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
And Alexis the Samian, in the second book of his Samian Annals,
says—"The Athenian prostitutes who followed Pericles when he laid siege
to Samos, having made vast sums of money by their beauty, dedicated
a statue of Venus at Samos, which some call Venus among the Reeds,
and others Venus in the Marsh." And Eualces, in his History of the
Affairs of Ephesus, says that there is at Ephesus also a temple to
Venus the Courtesan (ἑταῖρα). And Clearchus, in the first book of his
treatise on Amatory Matters, says—"Gyges the king of the Lydians was
very celebrated, not only on account of his mistress while she was
alive, having submitted himself and his whole dominions to her power,
but also after she was dead; inasmuch as he assembled all the Lydians
in the whole country, and raised that mound which is even now called
the tomb of the Lydian Courtesan; building it up to a great height, so
that when he was travelling in the country, inside of Mount Tmolus,
wherever he was, he could always see the tomb; and it was a conspicuous
object to all the inhabitants of Lydia." And Demosthenes the orator,
in his Speech against Neæra (if it is a genuine one, which Apollodorus
says it is), says—"Now we have courtesans for the sake of pleasure,
but concubines for the sake of daily cohabitation, and wives for the
purpose of having children legitimately, and of having a faithful
guardian of all our household affairs."
32. I will now mention to you, O Cynulcus, an Ionian story (spinning it
out, as Æschylus says,) about courtesans, beginning with the beautiful
Corinth, since you have reproached me with having been a schoolmaster
in that city.
It is an ancient custom at Corinth (as Chamæleon of Heraclea
relates, in his treatise on Pindar), whenever the city addresses any
supplication to Venus, about any important matter, to employ as many
courtesans as possible to join in the supplication; and they, too, pray
to the goddess, and afterwards they are present at the sacrifices.
And when the king of Persia was leading his army against Greece (as
Theopompus also relates, and so does Timæus, in his seventh book),
the Corinthian courtesans offered prayers for the safety of Greece,
going to the temple of Venus. On which account, after the Corinthians
had consecrated a picture to the goddess (which remains even to this
day), and as in this picture they had painted the portraits of the
courtesans who made this supplication at the time, and who were present
afterwards, Simonides composed this epigram:—
[Sidenote: COURTESANS.]
These damsels, in behalf of Greece, and all
Their gallant countrymen, stood nobly forth,
Praying to Venus, the all-powerful goddess;
Nor was the queen of beauty willing ever
To leave the citadel of Greece to fall
Beneath the arrows of the unwarlike Persians.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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