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Neaira (hetaera)
Encyclopedia
Neaira, or Neaera, (Νέαιρα ) was a hetaera
who lived in the 4th century BC in ancient Greece
; there is no reliable data about the exact dates of her birth and death. She was brought to trial in the mid-fourth century, and the prosecution speech from that trial (Demosthenes
59 Against Neaira) provides a great deal of information about the life of Neaira and the sex trade in the ancient Greek city-state
s (poleis
). More is known today about Neaira than any other prostitute of antiquity
.
. Around 390 BC she was purchased by Nikarete
, a madam
from Corinth
. Nikarete operated a "better" establishment in Corinth, a city famous in antiquity for its flourishing prostitution
trade. From the name Corinth comes the ancient Greek verb
korinthiazein, which means "to fornicate".
Nikarete called Neaira and the other prostitutes who worked for her her "daughters" and provided for their training as prostitutes. Through this "parental" relationship Nikarete sought to increase the price her customers had to pay: it was usual for free women to demand higher prices for their services.
Several girls of different ages lived in the brothel besides Neaira: Metaneira
, Anteia, Stratola, Aristokleia, Phila, and Isthnias. They were probably all very prominent in their time. Several dramas were dedicated to Anteia at the time, and the poet Philetairos mentions three of Nikaretes's girls (Neaira, Phila, and Isthmias) in his work The Huntress. Customers belonged to the upper class, for the most part. Sometimes they came from beyond Corinth - the city owed its status as a commercial center to its location on an isthmus
. Notable customers included politicians, athletes, philosophers, and well-known poets, among them the poet Xenokeides and the actor Hipparchos.
The orator Lysias
was a prominent guest in Nikarete's brothel and a regular customer of Metaneira. To show his appreciation to Nikarete and his mistress, Lysias paid for a trip to Eleusis in the mid-380s, where they were initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries
at his expense. Lysias and Metaneira were accompanied not only by Nikarete, but also by Neaira. It was probably Neaira's first stay in Athens
.
In 378 BC, Neaira again went to the city, this time to the Panathenaic Games
, where she was in the company of her madam and regular customer Simos of Thessaly. Simos belonged to the important Aleuadei family of Thessaly
and would have been very famous in middle 4th-century BC, but nothing more of his status or the journey can really be said.
As the relationships of Metaneira to Lysias and Neaira to Simos show, the relationships of Nikaretes's hetaerai did not have to be only for quick pleasure, but could become long-term relationships. Nevertheless, one cannot rank them among the highest class of prostitutes, since, as slaves, they did not have any freedom of choice regarding their customers.
purchased Neaira in 376 BC on a journey to Athens
. They were probably both regular customers of Neaira, and found that it would be cheaper in the long term to buy Neaira outright, even if it should cost a large amount.
Nikarete demanded no less than 3,000 drachma
(five to ten times the price of a skilled craftsman slave, and five to six times the annual income of a laborer). Although both were stretched to their financial limits, the transaction was completed. Neaira now had two owners who could deal with her as they pleased. This practice was far from unusual and is cited in several sources of antiquity.
After about one or two years, one of the two (or both) wanted to marry. It was expensive to maintain a hetaera, so a solution had to be found. The three came to an agreement that Neaira could buy her freedom for 2,000 drachma, if she left Corinth forever. With the help of former customers, and above all a man named Phrynion, she raised the money and bought her freedom. She went with Phrynion to his hometown of Athens, where the couple lived together for some time.
Phrynion was a playboy and regularly included Neaira in his debauchery, as Apollodoros
describes. He is even said to have had sex with Neaira in public, which in ancient Greece and even open-minded circles was not the done thing. A banquet with the Athenian general Chabrias
in the late summer of 374 B.C., which celebrated his victory in the Pythian Games
, is described in great detail. During the celebration Neaira was said to have drunk herself into unconsciousness, so that in her drunken condition many of the guests and even slaves had sex with her.
, which shifted the balance of power in Greece to Thebes
over Sparta
, the Athenian Stephanos came to Megara and remained as a houseguest of Neaira's. The two started an affair and apparently fell in love with one another. It is also possible that Neaira wasn't in love, but preferred the security of Stephanos to her otherwise uncertain and unsteady life. Since the Battle of Leuctra the situation in Megara hadn't improved, so she went with Stephanos back to Athens. It is believed that Stephanos also acted as a guardian against Phrynion.
It is interesting to note that only now, when leaving Megara for Athens, does Apollodoros mention that Neaira took three children with her: two sons, Proxenos and Ariston, as well as a daughter named Strybele, who was called Phano later in life. Apollodoros states further that Phano also became a hetaera. Allegedly, Neaira had to provide for Stephanos after moving to Athens as a hetaera. However these statements aren't very reliable, and Apollodoros doesn't offer proof for them.
Next there was the problem of Phrynion. When he realized Neaira was in Athens, he tried to drag her away from Stephanos's house with the help of several of his friends. Such an action meant that he wanted to make his right and power clear as a master of a slave. Afterwards, Stephanos brought a suit against Phrynion, which was answered by a counter-suit. Thus the status of Neaira was to be clarified in court.
Ultimately, however, the case never came to court. Both sides agree to have the case decided by private arbitration. The result was, as in many such conciliation procedures, a compromise with which both Phrynion and Stephanos could live; Neaira had no choice in the matter anyway. It was stated that she wasn't a slave but a freedman
. She had to return everything besides clothes, accessories, and self-purchased slaves that she had taken from Phrynion's house. In addition, she would remain in the sexual domain of both men. In each case, the man with whom she lived would be responsible for her living costs. How long this agreement was honored is unclear, because Phrynion isn't mentioned again in our sources.
What followed was a complicated matter. Because Phrastor wouldn't pay back Phano's 3,000-drachma dowry, Stephanos sued him. Phrastor filed a counter-suit, in which he accused Stephanos of having given him in marriage a non-Athenian wife. Since the Athenian jurisdiction fell to the hands of layman judges (heliastes), the chance of rhetoric
causing a miscarriage of justice always existed. This circumstance allowed Stephanos to withdraw his complaint, which Phrastor was glad for. There was more than just 3,000 drachma on the line for Stephanos; his citizen and civil rights were at risk, wherein Phano could have been denied her status as a citizen.
Shortly after this episode, Phrastor became seriously ill. Phano and Neaira maintained their relationship despite everything, but probably not without ulterior motive. While sick, Phrastor recognized Phano's son as their legitimate child and legal heir.
In the mid- or late-350 BCs Stephanos brought another affair before the court. He surprised a guest of the family - Epainetos of Andros
, an alleged former client of Neaira's - while he was having sex with Phano. As the head and protector of those within the household, Stephanos had the right to punish Epainetos, even so far as to kill him. But he demanded only 3,000 drachmas in damages, and Epainetos was shrewd enough to deal for two conditions.
As soon as he was free, Epainetos sued Stephanos for allegedly unjustified capture. In addition, he would be cleared as a moichós (a marriage crusher, or sexual criminal). He maintained that Phano was a prostitute and that Stephanos's house was a brothel (and therefore that he was not chargeable as a moichos). All of these statements were pretty weak, since Epainetos could hardly have found witnesses to stand before the court and discredit Phano. Nevertheless, the jury possibly would have assumed that a girl in the house of the notorious Neaira must also be a hetaera.
Once again, Stephanos relinquished his right and thus the 3,000 drachma. If he had exercised his right and landed the affair before a court, where Phano's promiscuity could not be concealed - the chances of a second, respectable marriage for the young woman would have sunk considerably. In a conciliation procedure Stephanos was nevertheless awarded an amount of 1,000 drachmas. Phano was briefly in a prestigious marriage a second time, but it did not go well.
Between 343 and 340 BC, Theomnestes produced a civil complaint (xenías graphs) on behalf of Apollodoros against Neaira, which involved Stephanos. According to these accusations, Neaira was unjustly married to Stephanos, and their children had become Athenian citizens illegally. Apollodoros brought the prosecution, trying to prove Neaira a total fraud. From the beginning it was openly stated that this really only concerned revenge against Stephanos. Complaints against third, indifferent parties such as Neaira were considered legitimate.
Apollodoros laid out Neaira's life history in detail and emphasized its alleged depravity. Accordingly, he only half-heartedly tried to prove that all of Stephanos's children were actually Neaira's alone rather than Stephanos's by another woman. Stephanos, Apollodoros claimed, had violated the law which forbade marriage to a non-Athenian woman.
Today only the prosecution's speech and not the result of the trial are known. Available sources report nothing of the final fate of the most important participants. Athenian culture did not permit Neaira to speak in court, even though her defeat would probably have resulted in renewed slavery. Besides that, the legal status of the children would have become uncertain.
, Thaïs
, or Phryne
. The indictment of Neaira offers a key source to historians about Athenian social history and the history of women in Greece. Traditionally Apollodoros' speech against Neaira has been attributed to Demosthenes
: the speech appears in the Demosthenic corpus as speech 59 Against Neaira, although Apollodoros is now accepted as the true author of the speech.
The true nature of the hetaera can't be totally reconstructed from these sources; Neaira served several parties' interests during the trial and placed herself in the background. None of the authors - at the very least Apollodoros - are seriously interested in characterizing a woman of ill repute; and then only when something of note happens that will support the accusation, not for the purpose of objective representation.
In the last few years, the trial and life of Neaira have become frequent topics of scrutiny. Debra Hamel
wrote a monograph in 2003 to this extent. It and the trial were translated into German by Kai Brodersen. There is also an excellent commentary on the speech by K.A. Kapparis. Likenesses and later representations of Neaira have not survived.
Hetaera
In ancient Greece, hetaerae were courtesans, that is to say, highly educated, sophisticated companions...
who lived in the 4th century BC in ancient Greece
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
; there is no reliable data about the exact dates of her birth and death. She was brought to trial in the mid-fourth century, and the prosecution speech from that trial (Demosthenes
Demosthenes
Demosthenes was a prominent Greek statesman and orator of ancient Athens. His orations constitute a significant expression of contemporary Athenian intellectual prowess and provide an insight into the politics and culture of ancient Greece during the 4th century BC. Demosthenes learned rhetoric by...
59 Against Neaira) provides a great deal of information about the life of Neaira and the sex trade in the ancient Greek city-state
City-state
A city-state is an independent or autonomous entity whose territory consists of a city which is not administered as a part of another local government.-Historical city-states:...
s (poleis
Polis
Polis , plural poleis , literally means city in Greek. It could also mean citizenship and body of citizens. In modern historiography "polis" is normally used to indicate the ancient Greek city-states, like Classical Athens and its contemporaries, so polis is often translated as "city-state."The...
). More is known today about Neaira than any other prostitute of antiquity
Classical antiquity
Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...
.
Early years
Neaira was probably born around the year 400 B.C. Her heredity is uncertain; perhaps she was an abandoned child or from an outlying area of Greece, such as ThraceThrace
Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east...
. Around 390 BC she was purchased by Nikarete
Nikarete of Corinth
Nikarete was a madam from Corinth, who lived in the 5th and 4th centuries BC. Nikarete operated a "bettering" establishment in Corinth, a city famous in antiquity for its prostitution trade. From Corinth and Greek literature comes the verb korinthiazein, which loosely translated means "to fornicate"...
, a madam
Madam
Madam, or madame, is a polite title used for women which, in English, is the equivalent of Mrs. or Ms., and is often found abbreviated as "ma'am", and less frequently as "ma'm". It is derived from the French madame, which means "my lady", the feminine form of lord; the plural of ma dame in this...
from Corinth
Corinth
Corinth is a city and former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Corinth, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit...
. Nikarete operated a "better" establishment in Corinth, a city famous in antiquity for its flourishing prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
trade. From the name Corinth comes the ancient Greek verb
Verb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
korinthiazein, which means "to fornicate".
Nikarete called Neaira and the other prostitutes who worked for her her "daughters" and provided for their training as prostitutes. Through this "parental" relationship Nikarete sought to increase the price her customers had to pay: it was usual for free women to demand higher prices for their services.
Several girls of different ages lived in the brothel besides Neaira: Metaneira
Metaneira (hetaera)
Metaneira was an active hetaera in the Corinth and Athens of ancient Greece. She was known for her beauty and shrewdness. As a child, she was purchased by Nikarete of Corinth. She was raised as a daughter, and molded into a hetaera. One of her "sisters" was Neaira. Isokrates and Lysias...
, Anteia, Stratola, Aristokleia, Phila, and Isthnias. They were probably all very prominent in their time. Several dramas were dedicated to Anteia at the time, and the poet Philetairos mentions three of Nikaretes's girls (Neaira, Phila, and Isthmias) in his work The Huntress. Customers belonged to the upper class, for the most part. Sometimes they came from beyond Corinth - the city owed its status as a commercial center to its location on an isthmus
Isthmus of Corinth
The Isthmus of Corinth is the narrow land bridge which connects the Peloponnese peninsula with the rest of the mainland of Greece, near the city of Corinth. The word "isthmus" comes from the Ancient Greek word for "neck" and refers to the narrowness of the land. The Isthmus was known in the ancient...
. Notable customers included politicians, athletes, philosophers, and well-known poets, among them the poet Xenokeides and the actor Hipparchos.
The orator Lysias
Lysias
Lysias was a logographer in Ancient Greece. He was one of the ten Attic orators included in the "Alexandrian Canon" compiled by Aristophanes of Byzantium and Aristarchus of Samothrace in the third century BC.-Life:According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus and the author of the life ascribed to...
was a prominent guest in Nikarete's brothel and a regular customer of Metaneira. To show his appreciation to Nikarete and his mistress, Lysias paid for a trip to Eleusis in the mid-380s, where they were initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries
Eleusinian Mysteries
The Eleusinian Mysteries were initiation ceremonies held every year for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at Eleusis in ancient Greece. Of all the mysteries celebrated in ancient times, these were held to be the ones of greatest importance...
at his expense. Lysias and Metaneira were accompanied not only by Nikarete, but also by Neaira. It was probably Neaira's first stay in Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
.
In 378 BC, Neaira again went to the city, this time to the Panathenaic Games
Panathenaic Games
The Panathenaic Games were held every four years in Athens in Ancient Greece since 566 BC. They continued into the third century AD. These Games incorporated religious festival, ceremony , athletic competitions, and cultural events hosted within a stadium.-Religious festival:The games were part of...
, where she was in the company of her madam and regular customer Simos of Thessaly. Simos belonged to the important Aleuadei family of Thessaly
Thessaly
Thessaly is a traditional geographical region and an administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thessaly was known as Aeolia, and appears thus in Homer's Odyssey....
and would have been very famous in middle 4th-century BC, but nothing more of his status or the journey can really be said.
As the relationships of Metaneira to Lysias and Neaira to Simos show, the relationships of Nikaretes's hetaerai did not have to be only for quick pleasure, but could become long-term relationships. Nevertheless, one cannot rank them among the highest class of prostitutes, since, as slaves, they did not have any freedom of choice regarding their customers.
Between brothel and freedom
The most lucrative years for Nikarete's girls were the years between puberty and their third decade, after which their attractiveness to potential customers began to decline. Therefore it was probably not inconvenient to Nikarete when Timanoridas of Corinth and Eukrates of LefkadaLefkada
Lefkada, or Leucas or Leucadia , is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea on the west coast of Greece, connected to the mainland by a long causeway and floating bridge. The principal town of the island and seat of the municipality is Lefkada . It is situated on the northern part of the island,...
purchased Neaira in 376 BC on a journey to Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
. They were probably both regular customers of Neaira, and found that it would be cheaper in the long term to buy Neaira outright, even if it should cost a large amount.
Nikarete demanded no less than 3,000 drachma
Greek drachma
Drachma, pl. drachmas or drachmae was the currency used in Greece during several periods in its history:...
(five to ten times the price of a skilled craftsman slave, and five to six times the annual income of a laborer). Although both were stretched to their financial limits, the transaction was completed. Neaira now had two owners who could deal with her as they pleased. This practice was far from unusual and is cited in several sources of antiquity.
After about one or two years, one of the two (or both) wanted to marry. It was expensive to maintain a hetaera, so a solution had to be found. The three came to an agreement that Neaira could buy her freedom for 2,000 drachma, if she left Corinth forever. With the help of former customers, and above all a man named Phrynion, she raised the money and bought her freedom. She went with Phrynion to his hometown of Athens, where the couple lived together for some time.
Phrynion was a playboy and regularly included Neaira in his debauchery, as Apollodoros
Apollodorus of Acharnae
Apollodorus of Acharnae in Attica is known from several of Demosthenes' forensic speeches. Apollodorus was the son of the banker Pasion, who died in 370 BCE when Apollodorus was twenty-four. After Pasion's death his widow married Phormion, a freedman of Pasion, and subsequently died in 360 BCE...
describes. He is even said to have had sex with Neaira in public, which in ancient Greece and even open-minded circles was not the done thing. A banquet with the Athenian general Chabrias
Chabrias
Chabrias was a celebrated Athenian general of the 4th century BC. In 388 BC he defeated the Spartans and Aeginetans under Gorgopas at Aegina and commanded the fleet sent to assist Evagoras, king of Cyprus, against the Persians. In 378, when Athens entered into an alliance with Thebes against...
in the late summer of 374 B.C., which celebrated his victory in the Pythian Games
Pythian Games
The Pythian Games were one of the four Panhellenic Games of Ancient Greece, a forerunner of the modern Olympic Games, held every four years at the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi....
, is described in great detail. During the celebration Neaira was said to have drunk herself into unconsciousness, so that in her drunken condition many of the guests and even slaves had sex with her.
Life with Stephanos
After the Battle of LeuctraBattle of Leuctra
The Battle of Leuctra was a battle fought on July 6, 371 BC, between the Boeotians led by Thebans and the Spartans along with their allies amidst the post-Corinthian War conflict. The battle took place in the neighbourhood of Leuctra, a village in Boeotia in the territory of Thespiae...
, which shifted the balance of power in Greece to Thebes
Thebes, Greece
Thebes is a city in Greece, situated to the north of the Cithaeron range, which divides Boeotia from Attica, and on the southern edge of the Boeotian plain. It played an important role in Greek myth, as the site of the stories of Cadmus, Oedipus, Dionysus and others...
over Sparta
Sparta
Sparta or Lacedaemon, was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the banks of the River Eurotas in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. It emerged as a political entity around the 10th century BC, when the invading Dorians subjugated the local, non-Dorian population. From c...
, the Athenian Stephanos came to Megara and remained as a houseguest of Neaira's. The two started an affair and apparently fell in love with one another. It is also possible that Neaira wasn't in love, but preferred the security of Stephanos to her otherwise uncertain and unsteady life. Since the Battle of Leuctra the situation in Megara hadn't improved, so she went with Stephanos back to Athens. It is believed that Stephanos also acted as a guardian against Phrynion.
It is interesting to note that only now, when leaving Megara for Athens, does Apollodoros mention that Neaira took three children with her: two sons, Proxenos and Ariston, as well as a daughter named Strybele, who was called Phano later in life. Apollodoros states further that Phano also became a hetaera. Allegedly, Neaira had to provide for Stephanos after moving to Athens as a hetaera. However these statements aren't very reliable, and Apollodoros doesn't offer proof for them.
Next there was the problem of Phrynion. When he realized Neaira was in Athens, he tried to drag her away from Stephanos's house with the help of several of his friends. Such an action meant that he wanted to make his right and power clear as a master of a slave. Afterwards, Stephanos brought a suit against Phrynion, which was answered by a counter-suit. Thus the status of Neaira was to be clarified in court.
Ultimately, however, the case never came to court. Both sides agree to have the case decided by private arbitration. The result was, as in many such conciliation procedures, a compromise with which both Phrynion and Stephanos could live; Neaira had no choice in the matter anyway. It was stated that she wasn't a slave but a freedman
Freedman
A freedman is a former slave who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, slaves became freedmen either by manumission or emancipation ....
. She had to return everything besides clothes, accessories, and self-purchased slaves that she had taken from Phrynion's house. In addition, she would remain in the sexual domain of both men. In each case, the man with whom she lived would be responsible for her living costs. How long this agreement was honored is unclear, because Phrynion isn't mentioned again in our sources.
Events surrounding Phano
As Apollodoros would later state, Phano was Neaira's daughter by blood. More than ten years after the aforementioned events, Phano would marry for the first time. Her husband was an Athenian named Phrastor. The marriage didn't go well, and they divorced after about a year, when Phano was pregnant. Phrastor indicated that the reason for the divorce came when he discovered that Phano wasn't the daughter of Stephanos and his first wife, but of Neaira. This posed a problem because marriages between Athenians and non-Athenians weren't permitted. Another possible factor is that Phano may not have deferred to him as much as he believed he deserved, and may not have embodied the ideal Athenian housewife in her husband's mind.What followed was a complicated matter. Because Phrastor wouldn't pay back Phano's 3,000-drachma dowry, Stephanos sued him. Phrastor filed a counter-suit, in which he accused Stephanos of having given him in marriage a non-Athenian wife. Since the Athenian jurisdiction fell to the hands of layman judges (heliastes), the chance of rhetoric
Rhetoric
Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...
causing a miscarriage of justice always existed. This circumstance allowed Stephanos to withdraw his complaint, which Phrastor was glad for. There was more than just 3,000 drachma on the line for Stephanos; his citizen and civil rights were at risk, wherein Phano could have been denied her status as a citizen.
Shortly after this episode, Phrastor became seriously ill. Phano and Neaira maintained their relationship despite everything, but probably not without ulterior motive. While sick, Phrastor recognized Phano's son as their legitimate child and legal heir.
In the mid- or late-350 BCs Stephanos brought another affair before the court. He surprised a guest of the family - Epainetos of Andros
Andros
Andros, or Andro is the northernmost island of the Greek Cyclades archipelago, approximately south east of Euboea, and about north of Tinos. It is nearly long, and its greatest breadth is . Its surface is for the most part mountainous, with many fruitful and well-watered valleys. The area is...
, an alleged former client of Neaira's - while he was having sex with Phano. As the head and protector of those within the household, Stephanos had the right to punish Epainetos, even so far as to kill him. But he demanded only 3,000 drachmas in damages, and Epainetos was shrewd enough to deal for two conditions.
As soon as he was free, Epainetos sued Stephanos for allegedly unjustified capture. In addition, he would be cleared as a moichós (a marriage crusher, or sexual criminal). He maintained that Phano was a prostitute and that Stephanos's house was a brothel (and therefore that he was not chargeable as a moichos). All of these statements were pretty weak, since Epainetos could hardly have found witnesses to stand before the court and discredit Phano. Nevertheless, the jury possibly would have assumed that a girl in the house of the notorious Neaira must also be a hetaera.
Once again, Stephanos relinquished his right and thus the 3,000 drachma. If he had exercised his right and landed the affair before a court, where Phano's promiscuity could not be concealed - the chances of a second, respectable marriage for the young woman would have sunk considerably. In a conciliation procedure Stephanos was nevertheless awarded an amount of 1,000 drachmas. Phano was briefly in a prestigious marriage a second time, but it did not go well.
The trials
Stephanos dealt with more than just marital problems: he was a politically active man and often involved himself in such proceedings. The previously mentioned Apollodoros, one of the richest Athenians of this time, developed into one of Stephanos's greatest rivals. Stephanos had faced Apollodoros several times in court, and had dealt him some painful defeats.Between 343 and 340 BC, Theomnestes produced a civil complaint (xenías graphs) on behalf of Apollodoros against Neaira, which involved Stephanos. According to these accusations, Neaira was unjustly married to Stephanos, and their children had become Athenian citizens illegally. Apollodoros brought the prosecution, trying to prove Neaira a total fraud. From the beginning it was openly stated that this really only concerned revenge against Stephanos. Complaints against third, indifferent parties such as Neaira were considered legitimate.
Apollodoros laid out Neaira's life history in detail and emphasized its alleged depravity. Accordingly, he only half-heartedly tried to prove that all of Stephanos's children were actually Neaira's alone rather than Stephanos's by another woman. Stephanos, Apollodoros claimed, had violated the law which forbade marriage to a non-Athenian woman.
Today only the prosecution's speech and not the result of the trial are known. Available sources report nothing of the final fate of the most important participants. Athenian culture did not permit Neaira to speak in court, even though her defeat would probably have resulted in renewed slavery. Besides that, the legal status of the children would have become uncertain.
Conclusion
Although no other prostitute of antiquity is as well documented, Neaira is in our contemporary consciousness less than, for example, LaisLais of Corinth
Lais of Corinth was a famous hetaera or courtesan of ancient Greece who was probably born in Corinth. Another hetaera with the same name was Lais of Hyccara. Since ancient authors in their -usually indirect- accounts often confuse them or do not indicate which they refer to, the two are...
, Thaïs
Thaïs
Thaïs was a famous Greek hetaera who lived during the time of Alexander the Great and accompanied him on his campaigns. She is most famous for instigating the burning of Persepolis. At the time, Thaïs was the lover of Ptolemy I Soter, one of Alexander's generals...
, or Phryne
Phryne
Phryne was a famous hetaera of Ancient Greece .- Early life :Her real name was Mnesarete , but owing to her yellowish complexion she was called Phryne "Toad", a name given to other courtesans. She was born at Thespiae in Boeotia, but seems to have lived at Athens...
. The indictment of Neaira offers a key source to historians about Athenian social history and the history of women in Greece. Traditionally Apollodoros' speech against Neaira has been attributed to Demosthenes
Demosthenes
Demosthenes was a prominent Greek statesman and orator of ancient Athens. His orations constitute a significant expression of contemporary Athenian intellectual prowess and provide an insight into the politics and culture of ancient Greece during the 4th century BC. Demosthenes learned rhetoric by...
: the speech appears in the Demosthenic corpus as speech 59 Against Neaira, although Apollodoros is now accepted as the true author of the speech.
The true nature of the hetaera can't be totally reconstructed from these sources; Neaira served several parties' interests during the trial and placed herself in the background. None of the authors - at the very least Apollodoros - are seriously interested in characterizing a woman of ill repute; and then only when something of note happens that will support the accusation, not for the purpose of objective representation.
In the last few years, the trial and life of Neaira have become frequent topics of scrutiny. Debra Hamel
Debra Hamel
Debra Hamel is an American historian specializing in ancient Greece.Hamel was born in 1964 in New Haven, Connecticut. She graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 1989 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in classics with departmental and general honors. Hamel studied at Yale University and graduated...
wrote a monograph in 2003 to this extent. It and the trial were translated into German by Kai Brodersen. There is also an excellent commentary on the speech by K.A. Kapparis. Likenesses and later representations of Neaira have not survived.
Sources
- Athenaios 13,593f.–594a
- Pseudo-DemosthenesPseudo-DemosthenesPseudo-Demosthenes is the supposed author of a number of speeches handed down to us under the name of Demosthenes. They include speech 46, 49 , 50 , 52 , 53 , 59 and perhaps 47, attributed to Apollodorus of Acharnae, follower of Demosthenes....
or. 59
German translation in: Kai BrodersenKai BrodersenKai Brodersen is a contemporary ancient historian and classicist on the faculty of the University of Erfurt. He has edited, and translated, both ancient works and modern classical studies...
: Antiphon, Gegen die Stiefmutter, and ApollodorosApollodorus of AcharnaeApollodorus of Acharnae in Attica is known from several of Demosthenes' forensic speeches. Apollodorus was the son of the banker Pasion, who died in 370 BCE when Apollodorus was twenty-four. After Pasion's death his widow married Phormion, a freedman of Pasion, and subsequently died in 360 BCE...
: Gegen Neaira (Demosthenes 59). Frauen vor Gericht. Wiss. Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2004 (Texte zur Forschung, 84), ISBN 3-534-17997-8. - James N. Davidson: Courtesans and Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions of Classical Athens. London 1997.
- Debra HamelDebra HamelDebra Hamel is an American historian specializing in ancient Greece.Hamel was born in 1964 in New Haven, Connecticut. She graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 1989 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in classics with departmental and general honors. Hamel studied at Yale University and graduated...
. (2003) Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-10763-3. - Konstantinos A. Kapparis (1999). Apollodoros Against Neaira. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 3-11-016390-X. (Text, English Translation, Commentary)