The Plague of Lust, Vol. 1 (of 2): Being a History of Venereal Disease in Classical AntiquityRosenbaum, Julius
History
The Plague of Lust, Vol. 1 (of 2): Being a History of Venereal Disease in Classical Antiquity
Rosenbaum, Julius
Sexually transmitted diseases -- History
Licences to follow the calling were granted to the whore-masters, and
also the women, on payment of a fixed duty, called “prostitute tax”
(τέλος πορνικόν)[139], which was leased out yearly by the Magistracy,
and collected by professional _farmers of the prostitution-tax_ or
Collectors, known as πορνοτελώναι, who kept a complete list, in which
were included even the “Pathici” (pathic sodomites), of all liable to
the impost. From the proceeds of this prostitution-tax _Solon_ would
seem to have built a temple at Athens to Aphrodité Pandemos[140].
From this an idea may be formed, even if nothing more than a sort of
brothel is to be understood by the term, of the large number of women
of this character and of the considerable revenue of the city.
The public women were either such as lived in the brothels (πόρναι,
αἱ προστᾶσαι τῶν οἰκημάτων,—harlots, prostitutes of the “houses”),
where they used to stand at the doors, and that in rows (ἐπὶ κέρως
τεταγμένας,—drawn up in column) more or less stripped, in almost
transparent dresses (γυμναὶ, ἐν λεπτοπήνοις ὑμέσιν,—stripped, in
fine-woven robes)[141], or else they were kept partly as ἑταῖραι
μουσικαί—“musical” hetaerae, like the harp-girls in German beer-halls,
or with procurers (μαστροπός, προαγωγός,—bawds, procurers) in their
taverns (προαγωγεῖα, μαστρόπιον, ματρύλλεια,—procurer’s house,
bawdy-house, brothel). Or again they followed their trade in the
Port-Market (the δεῖγμα) as δεικτηριάδες (Market-girls)[142], in
the στοὰ μακρὰ, (Long Portico), and generally in the Lanes of that
neighbourhood (χαμαιτύπαι[143], χαμαιευνάδες, χαμαιεύνης, χαμαιτηρίς,
χαμεύνης,—all nick-names for common strumpets, “ground-thumpers,”
“sleepers on the ground”), where they either surrendered themselves on
the spot or hied to recognised harlots’ dens (χαμαιτυπεῖον) or houses
of accommodation (τέγος)[144].
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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