The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 3 (of 3)Athenaeus, of Naucratis
Philosophy
The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 3 (of 3)
Athenaeus, of Naucratis
Civilization, Greco-Roman; Dinners and dining -- Greece; Greece -- Social life and customs; Homosexuality -- Greece
50. And as I am aware that some of those men who have been involved
in the administration of affairs of state have mentioned courtesans,
either accusing or excusing them, I will enumerate some instances
of those who have done so. For Demosthenes, in his speech against
Androtion, mentions Sinope and Phanostrate; and respecting Sinope,
Herodicus the pupil of Crates says, in the sixth book of his treatise
on People mentioned in the Comic Poets, that she was called Abydus,
because she was an old woman. And Antiphanes mentions her in his
Arcadian, and in his Gardener, and in his Sempstress, and in his Female
Fisher, and in his Neottis. And Alexis mentions her in his Cleobuline,
and Callicrates speaks of her in his Moschion; and concerning
Phanostrate, Apollodorus, in his treatise on the Courtesans at Athens,
says that she was called Phtheiropyle, because she used to stand at the
door (πύλη) and hunt for lice (φθεῖρες).
And in his oration against Aristagoras, Hyperides says—"And again you
have named, in the same manner, the animals called aphyæ." Now, aphyæ,
besides meaning anchovies, was also a nickname for some courtesans;
concerning whom the before-mentioned Apollodorus says—"Stagonium and
Amphis were two sisters, and they were called Aphyæ, because they were
white, and thin, and had large eyes." And Antiphanes, in his book on
Courtesans, says that Nicostratis was called Aphya for the same reason.
And the same Hyperides, in his speech against Mantitheus, who was being
prosecuted for an assault, speaks in the following manner respecting
Glycera—"Bringing with him Glycera the daughter of Thalassis in a
pair-horse chariot." But it is uncertain whether this is the same
Glycera who was the mistress of Harpalus; concerning whom Theopompus
speaks in his treatise on the Chian Epistle, saying that after the
death of Pythionica, Harpalus sent for Glycera to come to him from
Athens; and when she came, she lived in the palace which is at Tarsus,
and was honoured with royal honours by the populace, and was called
queen; and an edict was issued, forbidding any one to present Harpalus
with a crown, without at the same time presenting Glycera with another.
And at Rhossus, he went so far as to erect a brazen statue of her by
the side of his own statue. And Clitarchus has given the same account
in his History of Alexander. But the author of Agen, a satyric drama,
(whoever he was, whether it was Python of Catana, or king Alexander
himself,) says—
And now they say that Harpalus has sent them
Unnumber'd sacks of corn, no fewer than
Those sent by Agen, and is made a citizen:
But this was Glycera's corn, and it may be
Ruin to them, and not a harlot's earnest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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