Prostitution in Ancient Greece
Encyclopedia
Prostitution
was a common aspect of ancient Greece
. In the more important cities
, and particularly the many ports, it employed a significant number of people and represented a notable part of economic activity. It was far from being clandestine; cities did not condemn brothels, but rather only instituted regulations on them.
In Athens
, the legendary lawmaker Solon
is credited with having created state brothels with regulated prices. Prostitution involved both sexes differently; women of all ages and young men were prostitutes, for a predominantly male clientele.
in the 4th century BCE proclaimed in front of an assembly of citizens "we have courtesans for pleasure, concubines to provide for our daily needs, and our spouses to give us legitimate children and to be the faithful guardians of our homes" (Against Neaera, 122). There was clear distinction between these classes.
Simultaneously, extramarital relations with a free woman were severely dealt with. In the case of adultery
, the cuckold had the legal right to kill the offender if caught in the act; the same went for rape
. Adulterers, and by extension prostitutes, were forbidden to marry or take part in public ceremonies. The average age of marriage being 30 for men, the young Athenian had no choice if he wanted to have sexual relations other than to turn to slaves or prostitutes.
The existence of female prostitutes for a female clientele is not well documented. Aristophanes
mentions in Plato
's Symposium
/ hetairistriai in his famous story about love, in which men and women were originally created from cut-off halves of a two-headed, eight-limbed people. For him,
One can suppose that this quote concerns prostitutes for a lesbian
clientele. Lucian
touches on the practice in his Dialogue of Courtesans (V) but it is possible that he is simply alluding to Plato's passage.
—the word comes from pernemi "to sell"—the property of / pornoboskós, or pimp
s, who received a portion of their earnings. This owner could be a citizen, for this activity was considered as a source of income just like any other: one 4th century BCE orator cites two; Theophrastus
in Characters (VI,5) lists pimp next to innkeeper and tax collector as an ordinary profession. The owner could also be a male or female Metic
.
In the classical era of ancient Greece
, pornai were slaves of barbarian origin; starting in the Hellenistic era
the case of young girls abandoned by their citizen fathers can be added. They were considered to be slaves until proven otherwise. Pornai were usually employed in brothels located in "red-light" districts of the period, such as Piraeus
(port
of Athens) or the Kerameikon
in Athens.
As the speaker highlights, the Solonian brothels provide service accessible to all, regardless of income. In the same light, Solon used taxes he levied on brothels to build a temple to Aphrodite
Pandemos (literally "Aphrodite of all the people"). Even if the truth of all of the historical anecdotes is somewhat dubious, it is quite clear that the Athenians considered prostitution to be part of their democracy
.
In regards to price, there are numerous allusions to the price of one obolus for a cheap prostitute; no doubt for basic acts. It is difficult to assess whether this was the actual price or a proverbial amount designating a "good deal".
Independent prostitutes who worked the street were on the next higher level. Besides directly displaying their charms to potential clients they had recourse to publicity; sandals with marked soles have been found which left an imprint that stated / AKOLOUTHI ("Follow me") on the ground. They also used makeup, apparently quite outrageously. Eubulus
, a comic author, offers these courtesans derision:
These prostitutes had various origins: Metic
women who could not find other work, poor widows, and older pornai who had succeeded in buying back their freedom (often on credit). In Athens they had to be registered with the city and pay a tax. Some of them made a decent fortune plying their trade. In the 1st century, at Qift
in Roman Egypt
, passage for prostitutes cost 108 drachma, while other women paid 20.
Their tariffs are difficult to evaluate: they varied significantly. In the 4th century BCE, Theopompus
indicated that prostitutes of the second tier demanded a stater
and in the 1st century BCE, the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus of Gadara
, cited in the Palatine anthology, V 126, mentions a system of subscription of up to five drachma for a dozen visits. In the 2nd century, Lucian
in his Dialogue of the Hetaera has the prostitute Ampelis consider five drachma per visit as a mediocre price (8, 3). In the same text a young virgin can demand a Mina
, that is 100 drachma (7,3), or even two minas if the customer is less than appetizing. A young and pretty prostitute could charge a higher price than her in-decline colleague; even if, as iconography on ceramics demonstrates, a specific market existed for older women. The price would change if the client demanded exclusivity. Intermediate arrangements also existed; a group of friends could purchase exclusivity, with each having part-time rights.
Musicians and dancers working at male banquets can also undoubtedly be placed in this category. Aristotle
, in his Constitution of the Athenians
(L, 2) mentions among the specific directions to the ten city controllers (five from within the city and five from the Piraeus
), the / astynomoi, that "it is they who supervise the flute-girls and harp-girls and lyre-girls to prevent their receiving fees of more than two drachmas" per night. Sexual services were clearly part of the contract, though the price, in spite of the efforts of the astynomoi, tended to increase throughout the period.
e found themselves at the summit of the hierarchy. As opposed to the others they did not restrict themselves to offering sexual services and they did not perform "piecework"; hetaira literally means "companion", grammatically the feminine form of hetairos, a term—analogous to the Latin comes
—denoting a nobleman e.g. in the—essentially military—suite of Alexander the Great. In many ways comparable to Japan
ese geisha
s, they had a meticulous education that enabled them to take part in conversations with cultivated gentlemen. Alone amongst all Greek women, excepting Sparta
ns, they were independent and could manage their own affairs.
Aspasia
, the mistress of Pericles
was the most celebrated woman of the 5th century BCE. Originally from Miletus
she was reduced to the status of Metic in Athens and attracted to herself Sophocles
, Phidias
, Socrates
and his followers. According to Plutarch
in Life of Pericles (XXIV, 1) "what great art or power this woman had, that she managed as she pleased the foremost men of the state, and afforded the philosophers occasion to discuss her in exalted terms and at great length."
We know the names of some of the hetaerae. During the classical period there was Theodota, companion of Alcibiades
, with whom Socrates
spoke in Memories (III, 11, 4); Naeara, the subject of a celebrated discourse of pseudo-Demosthene; Phryne
, the model for Aphrodite of Knidos, the work of Praxiteles
, of whom she was mistress but also companion of the orator Hypereides
, who defended her against a charge of impiety; and Leontium, companion of Epicurus
and herself a philosopher. During the Hellenistic period one can cite Pythionice, the mistress of Harpalus
, (Alexander the Great's treasurer); and Thaïs
, mistress of Alexander himself and Ptolemy I
after him.
Some of these hetaerae were very rich. Xenophon
describes Theodota as being surrounded by slaves, richly dressed and living in a grand house. Some distinguished themselves through their extravagant expenditures; Rhodopis
, the Thracian courtesan emancipated by the brother of the poetess Sappho
, is said to have distinguished herself by having a pyramid
built. Herodotus
does not believe this, but describes a very costly epigraph
erected by her at Delphi
(II, 134–135). The fees of these courtesans varied considerably, but were very much higher than those of the common prostitutes. According to depictions of hetaerae in New Comedy, their prices varied from 20 to 60 Minas
for an undetermined number of days. In Menander
's the Flatterer (v. 128–130), there is mention of a courtesan earning 3 minas per day or more, as much as 10 pornai together. If Aulus Gellius
is to be believed, courtesans of the classical era could earn up to 10,000 drachmas per night (Noctes Atticae, I, 8), .
. The only known cases were at the fringes of the Greek world (in Sicily
, Cyprus
, in the Kingdom of Pontus
and in Cappadocia
), and the city of Corinth
where the temple of Aphrodite
housed a significant number of servants at least since the classical era. In 464 BCE, a man named Xenophon, a citizen of Corinth who was an acclaimed runner and winner of pentathlon at the Olympic Games, dedicated one hundred young girls to the temple of the goddess as a sign of thanksgiving. We know this because of a hymn which Pindar
was commissioned to write (fragment 122 Snell), celebrating "the very welcoming girls, servants of Peïtho and luxurious Corinth". During the Roman period, Strabo
states that the temple had more than a thousand sacred slave-prostitutes (VIII, 6, 20).
was reputed not to have housed any porne. Plutarch
, in his (Life of Lycurgus, IX, 6) explains this is due to the absence of precious metal as money; Sparta used an iron currency which was not accepted anywhere else. Pimps were thus not interested in establishing themselves there. No traces of common prostitution are found in Sparta during the ancient and classical eras. The only contradicting evidence is that of a vase from the 6th century BCE which shows women playing the aulos
flute at a men's banquet. It may be that this is a simple iconographic theme rather than a literal description of Spartan life at that period. The presence of a winged demon, fruits, plants and an altar may also indicate that this could have been a ritual banquet held in honour of a fertility deity such as Artemis Orthia
or Apollo
Hyacinthius.
Sparta did however have hetaera during the classical era. Atheneus recalls the courtesans with whom Alcibiades
spent the night during his exile in Sparta (415–414 BCE). Xenophon
narrating the Conspiracy of Cinadon states that they would use the excuse of arresting "the woman who was said to be the most beautiful woman in Aulon and was thought to be corrupting the Lacedaemonians who came there, older and younger alike." (Hellenica, III, 8). This probably referred to a hetaera.
From at least 3rd century BCE due to the large amount of foreign currency circulating in Laconia
, Sparta began to emulate the rest of the Greek cities. During the Hellenistic period Polemon of Ilion describes in his Offering to Lacedemonia, cited by Atheneus(XIII, 34a), the portrait of the celebrated hetaerea Cottina and the bronze cow she dedicated herself to. He added that he was shown her brothel, as a curiosity, which still stood near the temple of Dionysus
.
, described by numerous authors and preserved at Pompeii
; dark, narrow, and malodorous places. One of the many slang terms for prostitutes was khamaitypếs , literally "one who hits the ground", indicating by this that the sex act took place directly on the ground.
Certain authors have prostitutes talking about themselves: Lucian
in his Dialogue of courtesans or Alciphron
in his collection of letters; but these are works of fiction. The prostitutes of concern here are either independent or hetaera: the sources here do not concern themselves with the situation of slave-prostitutes, except to consider them as a source of profit. It is quite clear what ancient Greek men thought of prostitutes: primarily, they are reproached for the commercial nature of the activity. The greed of prostitutes is a running theme in Greek comedy. The fact that prostitutes were the only Athenian women who handled money likely increased male acrimony. An explanation for their behavior is that a prostitute's career tended to be short, and their income decreased with the passage of time: a young and pretty prostitute, across all levels of the trade, could earn more money than her older, less attractive colleagues. To provide for old age, they thus had to acquire as much money as possible in a limited period of time.
Medical
treatises provide a glimpse—but very partial and incomplete—into the daily life of prostitutes. In order to keep generating revenues, the slave-prostitutes had to avoid pregnancy
at any cost. Contraceptive techniques
used by the Greeks are not as well known as those of the Romans. Nevertheless, in a treatise attributed to Hippocrates
(Of the Seed, 13), he describes in detail the case of a dancer "who had the habit of going with the men"; he recommends that she "jump up and down, touching her buttocks with her heels at each leap" to dislodge the sperm
, and thus avoid risk. It also seems likely that the pornai had recourse to abortion or infanticide. In the case of independent prostitutes the situation is less clear; girls could after all be trained "on the job", succeeding their mothers and supporting them in old age.
Greek pottery
also provides an insight into the daily life of prostitutes. Their representation can generally be grouped into four categories: banquet
scenes, sexual activities, toilet scenes and scenes depicting maltreatment. In the toilet scenes the prostitute frequently has a less than perfect body; sagging breasts, rolls of flesh, etc. There is a kylix
showing a prostitute urinating into a chamber pot
. In the representation of sexual acts, the presence of a prostitute is often indicated by a purse, which underscores the financial nature of the relationship. The position most frequently shown is the leapfrog—or sodomy
; these two positions being difficult to visually distinguish. The woman is frequently folded in two with her hands flat on the ground. Sodomy was considered degrading for an adult and it seems that the leapfrog position (as opposed to the missionary position
) was considered less gratifying for the woman. Finally, a number of vases represent scenes of abuse, where the prostitute is threatened with a stick or sandal, and forced to perform acts considered by the Greeks to be degrading: fellatio
, sodomy
or with two partners
.
In conclusion, if the hetaera were undeniably the most liberated women in Greece, it also needs to be said that many of them had a desire to become respectable and find a husband or stable companion. Naeara, whose career is described in a legal discourse, manages to raise three children before her past as a hetaera catches up to her. According to the sources, Aspasia is chosen as concubine or possibly spouse by Pericles. Atheneus remarks that "For when such women change to a life of sobriety they are better than the women who pride themselves on their respectability"(XIII, 38), and cites numerous great Greek men who had been fathered by a citizen and a courtesan, such as the Stratego
Timotheus, son of Conon
. Finally, there is no known example of a woman of the citizen class voluntarily becoming a hetaera.
The intrigues of the New Comedy thus often involved prostitutes. Ovid
, in his Amores, states "Whil'st Slaves be false, Fathers hard, and Bauds be whorish, Whilst Harlots flatter, shall Menander flourish." (I, 15, 17–18). The courtesan could be the young girl friend of the young first star: in this case, free and virtuous, she is reduced to prostitution after having been abandoned or captured by pirates (e.g. Menander
's Sikyonioi). Recognized by her real parents because of trinkets left with her, she is freed and can marry. In a secondary role, she can also be the supporting actor's love interest. Menander also created, contrary to the traditional image of the greedy prostitute, the part of the "whore with a golden heart" in Dyskolos
, where this permits a happy conclusion to the play.
Conversely, in the utopian worlds of the Greeks, there was often no place for prostitutes. In Aristophanes' play Assemblywomen
, the heroine Praxagora formally bans them from the ideal city:
, in the Republic, proscribed Corinth
ian prostitutes in the same way as Attican pastries, both being accused of introducing luxury and discord into the ideal city. The cynic Crates of Thebes
, (cited by Diodorus Siculus
, II, 55–60) during the Hellenistic period
describes a utopian city where, following the example of Plato, prostitution is also banished.
's Plutus
(v. 960–1095) an old woman complains about having spent all her money on a young lover who is now jilting her. The vast majority of male prostitutes, however, were for a male clientele.
The period during which adolescents were judged as desirable extended from puberty
until the appearance of a beard, the hairlessness of youth being an object of marked taste among the Greeks. As such, there were cases of men keeping older boys for lovers, but depilated. However, these kept boys were looked down upon, and if the matter came to the attention of the public they were deprived of citizenship rights once come to adulthood. In one of his discourses (Against Timarkhos, I, 745), Aeschines
argues against one such man in court, who in his youth had been a notorious escort.
As with its female counterpart, male prostitution in Greece was not an object of scandal. Brothels for slave-boys existed openly, not only in the "Red-light district
" of Piraeus
, the Kerameikon
, or the Lycabettus, but throughout the city. The most celebrated of these young prostitutes is perhaps Phaedo of Elis
. Reduced to slavery during the capture of his city, he was sent to work in a brothel until noticed by Socrates
, who had his freedom bought. The young man became a follower of Socrates and gave his name to the Phaedo
dialogue, which relates the last hours of Socrates. Males were not exempt from the city tax on prostitutes. The client of such a brothel did not receive reprobation from either the courts or from public opinion.
was not restricted to a single social class. If some portions of society did not have the time or means to practice the interconnected aristocratic rituals (spectating at the gymnasium
, courtship, gifting), they could all satisfy their desires with prostitutes. The boys also received the same legal protection from assault as their female counterparts.
Sexual relations with slaves does not appear to have been a widespread option; first mention of it does not occur until 390 BCE. Another reason for resorting to prostitutes was sexual taboo
: fellatio
was considered degrading by the Greeks. In consequence, in a pederastic relationship, the erastes (adult lover) could not properly ask his future citizen eromenos (young lover) to perform this act, and had to resort to prostitutes.
As a consequence, though prostitution was legal, it was still socially shameful. It was generally the domain of slaves or, more generally, non-citizens. In Athens, for a citizen, it had significant political consequences, such as the atimia ; loss of public civil rights. This is demonstrated in The Prosecution of Timarkhos: Aeschines
is accused by Timarkhos; to defend himself, Aeschines accuses his accuser of having been a prostitute in his youth. Consequentially, Timarkhos is stripped of civil rights; one of these rights being the ability to file charges against someone. Conversely, prostituting an adolescent, or offering him money for favours, was strictly forbidden as it could lead to the youth's future loss of legal status.
The Greek reasoning is explained by Aeschines (stanza 29), as he cites the dokimasia
: the citizen who prostituted himself ( / peporneuménos) or causes himself to be so maintained ( / hētairēkós) is deprived of making public statements because "he who has sold his own body for the pleasure of others ' onMouseout='HidePop("17412")' href="/topics/Hubris">hubris
) would not hesitate to sell the interests of the community as a whole". According to Polybius
(XII, 15, 1), the accusations of Timaeus
against Agathocles
reprise the same theme: a prostitute is someone who abdicates their own dignity for the desires of another, "a common prostitute ( / koinòn pórnon) available to the most dissolute, a jackdaw, a buzzard presenting his behind to whoever wants it."
, a writer of epigram
s in the 2nd century, recalls a transaction for five drachma (Palatine anthology, XII, 239). A letter of pseudo-Aeschines (VII, 3) estimates the earnings of one Melanopous at 3,000 drachma; probably through the length of his career.
The categories of male prostitution should be recouped; Aeschines, in his The Prosecution of Timarkhos (stanza 29, see above) distinguishes between the prostitute and the kept boy. He adds a little later (stanzas 51–52) that if Timarkhos had been content to stay with his first protector, his conduct would have been less reprehensible. It was not only that Timarkhos had left this man—who no longer had the funds to support him—but that he had 'collected' protectors; proving, according to Aeschines, that he was not a kept boy (hêtairêkôs), but a vulgar whore (peporneumenos).
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...
was a common aspect of 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...
. In the more important cities
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...
, and particularly the many ports, it employed a significant number of people and represented a notable part of economic activity. It was far from being clandestine; cities did not condemn brothels, but rather only instituted regulations on them.
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...
, the legendary lawmaker Solon
Solon
Solon was an Athenian statesman, lawmaker, and poet. He is remembered particularly for his efforts to legislate against political, economic and moral decline in archaic Athens...
is credited with having created state brothels with regulated prices. Prostitution involved both sexes differently; women of all ages and young men were prostitutes, for a predominantly male clientele.
Female prostitution
Pseudo-DemosthenesPseudo-Demosthenes
Pseudo-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....
in the 4th century BCE proclaimed in front of an assembly of citizens "we have courtesans for pleasure, concubines to provide for our daily needs, and our spouses to give us legitimate children and to be the faithful guardians of our homes" (Against Neaera, 122). There was clear distinction between these classes.
Simultaneously, extramarital relations with a free woman were severely dealt with. In the case of adultery
Adultery
Adultery is sexual infidelity to one's spouse, and is a form of extramarital sex. It originally referred only to sex between a woman who was married and a person other than her spouse. Even in cases of separation from one's spouse, an extramarital affair is still considered adultery.Adultery is...
, the cuckold had the legal right to kill the offender if caught in the act; the same went for rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
. Adulterers, and by extension prostitutes, were forbidden to marry or take part in public ceremonies. The average age of marriage being 30 for men, the young Athenian had no choice if he wanted to have sexual relations other than to turn to slaves or prostitutes.
The existence of female prostitutes for a female clientele is not well documented. Aristophanes
Aristophanes
Aristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete...
mentions in Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
's Symposium
Symposium (Plato)
The Symposium is a philosophical text by Plato dated c. 385–380 BCE. It concerns itself at one level with the genesis, purpose and nature of love....
/ hetairistriai in his famous story about love, in which men and women were originally created from cut-off halves of a two-headed, eight-limbed people. For him,
"All the women who are sections of the woman have no great fancy for men: they are inclined rather to women, and of this stock are the she-minions (hetairistriai)." (191e 2–5)
One can suppose that this quote concerns prostitutes for a lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
clientele. Lucian
Lucian
Lucian of Samosata was a rhetorician and satirist who wrote in the Greek language. He is noted for his witty and scoffing nature.His ethnicity is disputed and is attributed as Assyrian according to Frye and Parpola, and Syrian according to Joseph....
touches on the practice in his Dialogue of Courtesans (V) but it is possible that he is simply alluding to Plato's passage.
Pornai
Ancient Greek Prostitutes were divided into several categories. The "pornai" were found at the bottom end of the scale. They were, as alluded to by the etymologyEtymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
—the word comes from pernemi "to sell"—the property of / pornoboskós, or pimp
Pimp
A pimp is an agent for prostitutes who collects part of their earnings. The pimp may receive this money in return for advertising services, physical protection, or for providing a location where she may engage clients...
s, who received a portion of their earnings. This owner could be a citizen, for this activity was considered as a source of income just like any other: one 4th century BCE orator cites two; Theophrastus
Theophrastus
Theophrastus , a Greek native of Eresos in Lesbos, was the successor to Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. He came to Athens at a young age, and initially studied in Plato's school. After Plato's death he attached himself to Aristotle. Aristotle bequeathed to Theophrastus his writings, and...
in Characters (VI,5) lists pimp next to innkeeper and tax collector as an ordinary profession. The owner could also be a male or female Metic
Metic
In ancient Greece, the term metic referred to a resident alien, one who did not have citizen rights in his or her Greek city-state of residence....
.
In the classical era of 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...
, pornai were slaves of barbarian origin; starting in the Hellenistic era
Hellenistic Greece
In the context of Ancient Greek art, architecture, and culture, Hellenistic Greece corresponds to the period between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the annexation of the classical Greek heartlands by Rome in 146 BC...
the case of young girls abandoned by their citizen fathers can be added. They were considered to be slaves until proven otherwise. Pornai were usually employed in brothels located in "red-light" districts of the period, such as Piraeus
Piraeus
Piraeus is a city in the region of Attica, Greece. Piraeus is located within the Athens Urban Area, 12 km southwest from its city center , and lies along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf....
(port
Port
A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land....
of Athens) or the Kerameikon
Kerameikon
Kerameikos is an area of Athens, Greece, located to the northwest of the Acropolis, which includes an extensive area both within and outside the ancient city walls, on both sides of the Dipylon Gate and by the banks of the Eridanos River...
in Athens.
"But you found a law for the use of all men; for you, they say, Solon, were the first to see this—a thing democratic, Zeus is my witness, and salutary (yes, it is fitting that I should say this, Solon); seeing our city full of young men, seeing, too, that they were under the compulsion of nature, and that they went their erring way in a direction they should not, purchased and stationed women in various quarters, equipped and ready for all alike. They stand in nakedness, lest you be deceived; take a look at everything. Perhaps you are not feeling quite up to your form; maybe you have something that distresses you. But their door stands open. Price, one obolObolusThe obol was an ancient silver coin. In Classical Athens, there were six obols to the drachma, lioterally "handful"; it could be excahnged for eight chalkoi...
; hop in! There isn't a bit of prudishness or nonsense, nor does she snatch herself away; but straight to it, as you wish and in whatever way you wish. You come out; you can tell her to go hang, she is nothing to you."
As the speaker highlights, the Solonian brothels provide service accessible to all, regardless of income. In the same light, Solon used taxes he levied on brothels to build a temple to Aphrodite
Aphrodite
Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation.Her Roman equivalent is the goddess .Historically, her cult in Greece was imported from, or influenced by, the cult of Astarte in Phoenicia....
Pandemos (literally "Aphrodite of all the people"). Even if the truth of all of the historical anecdotes is somewhat dubious, it is quite clear that the Athenians considered prostitution to be part of their democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
.
In regards to price, there are numerous allusions to the price of one obolus for a cheap prostitute; no doubt for basic acts. It is difficult to assess whether this was the actual price or a proverbial amount designating a "good deal".
Independent prostitutes
Eubulus (poet)
Eubulus was an Athenian "Middle Comic" poet, victorious six times at the Lenaia, first probably in the late 370s or 360s BC According to the Suda , which dates him to the 101st Olympiad Eubulus was an Athenian "Middle Comic" poet, victorious six times at the Lenaia, first probably in the late 370s...
, a comic author, offers these courtesans derision:
"plastered over with layers of white lead, … jowls smeared with mulberryMulberryMorus is a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae. The 10–16 species of deciduous trees it contains are commonly known as Mulberries....
juice. And if you go out on a summer's day, two rills of inky water flow from your eyes, and the sweat rolling from your cheeks upon your throat makes a vermilion furrow, while the hairs blown about on your faces look grey, they are so full of white leadWhite leadWhite lead is the chemical compound 2·Pb2. It was formerly used as an ingredient for lead paint and a cosmetic called Venetian Ceruse, because its opaque quality made it a good pigment. However, it tended to cause lead poisoning, and its use has been banned in most countries.White lead has been...
".
These prostitutes had various origins: Metic
Metic
In ancient Greece, the term metic referred to a resident alien, one who did not have citizen rights in his or her Greek city-state of residence....
women who could not find other work, poor widows, and older pornai who had succeeded in buying back their freedom (often on credit). In Athens they had to be registered with the city and pay a tax. Some of them made a decent fortune plying their trade. In the 1st century, at Qift
Qift
Qift is a small town in the Qena Governorate of Egypt about 43 km north of Luxor, on the east bank of the Nile.-History:In ancient Egypt, Qift, known then as Gebtu, was an important center for administration, religion, and commerce, being the chief city of the fifth Upper Egyptian Nome of Harawî...
in Roman Egypt
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
, passage for prostitutes cost 108 drachma, while other women paid 20.
Their tariffs are difficult to evaluate: they varied significantly. In the 4th century BCE, Theopompus
Theopompus
Theopompus was a Greek historian and rhetorician- Biography :Theopompus was born on Chios. In early youth he seems to have spent some time at Athens, along with his father, who had been exiled on account of his Laconian sympathies...
indicated that prostitutes of the second tier demanded a stater
Stater
The stater was an ancient coin used in various regions of Greece.-History:The stater is mostly of Macedonian origin. Celtic tribes brought it in to Europe after using it as mercenaries in north Greece. It circulated from the 8th century BC to 50 AD...
and in the 1st century BCE, the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus of Gadara
Philodemus
Philodemus of Gadara was an Epicurean philosopher and poet. He studied under Zeno of Sidon in Athens, before moving to Rome, and then to Herculaneum. He was once known chiefly for his poetry preserved in the Greek anthology, but since the 18th century, many writings of his have been discovered...
, cited in the Palatine anthology, V 126, mentions a system of subscription of up to five drachma for a dozen visits. In the 2nd century, Lucian
Lucian
Lucian of Samosata was a rhetorician and satirist who wrote in the Greek language. He is noted for his witty and scoffing nature.His ethnicity is disputed and is attributed as Assyrian according to Frye and Parpola, and Syrian according to Joseph....
in his Dialogue of the Hetaera has the prostitute Ampelis consider five drachma per visit as a mediocre price (8, 3). In the same text a young virgin can demand a Mina
Mina (unit)
The mina is an ancient Near Eastern unit of weight equivalent to 60 shekels. The mina, like the shekel, was also a unit of currency; in ancient Greece it was equal to 100 drachmae. In the first century AD, it amounted to about a fourth of the wages earned annually by an agricultural worker...
, that is 100 drachma (7,3), or even two minas if the customer is less than appetizing. A young and pretty prostitute could charge a higher price than her in-decline colleague; even if, as iconography on ceramics demonstrates, a specific market existed for older women. The price would change if the client demanded exclusivity. Intermediate arrangements also existed; a group of friends could purchase exclusivity, with each having part-time rights.
Musicians and dancers working at male banquets can also undoubtedly be placed in this category. Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
, in his Constitution of the Athenians
Constitution of the Athenians
The Constitution of the Athenians is the name of either of two texts from Classical antiquity, one probably by Aristotle or a student of his, the other attributed to Xenophon, but not by him....
(L, 2) mentions among the specific directions to the ten city controllers (five from within the city and five from the Piraeus
Piraeus
Piraeus is a city in the region of Attica, Greece. Piraeus is located within the Athens Urban Area, 12 km southwest from its city center , and lies along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf....
), the / astynomoi, that "it is they who supervise the flute-girls and harp-girls and lyre-girls to prevent their receiving fees of more than two drachmas" per night. Sexual services were clearly part of the contract, though the price, in spite of the efforts of the astynomoi, tended to increase throughout the period.
Hetaera
The hetaeraHetaera
In ancient Greece, hetaerae were courtesans, that is to say, highly educated, sophisticated companions...
e found themselves at the summit of the hierarchy. As opposed to the others they did not restrict themselves to offering sexual services and they did not perform "piecework"; hetaira literally means "companion", grammatically the feminine form of hetairos, a term—analogous to the Latin comes
Comes
Comes , plural comites , is the Latin word for companion, either individually or as a member of a collective known as comitatus, especially the suite of a magnate, in some cases large and/or formal enough to have a specific name, such as a cohors amicorum. The word comes derives from com- "with" +...
—denoting a nobleman e.g. in the—essentially military—suite of Alexander the Great. In many ways comparable to Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese geisha
Geisha
, Geiko or Geigi are traditional, female Japanese entertainers whose skills include performing various Japanese arts such as classical music and dance.-Terms:...
s, they had a meticulous education that enabled them to take part in conversations with cultivated gentlemen. Alone amongst all Greek women, excepting 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...
ns, they were independent and could manage their own affairs.
Aspasia
Aspasia
Aspasia was a Milesian woman who was famous for her involvement with the Athenian statesman Pericles. Very little is known about the details of her life. She spent most of her adult life in Athens, and she may have influenced Pericles and Athenian politics...
, the mistress of Pericles
Pericles
Pericles was a prominent and influential statesman, orator, and general of Athens during the city's Golden Age—specifically, the time between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars...
was the most celebrated woman of the 5th century BCE. Originally from Miletus
Miletus
Miletus was an ancient Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia , near the mouth of the Maeander River in ancient Caria...
she was reduced to the status of Metic in Athens and attracted to herself Sophocles
Sophocles
Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides...
, Phidias
Phidias
Phidias or the great Pheidias , was a Greek sculptor, painter and architect, who lived in the 5th century BC, and is commonly regarded as one of the greatest of all sculptors of Classical Greece: Phidias' Statue of Zeus at Olympia was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World...
, Socrates
Socrates
Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary ...
and his followers. According to Plutarch
Plutarch
Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
in Life of Pericles (XXIV, 1) "what great art or power this woman had, that she managed as she pleased the foremost men of the state, and afforded the philosophers occasion to discuss her in exalted terms and at great length."
We know the names of some of the hetaerae. During the classical period there was Theodota, companion of Alcibiades
Alcibiades
Alcibiades, son of Clinias, from the deme of Scambonidae , was a prominent Athenian statesman, orator, and general. He was the last famous member of his mother's aristocratic family, the Alcmaeonidae, which fell from prominence after the Peloponnesian War...
, with whom Socrates
Socrates
Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary ...
spoke in Memories (III, 11, 4); Naeara, the subject of a celebrated discourse of pseudo-Demosthene; 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 model for Aphrodite of Knidos, the work of Praxiteles
Praxiteles
Praxiteles of Athens, the son of Cephisodotus the Elder, was the most renowned of the Attic sculptors of the 4th century BC. He was the first to sculpt the nude female form in a life-size statue...
, of whom she was mistress but also companion of the orator Hypereides
Hypereides
Hypereides or Hyperides was a logographer in Ancient Greece...
, who defended her against a charge of impiety; and Leontium, companion of Epicurus
Epicurus
Epicurus was an ancient Greek philosopher and the founder of the school of philosophy called Epicureanism.Only a few fragments and letters remain of Epicurus's 300 written works...
and herself a philosopher. During the Hellenistic period one can cite Pythionice, the mistress of Harpalus
Harpalus
For other uses, see Harpalus Harpalus son of Machatas was an aristocrat of Macedon and boyhood friend of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC. Being lame in a leg, and therefore exempt from military service, Harpalus did not follow Alexander in his advance within the Persian Empire but...
, (Alexander the Great's treasurer); and 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...
, mistress of Alexander himself and Ptolemy I
Ptolemy I Soter
Ptolemy I Soter I , also known as Ptolemy Lagides, c. 367 BC – c. 283 BC, was a Macedonian general under Alexander the Great, who became ruler of Egypt and founder of both the Ptolemaic Kingdom and the Ptolemaic Dynasty...
after him.
Some of these hetaerae were very rich. Xenophon
Xenophon
Xenophon , son of Gryllus, of the deme Erchia of Athens, also known as Xenophon of Athens, was a Greek historian, soldier, mercenary, philosopher and a contemporary and admirer of Socrates...
describes Theodota as being surrounded by slaves, richly dressed and living in a grand house. Some distinguished themselves through their extravagant expenditures; Rhodopis
Rhodopis (hetaera)
Rhodopis was a celebrated 6th-century BCE Greek hetaera, of Thracian origin. She is one of only two hetaerae mentioned by name in Herodotus's discussion of the profession ....
, the Thracian courtesan emancipated by the brother of the poetess Sappho
Sappho
Sappho was an Ancient Greek poet, born on the island of Lesbos. Later Greeks included her in the list of nine lyric poets. Her birth was sometime between 630 and 612 BC, and it is said that she died around 570 BC, but little is known for certain about her life...
, is said to have distinguished herself by having a pyramid
Pyramid
A pyramid is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge at a single point. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilateral, or any polygon shape, meaning that a pyramid has at least three triangular surfaces...
built. Herodotus
Herodotus
Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
does not believe this, but describes a very costly epigraph
Epigraphy
Epigraphy Epigraphy Epigraphy (from the , literally "on-writing", is the study of inscriptions or epigraphs as writing; that is, the science of identifying the graphemes and of classifying their use as to cultural context and date, elucidating their meaning and assessing what conclusions can be...
erected by her at Delphi
Delphi
Delphi is both an archaeological site and a modern town in Greece on the south-western spur of Mount Parnassus in the valley of Phocis.In Greek mythology, Delphi was the site of the Delphic oracle, the most important oracle in the classical Greek world, and a major site for the worship of the god...
(II, 134–135). The fees of these courtesans varied considerably, but were very much higher than those of the common prostitutes. According to depictions of hetaerae in New Comedy, their prices varied from 20 to 60 Minas
Mina (unit)
The mina is an ancient Near Eastern unit of weight equivalent to 60 shekels. The mina, like the shekel, was also a unit of currency; in ancient Greece it was equal to 100 drachmae. In the first century AD, it amounted to about a fourth of the wages earned annually by an agricultural worker...
for an undetermined number of days. In Menander
Menander
Menander , Greek dramatist, the best-known representative of Athenian New Comedy, was the son of well-to-do parents; his father Diopeithes is identified by some with the Athenian general and governor of the Thracian Chersonese known from the speech of Demosthenes De Chersoneso...
's the Flatterer (v. 128–130), there is mention of a courtesan earning 3 minas per day or more, as much as 10 pornai together. If Aulus Gellius
Aulus Gellius
Aulus Gellius , was a Latin author and grammarian, who was probably born and certainly brought up in Rome. He was educated in Athens, after which he returned to Rome, where he held a judicial office...
is to be believed, courtesans of the classical era could earn up to 10,000 drachmas per night (Noctes Atticae, I, 8), .
Sacred prostitution
Greece did not know sacred prostitution at the same scale that existed in the ancient Near EastNear East
The Near East is a geographical term that covers different countries for geographers, archeologists, and historians, on the one hand, and for political scientists, economists, and journalists, on the other...
. The only known cases were at the fringes of the Greek world (in Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
, Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
, in the Kingdom of Pontus
Pontus
Pontus or Pontos is a historical Greek designation for a region on the southern coast of the Black Sea, located in modern-day northeastern Turkey. The name was applied to the coastal region in antiquity by the Greeks who colonized the area, and derived from the Greek name of the Black Sea: Πόντος...
and in Cappadocia
Cappadocia
Cappadocia is a historical region in Central Anatolia, largely in Nevşehir Province.In the time of Herodotus, the Cappadocians were reported as occupying the whole region from Mount Taurus to the vicinity of the Euxine...
), and the city of 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...
where the temple of Aphrodite
Aphrodite
Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation.Her Roman equivalent is the goddess .Historically, her cult in Greece was imported from, or influenced by, the cult of Astarte in Phoenicia....
housed a significant number of servants at least since the classical era. In 464 BCE, a man named Xenophon, a citizen of Corinth who was an acclaimed runner and winner of pentathlon at the Olympic Games, dedicated one hundred young girls to the temple of the goddess as a sign of thanksgiving. We know this because of a hymn which Pindar
Pindar
Pindar , was an Ancient Greek lyric poet. Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved. Quintilian described him as "by far the greatest of the nine lyric poets, in virtue of his inspired magnificence, the beauty of his thoughts and figures, the rich...
was commissioned to write (fragment 122 Snell), celebrating "the very welcoming girls, servants of Peïtho and luxurious Corinth". During the Roman period, Strabo
Strabo
Strabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...
states that the temple had more than a thousand sacred slave-prostitutes (VIII, 6, 20).
The case of Sparta
Out of all the Greek cities, only SpartaSparta
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...
was reputed not to have housed any porne. Plutarch
Plutarch
Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
, in his (Life of Lycurgus, IX, 6) explains this is due to the absence of precious metal as money; Sparta used an iron currency which was not accepted anywhere else. Pimps were thus not interested in establishing themselves there. No traces of common prostitution are found in Sparta during the ancient and classical eras. The only contradicting evidence is that of a vase from the 6th century BCE which shows women playing the aulos
Aulos
An aulos or tibia was an ancient Greek wind instrument, depicted often in art and also attested by archaeology.An aulete was the musician who performed on an aulos...
flute at a men's banquet. It may be that this is a simple iconographic theme rather than a literal description of Spartan life at that period. The presence of a winged demon, fruits, plants and an altar may also indicate that this could have been a ritual banquet held in honour of a fertility deity such as Artemis Orthia
Artemis Orthia
The Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia, an Archaic site devoted in Classical times to Artemis, was one of the most important religious sites in the Greek city-state of Sparta.- Sanctuary :...
or Apollo
Apollo
Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...
Hyacinthius.
Sparta did however have hetaera during the classical era. Atheneus recalls the courtesans with whom Alcibiades
Alcibiades
Alcibiades, son of Clinias, from the deme of Scambonidae , was a prominent Athenian statesman, orator, and general. He was the last famous member of his mother's aristocratic family, the Alcmaeonidae, which fell from prominence after the Peloponnesian War...
spent the night during his exile in Sparta (415–414 BCE). Xenophon
Xenophon
Xenophon , son of Gryllus, of the deme Erchia of Athens, also known as Xenophon of Athens, was a Greek historian, soldier, mercenary, philosopher and a contemporary and admirer of Socrates...
narrating the Conspiracy of Cinadon states that they would use the excuse of arresting "the woman who was said to be the most beautiful woman in Aulon and was thought to be corrupting the Lacedaemonians who came there, older and younger alike." (Hellenica, III, 8). This probably referred to a hetaera.
From at least 3rd century BCE due to the large amount of foreign currency circulating in Laconia
Laconia
Laconia , also known as Lacedaemonia, is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Peloponnese. It is situated in the southeastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. Its administrative capital is Sparti...
, Sparta began to emulate the rest of the Greek cities. During the Hellenistic period Polemon of Ilion describes in his Offering to Lacedemonia, cited by Atheneus(XIII, 34a), the portrait of the celebrated hetaerea Cottina and the bronze cow she dedicated herself to. He added that he was shown her brothel, as a curiosity, which still stood near the temple of Dionysus
Dionysus
Dionysus was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology. His name in Linear B tablets shows he was worshipped from c. 1500—1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks: other traces of Dionysian-type cult have been found in ancient Minoan Crete...
.
Social conditions
The social conditions of prostitutes are difficult to evaluate; as women, they were already marginalized in Greek society. We know of no direct evidence of either their lives or the brothels in which they worked. It is likely that the Greek brothels were similar to those of RomeRome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, described by numerous authors and preserved at Pompeii
Pompeii
The city of Pompeii is a partially buried Roman town-city near modern Naples in the Italian region of Campania, in the territory of the comune of Pompei. Along with Herculaneum, Pompeii was destroyed and completely buried during a long catastrophic eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius spanning...
; dark, narrow, and malodorous places. One of the many slang terms for prostitutes was khamaitypếs , literally "one who hits the ground", indicating by this that the sex act took place directly on the ground.
Certain authors have prostitutes talking about themselves: Lucian
Lucian
Lucian of Samosata was a rhetorician and satirist who wrote in the Greek language. He is noted for his witty and scoffing nature.His ethnicity is disputed and is attributed as Assyrian according to Frye and Parpola, and Syrian according to Joseph....
in his Dialogue of courtesans or Alciphron
Alciphron
Alciphron was an ancient Greek sophist, and the most eminent among the Greek epistolographers. Regarding his life or the age in which he lived we possess no direct information whatsoever.-Works:...
in his collection of letters; but these are works of fiction. The prostitutes of concern here are either independent or hetaera: the sources here do not concern themselves with the situation of slave-prostitutes, except to consider them as a source of profit. It is quite clear what ancient Greek men thought of prostitutes: primarily, they are reproached for the commercial nature of the activity. The greed of prostitutes is a running theme in Greek comedy. The fact that prostitutes were the only Athenian women who handled money likely increased male acrimony. An explanation for their behavior is that a prostitute's career tended to be short, and their income decreased with the passage of time: a young and pretty prostitute, across all levels of the trade, could earn more money than her older, less attractive colleagues. To provide for old age, they thus had to acquire as much money as possible in a limited period of time.
Medical
Medicine in Ancient Greece
The first known Greek medical school opened in Cnidus in 700 BC. Alcmaeon, author of the first anatomical work, worked at this school, and it was here that the practice of observing patients was established. Ancient Greek medicine revolved around the theory of humours...
treatises provide a glimpse—but very partial and incomplete—into the daily life of prostitutes. In order to keep generating revenues, the slave-prostitutes had to avoid pregnancy
Pregnancy
Pregnancy refers to the fertilization and development of one or more offspring, known as a fetus or embryo, in a woman's uterus. In a pregnancy, there can be multiple gestations, as in the case of twins or triplets...
at any cost. Contraceptive techniques
Contraception
Contraception is the prevention of the fusion of gametes during or after sexual activity. The term contraception is a contraction of contra, which means against, and the word conception, meaning fertilization...
used by the Greeks are not as well known as those of the Romans. Nevertheless, in a treatise attributed to Hippocrates
Hippocrates
Hippocrates of Cos or Hippokrates of Kos was an ancient Greek physician of the Age of Pericles , and is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine...
(Of the Seed, 13), he describes in detail the case of a dancer "who had the habit of going with the men"; he recommends that she "jump up and down, touching her buttocks with her heels at each leap" to dislodge the sperm
Semen
Semen is an organic fluid, also known as seminal fluid, that may contain spermatozoa. It is secreted by the gonads and other sexual organs of male or hermaphroditic animals and can fertilize female ova...
, and thus avoid risk. It also seems likely that the pornai had recourse to abortion or infanticide. In the case of independent prostitutes the situation is less clear; girls could after all be trained "on the job", succeeding their mothers and supporting them in old age.
Greek pottery
Pottery of Ancient Greece
As the result of its relative durability, pottery is a large part of the archaeological record of Ancient Greece, and because there is so much of it it has exerted a disproportionately large influence on our understanding of Greek society...
also provides an insight into the daily life of prostitutes. Their representation can generally be grouped into four categories: banquet
Symposium
In ancient Greece, the symposium was a drinking party. Literary works that describe or take place at a symposium include two Socratic dialogues, Plato's Symposium and Xenophon's Symposium, as well as a number of Greek poems such as the elegies of Theognis of Megara...
scenes, sexual activities, toilet scenes and scenes depicting maltreatment. In the toilet scenes the prostitute frequently has a less than perfect body; sagging breasts, rolls of flesh, etc. There is a kylix
Kylix (drinking cup)
A kylix is a type of wine-drinking glass with a broad relatively shallow body raised on a stem from a foot and usually with two horizontal handles disposed symmetrically...
showing a prostitute urinating into a chamber pot
Chamber pot
A chamber pot is a bowl-shaped container with a handle, and often a lid, kept in the bedroom under a bed or in the cabinet of a nightstand and...
. In the representation of sexual acts, the presence of a prostitute is often indicated by a purse, which underscores the financial nature of the relationship. The position most frequently shown is the leapfrog—or sodomy
Sodomy
Sodomy is an anal or other copulation-like act, especially between male persons or between a man and animal, and one who practices sodomy is a "sodomite"...
; these two positions being difficult to visually distinguish. The woman is frequently folded in two with her hands flat on the ground. Sodomy was considered degrading for an adult and it seems that the leapfrog position (as opposed to the missionary position
Missionary position
The missionary position is a "man-on-top" sex position usually described as the act in which the woman lies on her back and the partners face each other. Though often acted on and applied by heterosexual pairings, it may also be used by gay and lesbian couples.The missionary position is an example...
) was considered less gratifying for the woman. Finally, a number of vases represent scenes of abuse, where the prostitute is threatened with a stick or sandal, and forced to perform acts considered by the Greeks to be degrading: fellatio
Fellatio
Fellatio is an act of oral stimulation of a male's penis by a sexual partner. It involves the stimulation of the penis by the use of the mouth, tongue, or throat. The person who performs fellatio can be referred to as the giving partner, and the other person is the receiving partner...
, sodomy
Sodomy
Sodomy is an anal or other copulation-like act, especially between male persons or between a man and animal, and one who practices sodomy is a "sodomite"...
or with two partners
Group sex
Group sex is sexual behavior involving more than two participants. Group sex can occur amongst people of all sexual orientations and genders...
.
In conclusion, if the hetaera were undeniably the most liberated women in Greece, it also needs to be said that many of them had a desire to become respectable and find a husband or stable companion. Naeara, whose career is described in a legal discourse, manages to raise three children before her past as a hetaera catches up to her. According to the sources, Aspasia is chosen as concubine or possibly spouse by Pericles. Atheneus remarks that "For when such women change to a life of sobriety they are better than the women who pride themselves on their respectability"(XIII, 38), and cites numerous great Greek men who had been fathered by a citizen and a courtesan, such as the Stratego
Stratego
Stratego is a board game featuring a 10×10 square board and two players with 40 pieces each. Pieces represent individual officers and soldiers in an army. The objective of the game is to either find and capture the opponent's Flag or to capture so many of the opponent's pieces that he/she cannot...
Timotheus, son of Conon
Conon
Conon was an Athenian general at the end of the Peloponnesian War, who presided over the crucial Athenian naval defeat at Battle of Aegospotami; later he contributed significantly to the restoration of the political and military power.-Defeat at Aegospotami:Conon had been sent out following the...
. Finally, there is no known example of a woman of the citizen class voluntarily becoming a hetaera.
Prostitutes in literature
During the time of the New Comedy (of ancient Greek comedy), prostitute characters became, after the fashion of slaves, the veritable stars of the comedies. This could be for several reasons: while Old Comedy (of ancient Greek comedy) concerned itself with political subjects, New Comedy dealt with private subjects and the daily life of Athenians. Also, social conventions forbade well-born women from being seen in public; while the plays depicted outside activities. The only women who would normally be seen out in the street were logically the prostitutes.The intrigues of the New Comedy thus often involved prostitutes. Ovid
Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...
, in his Amores, states "Whil'st Slaves be false, Fathers hard, and Bauds be whorish, Whilst Harlots flatter, shall Menander flourish." (I, 15, 17–18). The courtesan could be the young girl friend of the young first star: in this case, free and virtuous, she is reduced to prostitution after having been abandoned or captured by pirates (e.g. Menander
Menander
Menander , Greek dramatist, the best-known representative of Athenian New Comedy, was the son of well-to-do parents; his father Diopeithes is identified by some with the Athenian general and governor of the Thracian Chersonese known from the speech of Demosthenes De Chersoneso...
's Sikyonioi). Recognized by her real parents because of trinkets left with her, she is freed and can marry. In a secondary role, she can also be the supporting actor's love interest. Menander also created, contrary to the traditional image of the greedy prostitute, the part of the "whore with a golden heart" in Dyskolos
Dyskolos
Dyskolos is an Ancient Greek comedy by Menander, the only one of his plays, or of the whole New Comedy, that has survived in all but complete form. It was first presented at the Lenaian festival in 317-16 BC, where it won Menander first prize...
, where this permits a happy conclusion to the play.
Conversely, in the utopian worlds of the Greeks, there was often no place for prostitutes. In Aristophanes' play Assemblywomen
Assemblywomen
Aristophanes' Ecclesiazusae is a play dating from 391 BCE which is similar in theme to Lysistrata in that a large portion of the comedy comes from women involving themselves in politics...
, the heroine Praxagora formally bans them from the ideal city:
"Why, undoubtedly! Furthermore, I propose abolishing the whores … so that, instead of them, we may have the first-fruits of the young men. It is not meet that tricked-out slaves should rob free-born women of their pleasures. Let the courtesans be free to sleep with the slaves."(v. 716–719).The prostitutes are obviously considered to be unfair competition. In a different genre, Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
, in the Republic, proscribed 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...
ian prostitutes in the same way as Attican pastries, both being accused of introducing luxury and discord into the ideal city. The cynic Crates of Thebes
Crates of Thebes
Crates of Thebes, was a Cynic philosopher. Crates gave away his money to live a life of poverty on the streets of Athens. He married Hipparchia of Maroneia who lived in the same manner that he did. Respected by the people of Athens, he is remembered for being the teacher of Zeno of Citium, the...
, (cited by Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian who flourished between 60 and 30 BC. According to Diodorus' own work, he was born at Agyrium in Sicily . With one exception, antiquity affords no further information about Diodorus' life and doings beyond what is to be found in his own work, Bibliotheca...
, II, 55–60) during the Hellenistic period
Hellenistic period
The Hellenistic period or Hellenistic era describes the time which followed the conquests of Alexander the Great. It was so named by the historian J. G. Droysen. During this time, Greek cultural influence and power was at its zenith in Europe and Asia...
describes a utopian city where, following the example of Plato, prostitution is also banished.
Male prostitution
The Greeks also had an abundance of male prostitutes; / pórnoi. Some of them aimed at a female clientele: the existence of gigolos is confirmed in the classical era. As such, in AristophanesAristophanes
Aristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete...
's Plutus
Plutus (play)
Plutus is an Ancient Greek comedy by the playwrightAristophanes, first produced c. 388 BC. A political satire on contemporary Athens, it features the personified god of wealth Plutus...
(v. 960–1095) an old woman complains about having spent all her money on a young lover who is now jilting her. The vast majority of male prostitutes, however, were for a male clientele.
Prostitution and pederasty
Contrary to female prostitution, which covered all age groups, male prostitution was in essence restricted to adolescents. Pseudo-Lucian, in his Affairs of the Heart (25–26) expressly states:"Thus from maidenhood to middle age, before the time when the last wrinkles of old age finally spread over her face, a woman is a pleasant armful for a man to embrace, and, even if the beauty of her prime is past, yet
"With wiser tongue Experience doth speak than can the young." But the very man who should make attempts on a boy of twenty seems to me to be unnaturally lustful and pursuing an equivocal love. For then the limbs, being large and manly, are hard, the chins that once were soft are rough and covered with bristles, and the well-developed thighs are as it were sullied with hairs."
The period during which adolescents were judged as desirable extended from puberty
Puberty
Puberty is the process of physical changes by which a child's body matures into an adult body capable of reproduction, as initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to the gonads; the ovaries in a girl, the testes in a boy...
until the appearance of a beard, the hairlessness of youth being an object of marked taste among the Greeks. As such, there were cases of men keeping older boys for lovers, but depilated. However, these kept boys were looked down upon, and if the matter came to the attention of the public they were deprived of citizenship rights once come to adulthood. In one of his discourses (Against Timarkhos, I, 745), Aeschines
Aeschines
Aeschines was a Greek statesman and one of the ten Attic orators.-Life:Although it is known he was born in Athens, the records regarding his parentage and early life are conflicting; but it seems probable that his parents, though poor, were respectable. Aeschines' father was Atrometus, an...
argues against one such man in court, who in his youth had been a notorious escort.
As with its female counterpart, male prostitution in Greece was not an object of scandal. Brothels for slave-boys existed openly, not only in the "Red-light district
Red-light district
A red-light district is a part of an urban area where there is a concentration of prostitution and sex-oriented businesses, such as sex shops, strip clubs, adult theaters, etc...
" of Piraeus
Piraeus
Piraeus is a city in the region of Attica, Greece. Piraeus is located within the Athens Urban Area, 12 km southwest from its city center , and lies along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf....
, the Kerameikon
Kerameikon
Kerameikos is an area of Athens, Greece, located to the northwest of the Acropolis, which includes an extensive area both within and outside the ancient city walls, on both sides of the Dipylon Gate and by the banks of the Eridanos River...
, or the Lycabettus, but throughout the city. The most celebrated of these young prostitutes is perhaps Phaedo of Elis
Phaedo of Elis
Phaedo of Elis was a Greek philosopher. A native of Elis, he was captured in war and sold into slavery. He subsequently came into contact with Socrates at Athens who warmly received him and had him freed. He was present at the death of Socrates, and Plato named one of his dialogues Phaedo...
. Reduced to slavery during the capture of his city, he was sent to work in a brothel until noticed by Socrates
Socrates
Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary ...
, who had his freedom bought. The young man became a follower of Socrates and gave his name to the Phaedo
Phaedo
Plato's Phaedo is one of the great dialogues of his middle period, along with the Republic and the Symposium. The Phaedo, which depicts the death of Socrates, is also Plato's seventh and last dialogue to detail the philosopher's final days .In the dialogue, Socrates...
dialogue, which relates the last hours of Socrates. Males were not exempt from the city tax on prostitutes. The client of such a brothel did not receive reprobation from either the courts or from public opinion.
Prostitution and citizenship
The existence of male prostitution on a large scale indicates that pederastyPederasty in ancient Greece
Pederasty in ancient Greece was a socially acknowledged relationship between an adult and a younger male usually in his teens. It was characteristic of the Archaic and Classical periods...
was not restricted to a single social class. If some portions of society did not have the time or means to practice the interconnected aristocratic rituals (spectating at the gymnasium
Gymnasium (ancient Greece)
The gymnasium in ancient Greece functioned as a training facility for competitors in public games. It was also a place for socializing and engaging in intellectual pursuits. The name comes from the Ancient Greek term gymnós meaning "naked". Athletes competed in the nude, a practice said to...
, courtship, gifting), they could all satisfy their desires with prostitutes. The boys also received the same legal protection from assault as their female counterparts.
Sexual relations with slaves does not appear to have been a widespread option; first mention of it does not occur until 390 BCE. Another reason for resorting to prostitutes was sexual taboo
Taboo
A taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that is sacred and or forbidden based on moral judgment, religious beliefs and or scientific consensus. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society...
: fellatio
Fellatio
Fellatio is an act of oral stimulation of a male's penis by a sexual partner. It involves the stimulation of the penis by the use of the mouth, tongue, or throat. The person who performs fellatio can be referred to as the giving partner, and the other person is the receiving partner...
was considered degrading by the Greeks. In consequence, in a pederastic relationship, the erastes (adult lover) could not properly ask his future citizen eromenos (young lover) to perform this act, and had to resort to prostitutes.
As a consequence, though prostitution was legal, it was still socially shameful. It was generally the domain of slaves or, more generally, non-citizens. In Athens, for a citizen, it had significant political consequences, such as the atimia ; loss of public civil rights. This is demonstrated in The Prosecution of Timarkhos: Aeschines
Aeschines
Aeschines was a Greek statesman and one of the ten Attic orators.-Life:Although it is known he was born in Athens, the records regarding his parentage and early life are conflicting; but it seems probable that his parents, though poor, were respectable. Aeschines' father was Atrometus, an...
is accused by Timarkhos; to defend himself, Aeschines accuses his accuser of having been a prostitute in his youth. Consequentially, Timarkhos is stripped of civil rights; one of these rights being the ability to file charges against someone. Conversely, prostituting an adolescent, or offering him money for favours, was strictly forbidden as it could lead to the youth's future loss of legal status.
The Greek reasoning is explained by Aeschines (stanza 29), as he cites the dokimasia
Dokimasia
In Ancient Greece, dokimasia was the name used at Athens to denote the process of ascertaining the capacity of the citizens for the exercise of public rights and duties....
: the citizen who prostituted himself ( / peporneuménos) or causes himself to be so maintained ( / hētairēkós) is deprived of making public statements because "he who has sold his own body for the pleasure of others ' onMouseout='HidePop("17412")' href="/topics/Hubris">hubris
Hubris
Hubris , also hybris, means extreme haughtiness, pride or arrogance. Hubris often indicates a loss of contact with reality and an overestimation of one's own competence or capabilities, especially when the person exhibiting it is in a position of power....
) would not hesitate to sell the interests of the community as a whole". According to Polybius
Polybius
Polybius , Greek ) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic Period noted for his work, The Histories, which covered the period of 220–146 BC in detail. The work describes in part the rise of the Roman Republic and its gradual domination over Greece...
(XII, 15, 1), the accusations of Timaeus
Timaeus (historian)
Timaeus , ancient Greek historian, was born at Tauromenium in Sicily. Driven out of Sicily by Agathocles, he migrated to Athens, where he studied rhetoric under a pupil of Isocrates and lived for fifty years...
against Agathocles
Agathocles
Agathocles , , was tyrant of Syracuse and king of Sicily .-Biography:...
reprise the same theme: a prostitute is someone who abdicates their own dignity for the desires of another, "a common prostitute ( / koinòn pórnon) available to the most dissolute, a jackdaw, a buzzard presenting his behind to whoever wants it."
Fees
As with female prostitutes, fees varied considerably. Athenaeus (VI, 241) mentions a boy who offers his favours for one obolus; again, the mediocrity of this price calls it into some doubt. Straton of SardisStraton of Sardis
Straton of Sardis was a Greek poet and anthologist from the Lydian city of Sardis. He is thought to have lived during the time of Hadrian, based on Straton authorship of a poem about the doctor Artemidorus Capito, a contemporary of Hadrian...
, a writer of epigram
Epigram
An epigram is a brief, interesting, usually memorable and sometimes surprising statement. Derived from the epigramma "inscription" from ἐπιγράφειν epigraphein "to write on inscribe", this literary device has been employed for over two millennia....
s in the 2nd century, recalls a transaction for five drachma (Palatine anthology, XII, 239). A letter of pseudo-Aeschines (VII, 3) estimates the earnings of one Melanopous at 3,000 drachma; probably through the length of his career.
The categories of male prostitution should be recouped; Aeschines, in his The Prosecution of Timarkhos (stanza 29, see above) distinguishes between the prostitute and the kept boy. He adds a little later (stanzas 51–52) that if Timarkhos had been content to stay with his first protector, his conduct would have been less reprehensible. It was not only that Timarkhos had left this man—who no longer had the funds to support him—but that he had 'collected' protectors; proving, according to Aeschines, that he was not a kept boy (hêtairêkôs), but a vulgar whore (peporneumenos).
See also
- History of prostitutionHistory of prostitutionThe history of prostitution extends to all ancient and modern cultures. It has been described as "the world's oldest profession"; this, however, is only a figure of speech.- Ancient Babylon and Sumer :...
- Pederasty in ancient GreecePederasty in ancient GreecePederasty in ancient Greece was a socially acknowledged relationship between an adult and a younger male usually in his teens. It was characteristic of the Archaic and Classical periods...
- Prostitution in Greece
- Prostitution in ancient RomeProstitution in ancient RomeProstitution in ancient Rome reflects the ambivalent attitudes of Romans toward pleasure and sexuality. Prostitution was legal and licensed. Some large brothels in the 4th century, when Rome was becoming officially Christianized, seem to have been counted as tourist attractions and were possibly...