Hetaira
Template:Short description Template:Redirect Template:Distinguish Template:Italic title
A Template:Transliteration (Template:IPAc-en; Template:Langx, Template:Lit; Template:Plural form. {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration, Template:IPAc-en), Latinized as Template:Transliteration (Template:IPAc-en Template:Plural form Template:Transliteration Template:IPAc-en), was a type of highly educated female companion in ancient Greece who served as an artist, entertainer, and conversationalist. Historians have often classed them as courtesans, but the extent to which they were sex workers is a matter of dispute.
Custom excluded the wives and daughters of Athenian citizens from the symposium, but this prohibition did not extend to Template:Transliteration, who were often foreign-born and could be well-versed in arts, philosophy, and culture. Other female entertainers might appear in the otherwise male domain, but Template:Transliteration actively participated in conversations, including intellectual and literary discourse.
SummaryEdit
Traditionally, historians of ancient Greece have distinguished between Template:Transliteration and pornai, another class of prostitute. In contrast to pornai, who provided sex for numerous clients in brothels or on the street, Template:Transliteration were thought to have had only a few men as clients at any one time, to have had long-term relationships with them, and to have provided companionship and intellectual stimulation as well as sex.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> For instance, Charles Seltman wrote in 1953 that "hetaeras were certainly in a very different class, often highly educated women".<ref>Template:Cite book, quoted in Template:Harvnb</ref>
More recently, historians have questioned the extent to which there was really a distinction between Template:Transliteration and pornai. The second edition of the Oxford Classical Dictionary, for instance, held that Template:Transliteration was a euphemism for any kind of prostitute.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> This position is supported by Konstantinos Kapparis, who holds that Apollodorus' famous tripartite division of the types of women in the speech Against Neaera ("We have courtesans for pleasure, concubines for the daily tending of the body, and wives in order to beget legitimate children and have a trustworthy guardian of what is at home."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>) classes all prostitutes together, under the term Template:Transliteration.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
A third position, advanced by Rebecca Futo Kennedy, suggests that Template:Transliteration "were not prostitutes or even courtesans".<ref name=Kennedy14-69>Template:Cite book</ref> Instead, she argues, Template:Transliteration were "elite women ... who participated in sympotic and luxury culture",<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> just as Template:TransliterationTemplate:Emdashthe masculine form of the wordTemplate:Emdashwas used to refer to groups of elite men at symposia.<ref name="Kennedy14-69" />
Even when the term Template:Transliteration was used to refer to a specific class of prostitute, though, scholars disagree on what precisely the line of demarcation was. Kurke emphasises that Template:Transliteration veiled the fact that they were selling sex through the language of gift-exchange, while pornai explicitly commodified sex.<ref name=Kurke97-108>Template:Cite journal</ref> Leslie Kurke claims that both Template:Transliteration and pornai could be slaves or free, and might or might not work for a pimp.<ref name=Kurke97-108/> Kapparis says that Template:Transliteration were high-class prostitutes, and cites Dover as pointing to the long-term nature of hetairai's relationships with individual men.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Miner disagrees with Kurke, claiming that Template:Transliteration were always free, not slaves.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Along with sexual services, women described as Template:Transliteration rather than Template:Transliteration seem to have often been educated, and have provided companionship.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> According to Kurke, the concept of hetairism was a product of the symposium, where Template:Transliteration were permitted as sexually available companions of the male party-goers.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In Athenaeus' Deipnosophistai, Template:Transliteration are described as providing "flattering and skillful conversation": something which is, elsewhere in classical literature, seen as a significant part of the hetaira's role.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Particularly, "witty" and "refined" were seen as attributes which distinguished Template:Transliteration from common pornai.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Hetairai are likely to have been musically educated, too.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Free Template:Transliteration could become very wealthy, and control their own finances. However, their careers could be short, and if they did not earn enough to support themselves, they might have been forced to resort to working in brothels, or working as pimps, in order to ensure a continued income as they got older.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
IconographyEdit
Scholars also disagree about the identification of hetaeras in ancient Greek vase painting. Attributes which might identify hetaeras include nudity, involvement in erotic activity, and the presence of money bags. Working with textiles, depiction on kylixes, and being named in inscriptions have all also been used as evidence that women depicted on vases are hetaeras. However, the reliability of all of these indications has been questioned: for instance nudity in the context of athletics, wedding rituals, or supplication does not necessarily relate to sex work. Some scholars have argued that it is impossible to distinguish hetaeras from other kinds of women, or that some depictions of women are intentionally ambiguous.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>
- Reveller courtesan BM E44.jpg
A prostitute putting on her himation in front of her client. The lyre shows that she is a musician called for a banquet. Tondo of an Attic cup with red figures. Euphronius v.Template:Nbsp490 BC, British Museum.
- Drunken banqueter Louvre G13.jpg
Drunken banqueter with a drinking dish, flirting with a musician holding a lyre or barbiton
- Crátera con simposio del pintor de Nicias.jpg
Symposium, men on couches, the only woman present is a Template:Transliteration.
- Banquet scene Louvre G135.jpg
Party musicians are often associated with prostitution. Bottom painting of a bowl from Attica, with red clay figures on a black background. The author is the so-called Painter of Colmar, Template:Circa. The Louvre Museum.
- Kylix of the Symposium of the Hetairai by Oltos vase painter - MAN.JPG
Man and Template:Transliteration in symposium
- Jean-Léon Gérôme, Phryne revealed before the Areopagus (1861) - 01.jpg
19th century interpretation of the Template:Transliteration: Jean-Léon Gérôme's painting Phryne Before the Areopagus depicts the Template:Transliteration Phryne on trial. The sight of her nude body, according to legend, persuaded the jurors to acquit her.
See alsoEdit
- List of prostitutes and courtesans of antiquity
- Oiran: class of courtesans in Edo period and Imperial Japan
- Qayna: class of courtesans in pre-modern Islamic world
- Prostitution in ancient Rome
- Hetair-, a Greek linguistic root