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
On which account, in the Neæra of Timocles, a man is represented as
lamenting his fate, and saying—
But I, unhappy man, who first loved Phryne
When she was but a gatherer of capers,
And was not quite as rich as now she is,—
I who such sums of money spent upon her,
Am now excluded from her doors.
And in the play entitled Orestantoclides, the same Timocles says—
And round the wretched man old women sleep,
Nannium and Plangon, Lyca, Phryne too,
Gnathæna, Pythionica, Myrrhina,
Chrysis, Conallis, Hieroclea, and
Lapadium also.
And these courtesans are mentioned by Amphis, in his Curis, where he
says—
Wealth truly seems to me to be quite blind,
Since he ne'er ventures near this woman's doors,
But haunts Sinope, Nannium, and Lyca,
And others like them, traps of men's existence,
And in their houses sits like one amazed,
And ne'er departs.
[Sidenote: COURTESANS.]
23. And Alexis, in the drama entitled Isostasium, thus describes the
equipment of a courtesan, and the artifices which some women use to
make themselves up—
For, first of all, to earn themselves much gain,
And better to plunder all the neighbouring men,
They use a heap of adventitious aids.—
They plot to take in every one. And when,
By subtle artifice, they've made some money,
They enlist fresh girls, and add recruits, who ne'er
Have tried the trade, unto their cunning troop,
And drill them so that they are very soon
Different in manners, and in look, and semblance
From all they were before. Suppose one's short—
They put cork soles within the heels of her shoes:
Is any one too tall—she wears a slipper
Of thinnest substance, and, with head depress'd
Between the shoulders, walks the public streets,
And so takes off from her superfluous height.
Is any one too lean about the flank—
They hoop her with a bustle, so that all
Who see her marvel at her fair proportions.
Has any one too prominent a stomach—
They crown it with false breasts, such as perchance
At times you may in comic actors see;
And what is still too prominent, they force
Back, ramming it as if with scaffolding.
Has any one red eyebrows—those they smear
With soot. Has any one a dark complexion—
White-lead will that correct. This girl's too fair—
They rub her well with rich vermilion.
Is she a splendid figure—then her charms
Are shown in naked beauty to the purchaser.
Has she good teeth—then she is forced to laugh,
That all the bystanders may see her mouth,
How beautiful it is; and if she be
But ill-inclined to laugh, then she is kept
Close within doors whole days, and all the things
Which cooks keep by them when they sell goats' heads,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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