the Neaera of Timocles, a man is represented as lamenting his fate, and saying:-
But I, unhappy man, who first loved Phryne
When she was but a gatherer of capers,
And was not quite as rich as now she is,-
I who spent such sums of money upon her,
Am now excluded from her doors.
And in the play entitled Orestautocleides, the same Timocles says:-
And round the wretched man old women sleep,
Nanni? n and Plang? n, Lyca, Phryne too,
Gnathaena, Pythionice, Myrrhine,
Chrysis, Conalis, Hierocleia, and
Lopadi? n also.
And these courtesans are mentioned by Amphis, in his Curis, where he says:-
Wealth truly seems to me to be quite blind,
Since he never ventures near this woman's doors,
But haunts Sinope, Nanni? n, and Lyca,
And others like them, traps of men's existence.
And in their houses sits like one amazed,
And never departs.
[23. ] G [568] And Alexis, in the drama entitled Isostasium, thus describes the equipment of a courtesan, and the artifices which some women use to make themselves up:-
For, first of all, to earn themselves much gain,
And better to plunder all the neighbouring men,
They use a heap of adventitious aids, -
They plot to take in every one. And when,
By subtle artifice, they've made some money,
They enlist fresh girls, and add recruits, who never
Have tried the trade, into their cunning troop.
And drill them so that they are very soon
Different in manners, and in look, and semblance
From all they were before. Suppose one's short -
They put cork soles within the heels of her shoes;
Is any one too tall - she wears a slipper
Of thinnest substance, and, with head bent down
Between the shoulders, walks the public streets,
And so reduces her superfluous height.
Is any one too lean about the flank -
They hoop her with a bustle, so that all
Who see her marvel at her her proportions.
Has any one too prominent a stomach -
They crown it with false breasts, such as perchance
At times you may in comic actors see;
And what is still too prominent, they force
Back, ramming it as if with scaffolding.
Has any one red eyebrows - those they smear
With soot. Has any one a dark complexion -
White-lead will that correct. This girl's too fair -
They rub her well with rich vermillion.
Is she a splendid figure - then her charms
Are shown in naked beauty to the purchaser.
Has she good teeth - then she is forced to laugh,
That all the bystanders may see her mouth,
How beautiful it is; and if she be
But ill-inclined to laugh, then she is kept
Close within doors whole days, and the things
Which butchers use when selling goats' heads,
Such as a stick of myrrh, she's forced to keep
Between her lips, till they have learnt the shape
Of the required grin. And by such arts
They make their charms and persons up for market.
[24. ] G And therefore I advise you, my Thessalian friend with the handsome chairs, to be content to embrace the women in the brothels, and not to spend the inheritance of your children on vanities. For, truly, the lame man gets on best at this sort of work; since your father, the boot-maker, did not lecture you and teach you any great deal, and did not force you to look like leather. Or do you not know those women, as we find them called in the Pannuchis of Eubulus -
Thrifty decoys, who gather in the money,-
Well-trained fillies of Aphrodite, standing
Naked in line, clad in transparent robes
Of thinnest web, like the fair damsels whom
Eridanus waters with his holy stream ;
From whom, with safety and frugality,
You may buy pleasure at a moderate cost.
And in his Nanni? n, (if the play under this name is the work of Eubulus, and not of Philippus):-
For he who secretly goes hunting for
Illicit love, must surely of all men
Most miserable be; and yet he may
See in the light of the sun a willing row
Of naked damsels, standing all arrayed
In robes transparent, like the damsels whom
Eridanus waters with his holy stream,
And buy some pleasure at a trifling rate,
[569] Without pursuing a clandestine love
(There is no heavier calamity),
Just out of wantonness and not for love.
I do bewail the fate of hapless Greece,
Which sent forth such an admiral as Cydias.
Xenarchus also, in his Pentathlum, reproaches those men who live as you do, and who fix their hearts on extravagant courtesans, and on freeborn women, in the following lines:-
It is a terrible, yes a terrible and
Intolerable evil, what the young
Men do throughout this city. And yet
There are most beauteous damsels in the brothels,
Whom any man may see standing all willing
In the full light of day, with open bosoms,
Showing their naked charms, all in a row,
Marshalled in order; and there they may choose
Without the slightest trouble, as they fancy,
Thin, stout, or round, tall, wrinkled, or smooth-faced,
Young, old, or middle-aged, or elderly,
So that they need not clamber up a ladder,
Nor steal through windows out of free men's houses,
Nor smuggle themselves inside bags of chaff.
For these gay girls will ravish you by force,
And drag you in to them; if old, they'll call you
Their dear papa; if young, their darling baby;
And these a man may fearlessly and cheaply
Amuse himself with, morning, noon, or night,
In any way he please. But the other women
He dares not gaze on openly nor look at,
But fearing, trembling, shivering, with his heart,
As they say, in his mouth, he creeps towards them.
How can these men, sea-born immortal Aphrodite,
Press on, even when they have the opportunity,
If any thought of Dracon's laws comes over them.
[25. ] G And Philemon, in his Brothers, relates that Solon at first, on account of the unbridled passions of the young, made a law that women might be brought to be prostituted at brothels; as Nicander of Colophon also states, in the third book of his History of the Affairs of Colophon, saying that he first erected a temple to the Public Aphrodite with the money which was earned by the women who were prostituted at these brothels.
But Philemon speaks on this subject as follows:
But you did well for every man, O Solon;
For they do say you were the first to see
The justice of a public-spirited measure,
The saviour of the state- (and it is fit
For me to utter this avowal, Solon);-
You, seeing that the state was full of men,
Young, and possessed of all the natural appetites,
And wandering in their lusts where they'd no business,
Bought women, and in certain spots did place them,
Common to be, and ready for all comers.
They naked stand: look well at them, my youth,-
Do not deceive yourself; are you not well off?
You're ready, so are they: the door is open-
The price an obol: enter straight- there is
No nonsense here, no cheat or trickery;
But do just what you like, and how you like.
You're off: wish her good-bye; she's no more claim on you.
And Aspasia, the friend of Socrates, imported great numbers of beautiful women, and Greece was entirely filled with her courtesans; as that witty writer Aristophanes relates [ Acharn_524 ], saying that the Peloponnesian war was excited by Pericles, [570] on account of his love for Aspasia, and on account of the girls who had been carried away from her by the Megarians.
For some young men, drunk with the cottabus,
Going to Megara, carry off by stealth
A harlot named Simaetha. Then the citizens
Of Megara, full of grief and indignation,
Stole in return two of Aspasia's girls;
And this was the beginning of the war
Which devastated Greece, for three lewd women.
[26. ] G I therefore, my most learned grammarian, warn you to beware of the courtesans who want a high price, because
You may see other girls who play the flute,
Playing the tunes of Apollo, or of Zeus;
But these play no tune save the tune of the hawk,
as Epicrates says in his Anti-Lais; in which play he also uses the following expressions concerning the celebrated Lais:-
But this fair Lais is both drunk and lazy,
And cares for nothing, save what she may eat
And drink all day. And she, as I do think,
Has the same fate the eagles have; for they,
When they are young, down from the mountains stoop,
Ravage the flocks and eat the timid hares,
Bearing their prey aloft with fearful might.
But when they're old, on temple tops they perch,
Hungry and helpless; and the soothsayers
Turn such a sight into a prodigy.
And so might Lais well be thought an omen;
For when she was a maiden, young and fresh,
She was quite savage with her wondrous riches;
And you might easier get access to
The satrap Pharnabazus. But at present,
Now that she's more advanced in years, and age
Has meddled with her body's round proportions,
'Tis easy both to see her and to scorn her.
Now she runs everywhere to get some drink;
She'll take a stater -aye, or three obols;
She will admit you, young or old; and is
Become so tame, so utterly subdued,
That she will take the money from your hand.
Anaxandrides also, in his Old Man's Madness, mentions Lais, and includes her with many other courtesans in a list which he gives in the following lines:
(A) You know Corinthian Lais?
(B) To be sure;
My countrywoman.
(A) Well, she had a friend,
By name Anteia.
(B) Yes; I knew her well.
(A) Well, in those days Lagisce was in beauty;
Theolyte, too, was wondrous fair to see,
And seemed likely to be fairer still;
And Ocim? n was beautiful as any.
[27. ] G This, then, is the advice I want to give you, my friend Myrtilus; and, as we read in the Huntress of Philetaerus,-
Now you are old, reform those ways of yours;
Know you not that 'tis hardly well to die
In the embraces of a prostitute,
As men do say Phormisius perished ?
Or do you think that delightful which Timocles speaks of in his Marathonian Women ? -
How great the difference whether you pass the night
With a lawful wife or with a prostitute
Bah! Where's the firmness of the flesh, the freshness
Of breath and of complexion? Oh, ye gods!
What appetite it gives one not to find
Everything waiting, but to be constrained
[571] To struggle a little, and from tender hands
To bear soft blows and buffets; that, indeed
Is really pleasure.
? Following pages (571-589)
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Athenaeus: The Deipnosophists
BOOK 13, Pages 571-589
Translated by C. D. Yonge (1854). A few words and spellings have been changed.
See key to translations for an explanation of the format. The page numbers in the Greek text are shown in red. The chapter numbers in the translation are shown in green.
<< Previous pages (555-571)
[571] And as Cynulcus had still a good deal which he wished to say, and as Ulpianus was preparing to attack him for the sake of Myrtilus, Myrtilus, getting in ahead of him (for he hated the Syrian), said-
But our hopes were not so clean worn out,
As to need aid from bitter enemies;
as Callimachus says. For are not we, O Cynulcus, able to defend ourselves?
How rude you are, and boorish with your jokes!
Your tongue is all on the left side of your mouth;
as Ephippus says in his Philyra. For you seem to me to be one of those men
Who of the Muses learnt but ill-shaped letters,
as some one of the parody writers has it.
[28. ] G I therefore, my friends and messmates, have not, as is said in the Aurae of Metagenes, or in the Mammacythus of Aristagoras,
Told you of female dancers, courtesans
Who once were fair; and now I do not tell you
Of flute-playing girls, just reaching womanhood,
Who not unwillingly, for adequate pay,
Have borne the love of vulgar men;
but I have been speaking of the real companions- that is to say, of those who are able to preserve a friendship free from trickery; whom Cynulcus does not venture to speak ill of, and who of all women are the only ones who have derived their name from friendship, or from that goddess who is named by the Athenians Aphrodite Hetaera: concerning whom Apollodorus the Athenian speaks, in his treatise on the Gods, in the following manner:- And they worship Aphrodite Hetaera, who brings together male and female companions (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? )- that is to say, mistresses. " Accordingly, even to this day, freeborn women and maidens call their associates and friends their ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ; as Sappho does, where she says-
And now with tuneful voice I'll sing
These pleasing songs to my companions (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ).
And in another place she says-
Niobe and Leto were of old
Affectionate companions (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ) to each other.
They also call women who prostitute themselves for money, ? ? ? ? ? ? ? .
And the verb which they use for prostituting oneself for money is ? ? ? ? ? ? ? , not regarding the etymology of the word, but applying a more decent term to the trade; as Menander, in his Deposit, distinguishing the ? ? ? ? ? ? ? from the ? ? ? ? ? ? ? , says-
You've done an act not suited to companions (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ),
But, by Zeus, far more fit for courtesans (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ),
These words, so near the same, do make the sense
Not always easily to be distinguished.
[29. ] G But concerning courtesans, Ephippus, in his Merchandise, speaks as follows:
And then if, when we enter through their doors,
They see that we are out of sorts at all,
They flatter us and soothe us, kiss us gently,
Not pressing hard as though our lips were enemies,
But with soft open kisses like a sparrow;
They sing, and comfort us, and make us cheerful,
And straightway banish all our care and grief,
And make our faces bright again with smiles.
And Eubulus, in his Campylion, introducing a courtesan of modest deportment, says-
How modestly she sat the while at supper!
Not like the rest, who make great balls of leeks,
And stuff their cheeks with them, and loudly crunch
Within their jaws large lumps of greasy meat;
[572] But delicately tasting of each dish,
In mouthfuls small, like a Milesian maiden.
And Antiphanes says in his Hydra -
But he, the man of whom I now was speaking,
Seeing a woman who lived near his house,
A courtesan, did fall at once in love with her;
She was a citizen, without a guardian
Or any near relations, and her manners
Pure, and on virtue's strictest model formed,
A genuine mistress (? ? ? ? ? ? ); for the rest of the crew
Bring into disrepute, by their vile manners,
A name which in itself has nothing wrong.
And Anaxilas, in his Neottis, says-
(A) But if a woman does at all times use
Fair, moderate language, giving her services
Favourable to all who stand in need of her,
She from her prompt companionship (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ) does earn
The title of companion (? ? ? ? ? ? ); and you,
As you say rightly, have not fallen in love
With a vile harlot (? ? ? ? ? ), but with a companion (? ? ? ? ? ? ).
Is she not one of pure and simple manners?
(B) At all events, by Zeus, she's beautiful.
[30. ] G But that systematic debaucher of youths of yours, is such a person as Alexis, or Antiphanes, represents him, in his Sleep:
On this account, that profligate, when supping
With us, will never eat an onion even,
So as not to annoy the object of his love.
And Ephippus has spoken very well of people of that description in his Sappho, where he says-
For when one in the flower of his age
Learns to sneak into other men's abodes,
And shares of meals where he has not contributed,
He must expect some other mode of payment.
And Aeschines the orator has said something of the same kind in his Speech against Timarchus.
[31. ] G But concerning courtesans, Philetaerus, in his Huntress, has the following lines:-
'Tis not for nothing that wherever we go
We find a temple of Hetaera there,
But nowhere one to any wedded wife.
I know, too, that there is a festival called the Hetaerideia, which is celebrated in Magnesia, not owing to the courtesans, but to another cause, which is mentioned by Hegesander in his Commentaries, who writes thus:- "The Magnesians celebrate a festival called Hetaerideia; and they give this account of it: that originally Jason, the son of Aeson, when he had collected the Argonauts, sacrificed to Zeus Hetaereius, and called the festival Hetaerideia. And the Macedonian kings also celebrated the Hetaerideia. " There is also a temple of Aphrodite the Prostitute (? ? ? ? ? ) at Abydus, as Pamphilus asserts:- "For when all the city was oppressed by slavery, the guards in the city, after a sacrifice on one occasion (as Cleanthus relates in his essays on Fables), having got intoxicated, took several courtesans; and one of these women, when she saw that the men were all fast asleep, taking the keys, got over the wall, and brought the news to the citizens of Abydus. And they, on this, immediately came in arms, and slew the guards, and took possession of the walls, and recovered their freedom; and to show their gratitude to the prostitute, they built a temple to Aphrodite the Prostitute. "
And Alexis the Samian, in the second book of his Samian Annals, says- "The Athenian prostitutes who followed Pericles when he laid siege to Samos, having made vast sums of money by their beauty, dedicated a statue of Aphrodite at Samos, which some call Aphrodite among the Reeds, and others Aphrodite in the Marsh. " [573] And Eualces, in his History of the Affairs of Ephesus, says that there is at Ephesus also a temple to Aphrodite the Courtesan (? ? ? ? ? ? ). And Clearchus, in the first book of his treatise on Amatory Matters, says-" Gyges the king of the Lydians was very celebrated, not only on account of his mistress while she was alive, having submitted himself and his whole dominions to her power, but also after she was dead; inasmuch as he assembled all the Lydians in the whole country, and raised that mound which is even now called the tomb of the Lydian Courtesan; building it up to a great height, so that when he was travelling in the country, inside of Mount Tmolus, wherever he was, he could always see the tomb; and it was a conspicuous object to all the inhabitants of Lydia. " And Demosthenes the orator, in his Speech against Neaera (if it is a genuine one, which Apollodorus says it is), says [ 59'122 ]- "Now we have courtesans for the sake of pleasure, but concubines for the sake of daily cohabitation, and wives for the purpose of having children legitimately, and of having a faithful guardian of all our household affairs. "
[32. ] G I will now mention to you, Cynulcus, an Ionian story (spinning it out, as Aeschylus' Agamemnon says,) about courtesans, beginning with the beautiful Corinth, since you have reproached me with having been a schoolmaster in that city. It is an ancient custom at Corinth (as Chamaeleon of Heracleia relates, in his treatise on Pindarus), whenever the city addresses any supplication to Aphrodite about any important matter, to employ as many courtesans as possible to join in the supplication; and they, too, pray to the goddess, and afterwards they are present at the sacrifices. And when the king of Persia was leading his army against Greece (as Theopompus also relates, and so does Timaeus, in his seventh book), the Corinthian courtesans offered prayers for the safety of Greece, going to the temple of Aphrodite. On which account, after the Corinthians had consecrated a picture to the goddess (which remains even to this day), and as in this picture they had painted the portraits of the courtesans who made this supplication at the time, and who were present afterwards, Simonides composed this epigram:-
These damsels, on behalf of Greece, and all
Their gallant countrymen, stood nobly forth,
Praying to Aphrodite, all-powerful goddess;
Nor was the queen of beauty willing ever
To leave the citadel of Greece to fall
Beneath the arrows of the unwarlike Persians.
And even private individuals sometimes vow to Aphrodite, that if they succeed in the objects for which they are offering their vows, they will bring her a stated number of courtesans.
[33. ] G As this custom, then, exists with reference to this goddess, Xenophon the Corinthian, when going to Olympia to the games, vowed that he, if he were victorious, would bring her some courtesans. And Pindarus at first wrote a panegyric on him, which begins thus [ Olymp. 13 ]:-
Praising the house which in the Olympic games
Has thrice borne off the victory.
But afterwards he composed a scolium on him, which was sung at the sacrificial feasts; at the start of which he turns at once to the courtesans who joined in the sacrifice to Aphrodite, in the presence of Xenophon, while he was sacrificing to the goddess himself ; on which account he says:-
O queen of Cyprus' isle,
Come to this grove !
[574] Lo, Xenophon, succeeding in his aim,
Brings you a band of willing maidens,
Dancing on a hundred feet.
And the opening lines of the song were these:-
O hospitable damsels, fairest train
Of soft Persuasion,-
Ornament of the wealthy Corinth,
Bearing in willing hands the golden drops
That from the frankincense distil, and flying
To the fair mother of the Loves,
Who dwells up in the sky,
Lovely Aphrodite,- you do bring to us
Comfort and hope in danger, that we may
Hereafter, in the delicate beds of Love,
Heap the long-wished-for fruits of joy,
Lovely and necessary to all mortal men.
And after having begun in this manner, he proceeds to say:-
But now I marvel, and wait anxiously
To see what will my masters say of me,
Who thus begin
My scolium with this amatory preface,
Willing companion of these willing damsels.
And it is plain here that the poet, while addressing the courtesans in this way, was in some doubt as to the light in which it would appear to the Corinthians; but, trusting to his own genius, he proceeds with the following verse:-
We teach pure gold on a well-tried lyre.
And Alexis, in his Loving Woman, tells us that the courtesans at Corinth celebrate a festival of their own, called Aphrodisia; where he says -
The city at the time was celebrating
The Aphrodisia of the courtesans;
This is a different festival from that
At which the free women are present: and then
It is the custom on those days that all
The courtesans should feast with us in common.
[34. ] G But at Lacedaemon (as Polemon Periegetes says, in his treatise on the Offerings at Lacedaemon,) there is a statue of a very celebrated courtesan, named Cottina, who, he tells us, consecrated a brazen cow; and Polemon's words are these:- "And the statue of Cottina the courtesan, on account of whose celebrity there is still a brothel which is called by her name, near the hill on which the temple of Dionysus stands, is a conspicuous object, well known to many of the citizens. And her votive offering is beyond the statue of Athene Chalcioecus - a brazen cow, and also the before-mentioned image. "
And the handsome Alcibiades, of whom one of the comic poets said:-
And then the delicate Alcibiades,
O earth and all the gods! whom Lacedaemon
Desires to catch in his adulteries,
though he was beloved by the wife of Agis, used to go and hold his revels at the doors of the courtesans, leaving all the Lacedaemonian and Athenian women. He also fell in love with Medontis of Abydus, from the mere report of her beauty; and sailing to the Hellespont with Axiochus, who was a lover of his on account of his beauty (as Lysias the orator states in his speech against him), he allowed Axiochus to share her with him. Moreover, Alcibiades used always to carry about two other courtesans with him in all his expeditions, namely, Damasandra, the mother of the younger Lais, and Theodote; who, after he was dead, buried him in Melissa, a village of Phrygia, after he had been overwhelmed by the treachery of Pharnabazus. And we ourselves saw the tomb of Alcibiades at Melissa, when we went from Synnada to Metropolis; and at that tomb there is sacrificed an ox every year, by the command of that most excellent emperor Hadrianus, who also erected on the tomb a statue of Alcibiades in Parian marble.
[35. ] G [575] And we must not wonder at people having on some occasions fallen in love with others from the mere report of their beauty, when Chares of Mytilene, in the tenth book of his History of Alexander, says that some people have even seen in dreams those whom they have never beheld before, and fallen in love with them in this way. And he writes as follows:- "Hystaspes had a younger brother whose name was Zariadres; and they were both men of great personal beauty. And the story told concerning them by the natives of the country is, that they were the offspring of Aphrodite and Adonis. Now Hystaspes was ruler of Media, and of the lower country adjoining it; and Zariadres was ruler of the country above the Caspian gates as far as the river Tanais. Now the daughter of Omartes, the king of the Marathi, a tribe dwelling on the other side of the Tanais, was named Odatis. And concerning her it is written in the Histories, that she in her sleep beheld Zariadres, and fell in love with him; and that the very same thing happened to him with respect to her. And so for a long time they were in love with one another, simply on account of the visions which they had seen in their dreams. And Odatis was the most beautiful of all the women in Asia; and Zariadres also was very handsome. Accordingly, when Zariadres sent to Omartes and expressed a desire to marry the girl, Omartes would not agree to it, because he did not have any male offspring; for he wished to give her to one of his own people about his court.
"Not long afterwards, Omartes, having assembled all the chief men of his kingdom and all his friends and relations, held a marriage feast. But he had not said beforehand to whom he was going to give his daughter. And as the wine went round, her father summoned Odatis to the banquet, and said, in the hearing of all the guests,- 'We, my daughter Odatis, are now celebrating your marriage feast; so now do you look around, and survey all those who are present, and then take a golden goblet and fill it, and give it to the man to whom you like to be married; for you shall be called his wife. ' And she, having looked round upon them all, went away weeping, being anxious to see Zariadres, for she had sent him word that her marriage feast was about to be celebrated. But he, being encamped on the Tanais, and leaving the army encamped there without being perceived, crossed the river with his charioteer alone ; and going by night in his chariot, passed through the city, having gone about eight hundred stades without stopping. And when he got near the town in which the marriage festival was being celebrated, and leaving, in some place near, his chariot with the charioteer, he went forward by himself, clad in a Scythian robe. And when he arrived at the palace, and seeing Odatis standing in front of the sideboard in tears, while she filled the goblet very slowly, he stood near her and said, 'Odatis, here I have come, as you requested me to, - I, Zariadres. ' And she, perceiving a stranger, and a handsome man, and that he resembled the man whom she had beheld in her sleep, being exceedingly glad, gave him the bowl. And he, seizing on her, led her away to his chariot, and fled away, having Odatis with him. And the servants and the handmaidens, knowing their love, said not a word. And when her father ordered them to summon her, they said that they did not know which way she had gone.
"And the story of this love is often told by the barbarians who dwell in Asia, and is exceedingly admired; and they have painted representations of the story in their temples and palaces, and also in their private houses. And a great many of the princes in those countries give their daughters the name of Odatis. "
[36. ] G [576] Aristotle also, in his Constitution of the Massilians, mentions a similar circumstance as having taken place, writing as follows:- "The Phocaeans in Ionia, having consulted the oracle, founded Massilia. And Euxenus the Phocaean was connected by ties of hospitality with Nanus; this was the name of the king of that country. This Nanus was celebrating the marriage feast of his daughter, and invited Euxenus, who happened to be in the neighbourhood, to the feast. And the marriage was to be conducted in the following manner: after the supper was over the girl was to come in, and to give a goblet full of wine properly mixed to whichever of the suitors who were present she chose; and to whomsoever she gave it, he was to be her bridegroom. And when the girl came in, whether it was by chance or whether it was for any other reason, she gave the goblet to Euxenus. And the name of the maiden was Petta. And when the cup had been given in this way, and her father (thinking that she had been directed by the Deity in her giving of it) had consented that Euxenus should have her, he took her for his wife, and cohabited with her, changing her name to Aristoxene. And the family which is descended from that girl remains in Massilia to this day, and is known as the Protiadae; for Protis was the name of the son of Euxenus and Aristoxene. "
[37. ] G And did not Themistocles, as Idomeneus relates, harness a chariot full of courtesans and drive with them into the city when the market was full? And the courtesans were Lamia and Scione and Satyra and Nanni? n. And was not Themistocles himself the son of a courtesan, whose name was Abroton? n? as Amphicrates relates in his treatise on Illustrious Men-
Abroton? n was but a Thracian woman,
But for the weal of Greece
She was the mother of the great Themistocles.
But Neanthes of Cyzicus, in his third and fourth books of his History of Greek Affairs, says that he was the son of Euterpe.
And when Cyrus the younger was making his expedition against his brother, did he not carry with him a courtesan of Phocaea, who was a very clever and very beautiful woman? and Zenophanes says that her name was originally Milto, but that it was afterwards changed to Aspasia. And a Milesian concubine also accompanied him. And did not the great Alexander keep Thais about him, who was an Athenian courtesan? And Cleitarchus speaks of her as having been the cause that the palace of Persepolis was burnt down. And this Thais, after the death of Alexander, married Ptolemy, who became the first king of Egypt, and she bore him sons, Leontiscus and Lagus, and a daughter named Eirene, who was married to Eunostus, the king of Soli, a town of Cyprus. And the second king of Egypt, Ptolemy Philadelphus by name, as Ptolemy Euergetes relates in the third book of his Commentaries, had a great many mistresses,- namely, Didyme, who was a native of the country, and very beautiful; and Bilistiche; and, besides them, Agathocleia, and Stratonice, who had a great monument on the sea-shore, near Eleusis; and Myrti? n, and a great many more; as he was a man excessively addicted to amatory pleasures. # And Polybius, in the fourteenth book of his History [ 14. 11 ], says that there are a great many statues of a woman named Cleino, who was his cup-bearer, in Alexandria, clothed in a tunic only, and holding a cornucopia in her hand. "And are not," says he, "the finest houses called by the names of Myrti? n, and Mnesis, and Potheine? and yet Mnesis was only a female flute-player, and so was Potheine, and Myrti? n was one of the most notorious and common prostitutes in the city. "
[577] # Was there not also Agathocleia the courtesan, who had great power over king Ptolemy Philopator? in fact, was it not she who was the ruin of his whole kingdom? And Eumachus of Neapolis, in the second book of his History of Hannibal, says that Hieronymus, the tyrant of Syracuse, fell in love with one of the common prostitutes who followed her trade in a brothel, whose name was Peitho, and married her, and made her queen of Syracuse.
[38. ] G And Timotheus, who was general of the Athenians, with a very high reputation, was the son of a courtesan, a Thracian by birth, but, except that she was a courtesan, of very excellent character; for when women of this class do behave modestly, they are superior to those who give themselves airs on account of their virtue. But Timotheus being on one occasion reproached as being the son of a mother of that character, said,- "But I am much obliged to her, because it is owing to her that I am the son of Conon. " And Carystius, in his Historical Commentaries, says that Philetaerus the king of Pergamum, and of all that country which is now called the New Province, was the son of a woman named Boa, who was a flute-player and a courtesan, a Paphlagonian by birth. And Aristophon the orator, who in the archonship of Eucleides [ 403 B. C. ] proposed a law, that every one who was not born of a woman who was a citizen should be accounted a bastard, was himself convicted, by Calliades the comic poet, of having children by a courtesan named Choregis, as the same Carystius relates in the third book of his Commentaries.
# Besides all these men, was not Demetrius Poliorcetes evidently in love with Lamia the flute-player, by whom he had a daughter named Phila? And Polemon, in his treatise On the Painted Stoa at Sicyon, says that Lamia was the daughter of Cleanor an Athenian, and that she built the before-mentioned colonnade for the people of Sicyon. Demetrius was also in love with Leaena, and she was also an Athenian courtesan; and with a great many other women besides.
[39. ] G # And Machon the comic poet, in his play entitled the Chriae, speaks thus:-
But as Leaena was by nature formed
To give her lovers most exceeding pleasure,
And was besides much favoured by Demetrius,
They say that Lamia also gratified
The king; and when he praised her grace and quickness,
The woman answered: And besides you can,
If you do wish, subdue a lioness (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ).
Firstly, a form that is worthy of a kingdom.
And in Homer, the old men among the people marvelling at the beauty of Helene, are represented as speaking thus to one another [ Il_3'156 ]:-
They cried, "No wonder the Trojans and Achaeans
Have suffered woes so long for this woman;-
Her countenance is like to an immortal goddess! "
And even Priamus himself is moved at the beauty of the woman, though he is in great distress. And also he admires Agamemnon for his beauty, and uses the following language respecting him [ Il_3'169 ]:-
Say, what Greek is he
Around whose brow such martial graces shine,-
So tall, so awful, and almost divine!
Though some of larger stature tread the green,
None match his grandeur and exalted mien.
And many nations have made the handsomest men their kings on that account. As even to this day that Ethiopian tribe called the Immortals does; as Bion relates in his History of the Affairs of Ethiopia. For, as it would seem, they consider beauty as the especial attribute of kings. And goddesses have contended with one another respecting beauty; and it was on account of his beauty that the gods carried off Ganymedes to be the cupbearer of Zeus [ Homer, Il_20'235 ]:-
The matchless Ganymedes, divinely fair,
Whom Heaven, enamoured, snatched to upper air.
And who are they whom the goddesses have carried off? are they not the handsomest of men? And they cohabit with them; as Dawn does with Cephalus and Cleitus and Tithonus; and Demeter with Iasion; and Aphrodite with Anchises and Adonis. And it was for the sake of beauty also that the greatest of the gods entered through a roof under the form of gold, and became a bull, and often transformed himself into a winged eagle, as he did in the case of Aegina. And Socrates the philosopher, who despised everything, was, for all that, subdued by the beauty of Alcibiades; as also was the venerable Aristotle by the beauty of his pupil [Theodectas] of Phaselis. And do not we too, even in the case of inanimate things, prefer what is the most beautiful? The fashion, too, of Sparta is much praised, I mean that of displaying their maidens naked to their guests; and in the island of Chios it is a beautiful sight to go to the gymnasia and the race-courses, and to see the young men wrestling naked with the maidens, who are also naked.
[21. ] G And Cynulcus said:-
And do you dare to talk in this way, you who are not "rosy-fingered", as Cratinus says, but who have one foot made of cow-dung [ Aristophanes, Frogs_294 ], and carry around the leg of your namesake the poet [Myrtilus]? You spend all your time in wineshops and inns, although Isocrates the orator has said, in his Areopagitic Oration [ 49 ], "But not one of their servants ever would have ventured to eat or drink in a wineshop; for they studied to keep up the dignity of their appearance, and not to behave like buffoons. " And Hypereides, in his oration against Patrocles (if, at least, the speech is a genuine one), says that they forbade a man who had dined at a wineshop from going up to the Areopagus. [22. ] G [567] But you, you sophist, spend your time in wineshops, not with your friends (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ), but with prostitutes (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ), having a lot of female pimps about you, and always carrying about these books of Aristophanes, and Apollodorus, and Ammonius, and Antiphanes, and also of Gorgias the Athenian, who have all written about the prostitutes at Athens. Oh, what a learned man you are! how far are you from imitating Theomander of Cyrene, who, as Theophrastus, in his treatise On Happiness, says, used to go about and profess that he gave lessons in prosperity. You, you teacher of love, are in no respect better than Amasis of Elis, whom Theophrastus, in his treatise On Love, says was extraordinarily addicted to amatory pursuits. And a man will not be much out who calls you a pornographer [? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ], just as they call Aristeides and (? ) Pausias and Nicophanes painters [? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ]. And Polemon mentions them, as painting these subjects exceedingly well, in his treatise On the Pictures at Sicyon. Think, my friends, of the great and varied learning of this grammarian, who does not conceal what he means, but openly quotes the verses of Eubulus, in his Cercopes:-
I came to Corinth; there I ate with pleasure
Some herb called basil [ocim? n], and was ruined by it;
And also, trifling there, I lost my cloak.
And the Corinthian sophist is very fine here, explaining to his pupils that Ocim? n is the name of a harlot. And a great many other plays also, you impudent fellow, derived their names from courtesans. There is the Thalatta of Diocles, the Corianno of Pherecrates, the Anteia of Eunicus or Philyllius, the Thais, and the Phani? n of Menander, the Opora of Alexis, the Clepsydra of Eubulus - and the woman who bore this name, had it because she used to distribute her favours by a water-clock, and to dismiss her visitors when it had run down; as Asclepiades, the son of Areius, relates in his History of Demetrius Phalereus; and he says that her proper name was Metiche.
As Antiphanes says in his Farmer:-
A courtesan is a positive
Calamity and ruin to her keeper;
And yet he is glad to nourish such a pest.
On which account, in the Neaera of Timocles, a man is represented as lamenting his fate, and saying:-
But I, unhappy man, who first loved Phryne
When she was but a gatherer of capers,
And was not quite as rich as now she is,-
I who spent such sums of money upon her,
Am now excluded from her doors.
And in the play entitled Orestautocleides, the same Timocles says:-
And round the wretched man old women sleep,
Nanni? n and Plang? n, Lyca, Phryne too,
Gnathaena, Pythionice, Myrrhine,
Chrysis, Conalis, Hierocleia, and
Lopadi? n also.
And these courtesans are mentioned by Amphis, in his Curis, where he says:-
Wealth truly seems to me to be quite blind,
Since he never ventures near this woman's doors,
But haunts Sinope, Nanni? n, and Lyca,
And others like them, traps of men's existence.
And in their houses sits like one amazed,
And never departs.
[23. ] G [568] And Alexis, in the drama entitled Isostasium, thus describes the equipment of a courtesan, and the artifices which some women use to make themselves up:-
For, first of all, to earn themselves much gain,
And better to plunder all the neighbouring men,
They use a heap of adventitious aids, -
They plot to take in every one. And when,
By subtle artifice, they've made some money,
They enlist fresh girls, and add recruits, who never
Have tried the trade, into their cunning troop.
And drill them so that they are very soon
Different in manners, and in look, and semblance
From all they were before. Suppose one's short -
They put cork soles within the heels of her shoes;
Is any one too tall - she wears a slipper
Of thinnest substance, and, with head bent down
Between the shoulders, walks the public streets,
And so reduces her superfluous height.
Is any one too lean about the flank -
They hoop her with a bustle, so that all
Who see her marvel at her her proportions.
Has any one too prominent a stomach -
They crown it with false breasts, such as perchance
At times you may in comic actors see;
And what is still too prominent, they force
Back, ramming it as if with scaffolding.
Has any one red eyebrows - those they smear
With soot. Has any one a dark complexion -
White-lead will that correct. This girl's too fair -
They rub her well with rich vermillion.
Is she a splendid figure - then her charms
Are shown in naked beauty to the purchaser.
Has she good teeth - then she is forced to laugh,
That all the bystanders may see her mouth,
How beautiful it is; and if she be
But ill-inclined to laugh, then she is kept
Close within doors whole days, and the things
Which butchers use when selling goats' heads,
Such as a stick of myrrh, she's forced to keep
Between her lips, till they have learnt the shape
Of the required grin. And by such arts
They make their charms and persons up for market.
[24. ] G And therefore I advise you, my Thessalian friend with the handsome chairs, to be content to embrace the women in the brothels, and not to spend the inheritance of your children on vanities. For, truly, the lame man gets on best at this sort of work; since your father, the boot-maker, did not lecture you and teach you any great deal, and did not force you to look like leather. Or do you not know those women, as we find them called in the Pannuchis of Eubulus -
Thrifty decoys, who gather in the money,-
Well-trained fillies of Aphrodite, standing
Naked in line, clad in transparent robes
Of thinnest web, like the fair damsels whom
Eridanus waters with his holy stream ;
From whom, with safety and frugality,
You may buy pleasure at a moderate cost.
And in his Nanni? n, (if the play under this name is the work of Eubulus, and not of Philippus):-
For he who secretly goes hunting for
Illicit love, must surely of all men
Most miserable be; and yet he may
See in the light of the sun a willing row
Of naked damsels, standing all arrayed
In robes transparent, like the damsels whom
Eridanus waters with his holy stream,
And buy some pleasure at a trifling rate,
[569] Without pursuing a clandestine love
(There is no heavier calamity),
Just out of wantonness and not for love.
I do bewail the fate of hapless Greece,
Which sent forth such an admiral as Cydias.
Xenarchus also, in his Pentathlum, reproaches those men who live as you do, and who fix their hearts on extravagant courtesans, and on freeborn women, in the following lines:-
It is a terrible, yes a terrible and
Intolerable evil, what the young
Men do throughout this city. And yet
There are most beauteous damsels in the brothels,
Whom any man may see standing all willing
In the full light of day, with open bosoms,
Showing their naked charms, all in a row,
Marshalled in order; and there they may choose
Without the slightest trouble, as they fancy,
Thin, stout, or round, tall, wrinkled, or smooth-faced,
Young, old, or middle-aged, or elderly,
So that they need not clamber up a ladder,
Nor steal through windows out of free men's houses,
Nor smuggle themselves inside bags of chaff.
For these gay girls will ravish you by force,
And drag you in to them; if old, they'll call you
Their dear papa; if young, their darling baby;
And these a man may fearlessly and cheaply
Amuse himself with, morning, noon, or night,
In any way he please. But the other women
He dares not gaze on openly nor look at,
But fearing, trembling, shivering, with his heart,
As they say, in his mouth, he creeps towards them.
How can these men, sea-born immortal Aphrodite,
Press on, even when they have the opportunity,
If any thought of Dracon's laws comes over them.
[25. ] G And Philemon, in his Brothers, relates that Solon at first, on account of the unbridled passions of the young, made a law that women might be brought to be prostituted at brothels; as Nicander of Colophon also states, in the third book of his History of the Affairs of Colophon, saying that he first erected a temple to the Public Aphrodite with the money which was earned by the women who were prostituted at these brothels.
But Philemon speaks on this subject as follows:
But you did well for every man, O Solon;
For they do say you were the first to see
The justice of a public-spirited measure,
The saviour of the state- (and it is fit
For me to utter this avowal, Solon);-
You, seeing that the state was full of men,
Young, and possessed of all the natural appetites,
And wandering in their lusts where they'd no business,
Bought women, and in certain spots did place them,
Common to be, and ready for all comers.
They naked stand: look well at them, my youth,-
Do not deceive yourself; are you not well off?
You're ready, so are they: the door is open-
The price an obol: enter straight- there is
No nonsense here, no cheat or trickery;
But do just what you like, and how you like.
You're off: wish her good-bye; she's no more claim on you.
And Aspasia, the friend of Socrates, imported great numbers of beautiful women, and Greece was entirely filled with her courtesans; as that witty writer Aristophanes relates [ Acharn_524 ], saying that the Peloponnesian war was excited by Pericles, [570] on account of his love for Aspasia, and on account of the girls who had been carried away from her by the Megarians.
For some young men, drunk with the cottabus,
Going to Megara, carry off by stealth
A harlot named Simaetha. Then the citizens
Of Megara, full of grief and indignation,
Stole in return two of Aspasia's girls;
And this was the beginning of the war
Which devastated Greece, for three lewd women.
[26. ] G I therefore, my most learned grammarian, warn you to beware of the courtesans who want a high price, because
You may see other girls who play the flute,
Playing the tunes of Apollo, or of Zeus;
But these play no tune save the tune of the hawk,
as Epicrates says in his Anti-Lais; in which play he also uses the following expressions concerning the celebrated Lais:-
But this fair Lais is both drunk and lazy,
And cares for nothing, save what she may eat
And drink all day. And she, as I do think,
Has the same fate the eagles have; for they,
When they are young, down from the mountains stoop,
Ravage the flocks and eat the timid hares,
Bearing their prey aloft with fearful might.
But when they're old, on temple tops they perch,
Hungry and helpless; and the soothsayers
Turn such a sight into a prodigy.
And so might Lais well be thought an omen;
For when she was a maiden, young and fresh,
She was quite savage with her wondrous riches;
And you might easier get access to
The satrap Pharnabazus. But at present,
Now that she's more advanced in years, and age
Has meddled with her body's round proportions,
'Tis easy both to see her and to scorn her.
Now she runs everywhere to get some drink;
She'll take a stater -aye, or three obols;
She will admit you, young or old; and is
Become so tame, so utterly subdued,
That she will take the money from your hand.
Anaxandrides also, in his Old Man's Madness, mentions Lais, and includes her with many other courtesans in a list which he gives in the following lines:
(A) You know Corinthian Lais?
(B) To be sure;
My countrywoman.
(A) Well, she had a friend,
By name Anteia.
(B) Yes; I knew her well.
(A) Well, in those days Lagisce was in beauty;
Theolyte, too, was wondrous fair to see,
And seemed likely to be fairer still;
And Ocim? n was beautiful as any.
[27. ] G This, then, is the advice I want to give you, my friend Myrtilus; and, as we read in the Huntress of Philetaerus,-
Now you are old, reform those ways of yours;
Know you not that 'tis hardly well to die
In the embraces of a prostitute,
As men do say Phormisius perished ?
Or do you think that delightful which Timocles speaks of in his Marathonian Women ? -
How great the difference whether you pass the night
With a lawful wife or with a prostitute
Bah! Where's the firmness of the flesh, the freshness
Of breath and of complexion? Oh, ye gods!
What appetite it gives one not to find
Everything waiting, but to be constrained
[571] To struggle a little, and from tender hands
To bear soft blows and buffets; that, indeed
Is really pleasure.
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Athenaeus: The Deipnosophists
BOOK 13, Pages 571-589
Translated by C. D. Yonge (1854). A few words and spellings have been changed.
See key to translations for an explanation of the format. The page numbers in the Greek text are shown in red. The chapter numbers in the translation are shown in green.
<< Previous pages (555-571)
[571] And as Cynulcus had still a good deal which he wished to say, and as Ulpianus was preparing to attack him for the sake of Myrtilus, Myrtilus, getting in ahead of him (for he hated the Syrian), said-
But our hopes were not so clean worn out,
As to need aid from bitter enemies;
as Callimachus says. For are not we, O Cynulcus, able to defend ourselves?
How rude you are, and boorish with your jokes!
Your tongue is all on the left side of your mouth;
as Ephippus says in his Philyra. For you seem to me to be one of those men
Who of the Muses learnt but ill-shaped letters,
as some one of the parody writers has it.
[28. ] G I therefore, my friends and messmates, have not, as is said in the Aurae of Metagenes, or in the Mammacythus of Aristagoras,
Told you of female dancers, courtesans
Who once were fair; and now I do not tell you
Of flute-playing girls, just reaching womanhood,
Who not unwillingly, for adequate pay,
Have borne the love of vulgar men;
but I have been speaking of the real companions- that is to say, of those who are able to preserve a friendship free from trickery; whom Cynulcus does not venture to speak ill of, and who of all women are the only ones who have derived their name from friendship, or from that goddess who is named by the Athenians Aphrodite Hetaera: concerning whom Apollodorus the Athenian speaks, in his treatise on the Gods, in the following manner:- And they worship Aphrodite Hetaera, who brings together male and female companions (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? )- that is to say, mistresses. " Accordingly, even to this day, freeborn women and maidens call their associates and friends their ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ; as Sappho does, where she says-
And now with tuneful voice I'll sing
These pleasing songs to my companions (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ).
And in another place she says-
Niobe and Leto were of old
Affectionate companions (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ) to each other.
They also call women who prostitute themselves for money, ? ? ? ? ? ? ? .
And the verb which they use for prostituting oneself for money is ? ? ? ? ? ? ? , not regarding the etymology of the word, but applying a more decent term to the trade; as Menander, in his Deposit, distinguishing the ? ? ? ? ? ? ? from the ? ? ? ? ? ? ? , says-
You've done an act not suited to companions (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ),
But, by Zeus, far more fit for courtesans (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ),
These words, so near the same, do make the sense
Not always easily to be distinguished.
[29. ] G But concerning courtesans, Ephippus, in his Merchandise, speaks as follows:
And then if, when we enter through their doors,
They see that we are out of sorts at all,
They flatter us and soothe us, kiss us gently,
Not pressing hard as though our lips were enemies,
But with soft open kisses like a sparrow;
They sing, and comfort us, and make us cheerful,
And straightway banish all our care and grief,
And make our faces bright again with smiles.
And Eubulus, in his Campylion, introducing a courtesan of modest deportment, says-
How modestly she sat the while at supper!
Not like the rest, who make great balls of leeks,
And stuff their cheeks with them, and loudly crunch
Within their jaws large lumps of greasy meat;
[572] But delicately tasting of each dish,
In mouthfuls small, like a Milesian maiden.
And Antiphanes says in his Hydra -
But he, the man of whom I now was speaking,
Seeing a woman who lived near his house,
A courtesan, did fall at once in love with her;
She was a citizen, without a guardian
Or any near relations, and her manners
Pure, and on virtue's strictest model formed,
A genuine mistress (? ? ? ? ? ? ); for the rest of the crew
Bring into disrepute, by their vile manners,
A name which in itself has nothing wrong.
And Anaxilas, in his Neottis, says-
(A) But if a woman does at all times use
Fair, moderate language, giving her services
Favourable to all who stand in need of her,
She from her prompt companionship (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ) does earn
The title of companion (? ? ? ? ? ? ); and you,
As you say rightly, have not fallen in love
With a vile harlot (? ? ? ? ? ), but with a companion (? ? ? ? ? ? ).
Is she not one of pure and simple manners?
(B) At all events, by Zeus, she's beautiful.
[30. ] G But that systematic debaucher of youths of yours, is such a person as Alexis, or Antiphanes, represents him, in his Sleep:
On this account, that profligate, when supping
With us, will never eat an onion even,
So as not to annoy the object of his love.
And Ephippus has spoken very well of people of that description in his Sappho, where he says-
For when one in the flower of his age
Learns to sneak into other men's abodes,
And shares of meals where he has not contributed,
He must expect some other mode of payment.
And Aeschines the orator has said something of the same kind in his Speech against Timarchus.
[31. ] G But concerning courtesans, Philetaerus, in his Huntress, has the following lines:-
'Tis not for nothing that wherever we go
We find a temple of Hetaera there,
But nowhere one to any wedded wife.
I know, too, that there is a festival called the Hetaerideia, which is celebrated in Magnesia, not owing to the courtesans, but to another cause, which is mentioned by Hegesander in his Commentaries, who writes thus:- "The Magnesians celebrate a festival called Hetaerideia; and they give this account of it: that originally Jason, the son of Aeson, when he had collected the Argonauts, sacrificed to Zeus Hetaereius, and called the festival Hetaerideia. And the Macedonian kings also celebrated the Hetaerideia. " There is also a temple of Aphrodite the Prostitute (? ? ? ? ? ) at Abydus, as Pamphilus asserts:- "For when all the city was oppressed by slavery, the guards in the city, after a sacrifice on one occasion (as Cleanthus relates in his essays on Fables), having got intoxicated, took several courtesans; and one of these women, when she saw that the men were all fast asleep, taking the keys, got over the wall, and brought the news to the citizens of Abydus. And they, on this, immediately came in arms, and slew the guards, and took possession of the walls, and recovered their freedom; and to show their gratitude to the prostitute, they built a temple to Aphrodite the Prostitute. "
And Alexis the Samian, in the second book of his Samian Annals, says- "The Athenian prostitutes who followed Pericles when he laid siege to Samos, having made vast sums of money by their beauty, dedicated a statue of Aphrodite at Samos, which some call Aphrodite among the Reeds, and others Aphrodite in the Marsh. " [573] And Eualces, in his History of the Affairs of Ephesus, says that there is at Ephesus also a temple to Aphrodite the Courtesan (? ? ? ? ? ? ). And Clearchus, in the first book of his treatise on Amatory Matters, says-" Gyges the king of the Lydians was very celebrated, not only on account of his mistress while she was alive, having submitted himself and his whole dominions to her power, but also after she was dead; inasmuch as he assembled all the Lydians in the whole country, and raised that mound which is even now called the tomb of the Lydian Courtesan; building it up to a great height, so that when he was travelling in the country, inside of Mount Tmolus, wherever he was, he could always see the tomb; and it was a conspicuous object to all the inhabitants of Lydia. " And Demosthenes the orator, in his Speech against Neaera (if it is a genuine one, which Apollodorus says it is), says [ 59'122 ]- "Now we have courtesans for the sake of pleasure, but concubines for the sake of daily cohabitation, and wives for the purpose of having children legitimately, and of having a faithful guardian of all our household affairs. "
[32. ] G I will now mention to you, Cynulcus, an Ionian story (spinning it out, as Aeschylus' Agamemnon says,) about courtesans, beginning with the beautiful Corinth, since you have reproached me with having been a schoolmaster in that city. It is an ancient custom at Corinth (as Chamaeleon of Heracleia relates, in his treatise on Pindarus), whenever the city addresses any supplication to Aphrodite about any important matter, to employ as many courtesans as possible to join in the supplication; and they, too, pray to the goddess, and afterwards they are present at the sacrifices. And when the king of Persia was leading his army against Greece (as Theopompus also relates, and so does Timaeus, in his seventh book), the Corinthian courtesans offered prayers for the safety of Greece, going to the temple of Aphrodite. On which account, after the Corinthians had consecrated a picture to the goddess (which remains even to this day), and as in this picture they had painted the portraits of the courtesans who made this supplication at the time, and who were present afterwards, Simonides composed this epigram:-
These damsels, on behalf of Greece, and all
Their gallant countrymen, stood nobly forth,
Praying to Aphrodite, all-powerful goddess;
Nor was the queen of beauty willing ever
To leave the citadel of Greece to fall
Beneath the arrows of the unwarlike Persians.
And even private individuals sometimes vow to Aphrodite, that if they succeed in the objects for which they are offering their vows, they will bring her a stated number of courtesans.
[33. ] G As this custom, then, exists with reference to this goddess, Xenophon the Corinthian, when going to Olympia to the games, vowed that he, if he were victorious, would bring her some courtesans. And Pindarus at first wrote a panegyric on him, which begins thus [ Olymp. 13 ]:-
Praising the house which in the Olympic games
Has thrice borne off the victory.
But afterwards he composed a scolium on him, which was sung at the sacrificial feasts; at the start of which he turns at once to the courtesans who joined in the sacrifice to Aphrodite, in the presence of Xenophon, while he was sacrificing to the goddess himself ; on which account he says:-
O queen of Cyprus' isle,
Come to this grove !
[574] Lo, Xenophon, succeeding in his aim,
Brings you a band of willing maidens,
Dancing on a hundred feet.
And the opening lines of the song were these:-
O hospitable damsels, fairest train
Of soft Persuasion,-
Ornament of the wealthy Corinth,
Bearing in willing hands the golden drops
That from the frankincense distil, and flying
To the fair mother of the Loves,
Who dwells up in the sky,
Lovely Aphrodite,- you do bring to us
Comfort and hope in danger, that we may
Hereafter, in the delicate beds of Love,
Heap the long-wished-for fruits of joy,
Lovely and necessary to all mortal men.
And after having begun in this manner, he proceeds to say:-
But now I marvel, and wait anxiously
To see what will my masters say of me,
Who thus begin
My scolium with this amatory preface,
Willing companion of these willing damsels.
And it is plain here that the poet, while addressing the courtesans in this way, was in some doubt as to the light in which it would appear to the Corinthians; but, trusting to his own genius, he proceeds with the following verse:-
We teach pure gold on a well-tried lyre.
And Alexis, in his Loving Woman, tells us that the courtesans at Corinth celebrate a festival of their own, called Aphrodisia; where he says -
The city at the time was celebrating
The Aphrodisia of the courtesans;
This is a different festival from that
At which the free women are present: and then
It is the custom on those days that all
The courtesans should feast with us in common.
[34. ] G But at Lacedaemon (as Polemon Periegetes says, in his treatise on the Offerings at Lacedaemon,) there is a statue of a very celebrated courtesan, named Cottina, who, he tells us, consecrated a brazen cow; and Polemon's words are these:- "And the statue of Cottina the courtesan, on account of whose celebrity there is still a brothel which is called by her name, near the hill on which the temple of Dionysus stands, is a conspicuous object, well known to many of the citizens. And her votive offering is beyond the statue of Athene Chalcioecus - a brazen cow, and also the before-mentioned image. "
And the handsome Alcibiades, of whom one of the comic poets said:-
And then the delicate Alcibiades,
O earth and all the gods! whom Lacedaemon
Desires to catch in his adulteries,
though he was beloved by the wife of Agis, used to go and hold his revels at the doors of the courtesans, leaving all the Lacedaemonian and Athenian women. He also fell in love with Medontis of Abydus, from the mere report of her beauty; and sailing to the Hellespont with Axiochus, who was a lover of his on account of his beauty (as Lysias the orator states in his speech against him), he allowed Axiochus to share her with him. Moreover, Alcibiades used always to carry about two other courtesans with him in all his expeditions, namely, Damasandra, the mother of the younger Lais, and Theodote; who, after he was dead, buried him in Melissa, a village of Phrygia, after he had been overwhelmed by the treachery of Pharnabazus. And we ourselves saw the tomb of Alcibiades at Melissa, when we went from Synnada to Metropolis; and at that tomb there is sacrificed an ox every year, by the command of that most excellent emperor Hadrianus, who also erected on the tomb a statue of Alcibiades in Parian marble.
[35. ] G [575] And we must not wonder at people having on some occasions fallen in love with others from the mere report of their beauty, when Chares of Mytilene, in the tenth book of his History of Alexander, says that some people have even seen in dreams those whom they have never beheld before, and fallen in love with them in this way. And he writes as follows:- "Hystaspes had a younger brother whose name was Zariadres; and they were both men of great personal beauty. And the story told concerning them by the natives of the country is, that they were the offspring of Aphrodite and Adonis. Now Hystaspes was ruler of Media, and of the lower country adjoining it; and Zariadres was ruler of the country above the Caspian gates as far as the river Tanais. Now the daughter of Omartes, the king of the Marathi, a tribe dwelling on the other side of the Tanais, was named Odatis. And concerning her it is written in the Histories, that she in her sleep beheld Zariadres, and fell in love with him; and that the very same thing happened to him with respect to her. And so for a long time they were in love with one another, simply on account of the visions which they had seen in their dreams. And Odatis was the most beautiful of all the women in Asia; and Zariadres also was very handsome. Accordingly, when Zariadres sent to Omartes and expressed a desire to marry the girl, Omartes would not agree to it, because he did not have any male offspring; for he wished to give her to one of his own people about his court.
"Not long afterwards, Omartes, having assembled all the chief men of his kingdom and all his friends and relations, held a marriage feast. But he had not said beforehand to whom he was going to give his daughter. And as the wine went round, her father summoned Odatis to the banquet, and said, in the hearing of all the guests,- 'We, my daughter Odatis, are now celebrating your marriage feast; so now do you look around, and survey all those who are present, and then take a golden goblet and fill it, and give it to the man to whom you like to be married; for you shall be called his wife. ' And she, having looked round upon them all, went away weeping, being anxious to see Zariadres, for she had sent him word that her marriage feast was about to be celebrated. But he, being encamped on the Tanais, and leaving the army encamped there without being perceived, crossed the river with his charioteer alone ; and going by night in his chariot, passed through the city, having gone about eight hundred stades without stopping. And when he got near the town in which the marriage festival was being celebrated, and leaving, in some place near, his chariot with the charioteer, he went forward by himself, clad in a Scythian robe. And when he arrived at the palace, and seeing Odatis standing in front of the sideboard in tears, while she filled the goblet very slowly, he stood near her and said, 'Odatis, here I have come, as you requested me to, - I, Zariadres. ' And she, perceiving a stranger, and a handsome man, and that he resembled the man whom she had beheld in her sleep, being exceedingly glad, gave him the bowl. And he, seizing on her, led her away to his chariot, and fled away, having Odatis with him. And the servants and the handmaidens, knowing their love, said not a word. And when her father ordered them to summon her, they said that they did not know which way she had gone.
"And the story of this love is often told by the barbarians who dwell in Asia, and is exceedingly admired; and they have painted representations of the story in their temples and palaces, and also in their private houses. And a great many of the princes in those countries give their daughters the name of Odatis. "
[36. ] G [576] Aristotle also, in his Constitution of the Massilians, mentions a similar circumstance as having taken place, writing as follows:- "The Phocaeans in Ionia, having consulted the oracle, founded Massilia. And Euxenus the Phocaean was connected by ties of hospitality with Nanus; this was the name of the king of that country. This Nanus was celebrating the marriage feast of his daughter, and invited Euxenus, who happened to be in the neighbourhood, to the feast. And the marriage was to be conducted in the following manner: after the supper was over the girl was to come in, and to give a goblet full of wine properly mixed to whichever of the suitors who were present she chose; and to whomsoever she gave it, he was to be her bridegroom. And when the girl came in, whether it was by chance or whether it was for any other reason, she gave the goblet to Euxenus. And the name of the maiden was Petta. And when the cup had been given in this way, and her father (thinking that she had been directed by the Deity in her giving of it) had consented that Euxenus should have her, he took her for his wife, and cohabited with her, changing her name to Aristoxene. And the family which is descended from that girl remains in Massilia to this day, and is known as the Protiadae; for Protis was the name of the son of Euxenus and Aristoxene. "
[37. ] G And did not Themistocles, as Idomeneus relates, harness a chariot full of courtesans and drive with them into the city when the market was full? And the courtesans were Lamia and Scione and Satyra and Nanni? n. And was not Themistocles himself the son of a courtesan, whose name was Abroton? n? as Amphicrates relates in his treatise on Illustrious Men-
Abroton? n was but a Thracian woman,
But for the weal of Greece
She was the mother of the great Themistocles.
But Neanthes of Cyzicus, in his third and fourth books of his History of Greek Affairs, says that he was the son of Euterpe.
And when Cyrus the younger was making his expedition against his brother, did he not carry with him a courtesan of Phocaea, who was a very clever and very beautiful woman? and Zenophanes says that her name was originally Milto, but that it was afterwards changed to Aspasia. And a Milesian concubine also accompanied him. And did not the great Alexander keep Thais about him, who was an Athenian courtesan? And Cleitarchus speaks of her as having been the cause that the palace of Persepolis was burnt down. And this Thais, after the death of Alexander, married Ptolemy, who became the first king of Egypt, and she bore him sons, Leontiscus and Lagus, and a daughter named Eirene, who was married to Eunostus, the king of Soli, a town of Cyprus. And the second king of Egypt, Ptolemy Philadelphus by name, as Ptolemy Euergetes relates in the third book of his Commentaries, had a great many mistresses,- namely, Didyme, who was a native of the country, and very beautiful; and Bilistiche; and, besides them, Agathocleia, and Stratonice, who had a great monument on the sea-shore, near Eleusis; and Myrti? n, and a great many more; as he was a man excessively addicted to amatory pleasures. # And Polybius, in the fourteenth book of his History [ 14. 11 ], says that there are a great many statues of a woman named Cleino, who was his cup-bearer, in Alexandria, clothed in a tunic only, and holding a cornucopia in her hand. "And are not," says he, "the finest houses called by the names of Myrti? n, and Mnesis, and Potheine? and yet Mnesis was only a female flute-player, and so was Potheine, and Myrti? n was one of the most notorious and common prostitutes in the city. "
[577] # Was there not also Agathocleia the courtesan, who had great power over king Ptolemy Philopator? in fact, was it not she who was the ruin of his whole kingdom? And Eumachus of Neapolis, in the second book of his History of Hannibal, says that Hieronymus, the tyrant of Syracuse, fell in love with one of the common prostitutes who followed her trade in a brothel, whose name was Peitho, and married her, and made her queen of Syracuse.
[38. ] G And Timotheus, who was general of the Athenians, with a very high reputation, was the son of a courtesan, a Thracian by birth, but, except that she was a courtesan, of very excellent character; for when women of this class do behave modestly, they are superior to those who give themselves airs on account of their virtue. But Timotheus being on one occasion reproached as being the son of a mother of that character, said,- "But I am much obliged to her, because it is owing to her that I am the son of Conon. " And Carystius, in his Historical Commentaries, says that Philetaerus the king of Pergamum, and of all that country which is now called the New Province, was the son of a woman named Boa, who was a flute-player and a courtesan, a Paphlagonian by birth. And Aristophon the orator, who in the archonship of Eucleides [ 403 B. C. ] proposed a law, that every one who was not born of a woman who was a citizen should be accounted a bastard, was himself convicted, by Calliades the comic poet, of having children by a courtesan named Choregis, as the same Carystius relates in the third book of his Commentaries.
# Besides all these men, was not Demetrius Poliorcetes evidently in love with Lamia the flute-player, by whom he had a daughter named Phila? And Polemon, in his treatise On the Painted Stoa at Sicyon, says that Lamia was the daughter of Cleanor an Athenian, and that she built the before-mentioned colonnade for the people of Sicyon. Demetrius was also in love with Leaena, and she was also an Athenian courtesan; and with a great many other women besides.
[39. ] G # And Machon the comic poet, in his play entitled the Chriae, speaks thus:-
But as Leaena was by nature formed
To give her lovers most exceeding pleasure,
And was besides much favoured by Demetrius,
They say that Lamia also gratified
The king; and when he praised her grace and quickness,
The woman answered: And besides you can,
If you do wish, subdue a lioness (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ).
