Deipnosophistae

1. There is a courtesan. . . . .

(as Antiphanes says in his Clown)—

1. . . . who is a positive
2. Calamity and ruin to her keeper;
3. And yet he's glad at nourishing such a pest.

On which account, in the Neæra of Timocles, a man is represented as lamenting his fate, and saying—

1. But I, unhappy man, who first loved Phryne
2. When she was but a gatherer of capers,
3. And was not quite as rich as now she is,—
4. I who such sums of money spent upon her,
5. Am now excluded from her doors.

And in the play entitled Orestantoclides, the same Timocles says—

1. And round the wretched man old women sleep,
2. Nannium and Plangon, Lyca, Phryne too,
3. Gnathæna, Pythionica, Myrrhina,
4. Chrysis, Conallis, Hieroclea, and
5. Lapadium also.

And these courtesans are mentioned by Amphis, in his Curis, where he says—

1. Wealth truly seems to me to be quite blind,
2. Since he ne'er ventures near this woman's doors,
3. But haunts Sinope, Nannium, and Lyca,
4. And others like them, traps of men's existence,
5. And in their houses sits like one amazed,
6. And ne'er departs.

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—

1. For, first of all, to earn themselves much gain,
2. And better to plunder all the neighbouring men,
3. They use a heap of adventitious aids—
4. They plot to take in every one. And when,
5. By subtle artifice, they've made some money,
6. They enlist fresh girls, and add recruits, who ne'er
7. Have tried the trade, unto their cunning troop,
8. And drill them so that they are very soon
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9. Different in manners, and in look, and semblance
10. From all they were before. Suppose one's short—
11. They put cork soles within the heels of her shoes:
12. Is any one too tall—she wears a slipper
13. Of thinnest substance, and, with head depress'd
14. Between the shoulders, walks the public streets,
15. And so takes off from her superfluous height.
16. Is any one too lean about the flank—
17. They hoop her with a bustle, so that all
18. Who see her marvel at her fair proportions.
19. Has any one too prominent a stomach—
20. They crown it with false breasts, such as perchance
21. At times you may in comic actors see;
22. And what is still too prominent, they force
23. Back, ramming it as if with scaffolding.
24. Has any one red eyebrows—those they smear
25. With soot. Has any one a dark complexion—
26. White-lead will that correct. This girl's too fair—
27. They rub her well with rich vermilion.
28. Is she a splendid figure—then her charms
29. Are shown in naked beauty to the purchaser.
30. Has she good teeth-then she is forced to laugh,
31. That all the bystanders may see her mouth,
32. How beautiful it is; and if she be
33. But ill-inclined to laugh, then she is kept
34. Close within doors whole days, and all the things
35. Which cooks keep by them when they sell goats' heads,
36. Such as a stick of myrrh, she's forced to keep
37. Between her lips, till they have learnt the shape
38. Of the required grin. And by such arts
39. They make their charms and persons up for market.

And therefore I advise you, my Thessalian friend with the handsome chairs, to be content to embrace the women in the brothels, and not to spend the inheritance of your children on vanities. For, truly, the lame man gets on best at this sort of work; since your father, the boot-maker, did not lecture you and teach you any great deal, and did not confine you to looking at leather. Or do you not know those women, as we find them called in the Pannuchis of Eubulus—

1. Thrifty decoys, who gather in the money,—
2. Fillies well-train'd of Venus, standing naked
3. In long array, clad in transparent robes
4. Of thinnest web, like the fair damsels whom
5. Eridanus waters with his holy stream;
6. From whom, with safety and frugality,
7. You may buy pleasure at a moderate cost.

And in his Nannium, (the play under this name is the work of Eubulus, and not of Philippides)—

1. For he who secretly goes hunting for
2. Illicit love, must surely of all men
3. Most miserable be; and yet he may
4. See in the light of the sun a willing row
5. Of naked damsels, standing all array'd
6. In robes transparent, like the damsels whom
7. Eridanus waters with his holy stream,
8. And buy some pleasure at a trifling rate,
9. Without pursuing joys he 's bound to hide,
10. (There is no heavier calamity,)
11. Just out of wantonness and not for love.
12. I do bewail the fate of hapless Greece,
13. Which sent forth such an admiral as Cydias.

Xenarchus also, in his Pentathlum, reproaches those men who live as you do, and who fix their hearts on extravagant courtesans, and on freeborn women; in the following lines—

1. It is a terrible, yes a terrible and
2. Intolerable evil, what the young
3. Men do throughout this city. For although
4. There are most beauteous damsels in the brothels,
5. Which any man may see standing all willing
6. In the full light of day, with open bosoms,
7. Showing their naked charms, all of a row,
8. Marshall'd in order; and though they may choose
9. Without the slightest trouble, as they fancy,
10. Thin, stout, or round, tall, wrinkled, or smooth-faced,
11. Young, old, or middle-aged, or elderly,
12. So that they need not clamber up a ladder,
13. Nor steal through windows out of free men's houses,
14. Nor smuggle themselves in in bags of chaff;
15. For these gay girls will ravish you by force,
16. And drag you in to them; if old, they'll call you
17. Their dear papa; if young, their darling baby:
18. And these a man may fearlessly and cheaply
19. Amuse himself with, morning, noon, or night,
20. And any way he pleases; but the others
21. He dares not gaze on openly nor look at,
22. But, fearing, trembling, shivering, with his heart,
23. As men say, in his mouth, he creeps towards them.
24. And how can they, O sea-born mistress mine,
25. Immortal Venus! act as well they ought,
26. E'en when they have the opportunity,
27. If any thought of Draco's laws comes o'er them?

And Philemon, in his Brothers, relates that Solon at first, on account of the unbridled passions of the young, made a law that women might be brought to be prostituted at brothels; as Nicander of Colophon also states, in the third book of his History of the Affairs of Colophon,—saying that

he first erected a temple to the Public Venus with the money which was earned by the women who were prostituted at these brothels.

But Philemon speaks on this subject as follows:—

1. But you did well for every man, O Solon;
2. For they do say you were the first to see
3. The justice of a public-spirited measure,
4. The saviour of the state—(and it is fit
5. For me to utter this avowal, Solon);—
6. You, seeing that the state was full of men,
7. Young, and possess'd of all the natural appetites,
8. And wandering in their lusts where they'd no business,
9. Bought women, and in certain spots did place them,
10. Common to be, and ready for all comers.
11. They naked stand: look well at them, my youth,—
12. Do not deceive yourself; a'nt you well off
13. You're ready, so are they: the door is open—
14. The price an obol: enter straight—there is
15. No nonsense here, no cheat or trickery;
16. But do just what you like, and how you like.
17. You're off: wish her good-bye; she 's no more claim on you.

And Aspasia, the friend of Socrates, imported great numbers of beautiful women, and Greece was entirely filled with her courtesans; as that witty writer Aristophanes (in his Acharnenses[*](Ach. 524.)) relates,—saying, that the Peloponnesian war was excited by Pericles, on account of his love for Aspasia, and on account of the girls who had been carried away from her by the Megarians.

1. For some young men, drunk with the cottabus
2. Going to Megara, carry off by stealth
3. A harlot named Simætha. Then the citizens
4. Of Megara, full of grief and indignation,
5. Stole in return two of Aspasia's girls;
6. And this was the beginning of the war
7. Which devastated Greece, for three lewd women.

I therefore, my most learned grammarian, warn you to beware of the courtesans who want a high price, because

1. You may see other damsels play the flute,
2. All playing th' air of Phœbus, or of Jove;
3. But these play no air save the air of the hawk,

as Epicrates says in his Anti-Lais; in which play he also uses the following expressions concerning the celebrated Lais:—

1. But this fair Lais is both drunk and lazy,
2. And cares for nothing, save what she may eat
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3. And drink all day. And she, as I do think,
4. Has the same fate the eagles have; for they,
5. When they are young, down from the mountains stoop,
6. Ravage the flocks and eat the timid hares,
7. Bearing their prey aloft with fearful might.
8. But when they're old, on temple tops they perch,
9. Hungry and helpless; and the soothsayers
10. Turn such a sight into a prodigy.
11. And so might Lais well be thought an omen;
12. For when she was a maiden, young and fresh,
13. She was quite savage with her wondrous riches;
14. And you might easier get access to
15. The satrap Pharnabazus. But at present,
16. Now that she 's more advanced in years, and age
17. Has meddled with her body's round proportions,
18. 'Tis easy both to see her and to scorn her.
19. Now she runs everywhere to get some drink;
20. She'll take a stater—aye, or a triobolus;
21. She will admit you, young or old; and is
22. Become so tame, so utterly subdued,
23. That she will take the money from your hand.

Anaxandrides also, in his Old Man's Madness, mentions Lais, and includes her with many other courtesans in a list which he gives in the following lines:-

1. A. You know Corinthian Lais?
2. B. To be sure;
3. My countrywoman.
4. A. Well, she had a friend,
5. By name Anthea.
6. B. Yes; I knew her well.
7. A. Well, in those days Lagisca was in beauty;
8. Theolyta, too, was wondrous fair to see,
9. And seemed likely to be fairer still;
10. And Ocimon was beautiful as any.

This, then, is the advice I want to give you, my friend Myrtilus; and, as we read in the Cynegis of Philetærus,—

1. Now you are old, reform those ways of yours;
2. Know you not that 'tis hardly well to die
3. In the embraces of a prostitute,
4. As men do say Phormisius perished?

Or do you think that delightful which Timocles speaks of in his Marathonian Women?—

1. How great the difference whether you pass the night
2. With a lawful wife or with a prostitute!
3. Bah! Where 's the firmness of the flesh, the freshness
4. Of breath and of complexion? Oh, ye gods!
5. What appetite it gives one not to find
6. Everything waiting, but to be constrain'd
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7. To struggle a little, and from tender hands
8. To bear soft blows and buffets; that, indeed,
9. Is really pleasure.

And as Cynulcus had still a good deal which he wished to say, and as Magnus was preparing to attack him for the sake of Myrtilus,—Myrtilus, being beforehand with him (for he hated the Syrian), said—

1. But our hopes were not so clean worn out,
2. As to need aid from bitter enemies;

as Callimachus says. For are not we, O Cynulcus, able to defend ourselves?

1. How rude you are, and boorish with your jokes!
2. Your tongue is all on the left side of your mouth;

as Ephippus says in his Philyra. For you seem to me to be one of those men

1. Who of the Muses learnt but ill-shaped letters,

as some one of the parody writers has it.

I therefore, my friends and messmates, have not, as is said in the Auræ of Metagenes, or in the Mammacythus of Aristagoras,

1. Told you of female dancers, courtesans
2. Who once were fair; and now I do not tell you
3. Of flute-playing girls, just reaching womanhood,
4. Who not unwillingly, for adequate pay,
5. Have borne the love of vulgar men;

but I have been speaking of regular professional Hetæræ— that is to say, of those who are able to preserve a friendship free from trickery; whom Cynulcus does not venture to speak ill of, and who of all women are the only ones who have derived their name from friendship, or from that goddess who is named by the Athenians Venus Hetæra: concerning whom Apollodorus the Athenian speaks, in his treatise on the Gods, in the following manner:—

And they worship Venus Hetæra, who brings together male and female companions (ἑταίρους καὶ ἑταίρας)—that is to say, mistresses.

Accordingly, even to this day, freeborn women and maidens call their associates and friends their ἑταῖραι; as Sappho does, where she says—

1. And now with tuneful voice I'll sing
2. These pleasing songs to my companions (ἑταίραις).

And in another place she says—

1. Niobe and Latona were of old
2. Affectionate companions (ἑταῖραι) to each other.

They also call women who prostitute themselves for money, ἑταῖραι. And the verb which they use for prostituting oneself for money is ἑταιρέω, not regarding the etymology of the word, but applying a more decent term to the trade; as Menander, in his Deposit, distinguishing the ἑταῖροι from the ἑταῖραι, says—

1. You've done an act not suited to companions (ἑταίρων),
2. But, by Jove, far more fit for courtesans (ἑταιρῶν),
3. These words, so near the same, do make the sense
4. Not always easily to be distinguished.

But concerning courtesans, Ephippus, in his Merchandise, speaks as follows:—

1. And then if, when we enter through their doors,
2. They see that we are out of sorts at all,
3. They flatter us and soothe us, kiss us gently,
4. Not pressing hard as though our lips were enemies,
5. But with soft open kisses like a sparrow;
6. They sing, and comfort us, and make us cheerful,
7. And straightway banish all our care and grief,
8. And make our faces bright again with smiles.

And Eubulus, in his Campylion, introducing a courtesan of modest deportment, says—

1. How modestly she sat the while at supper!
2. Not like the rest, who make great balls of leeks,
3. And stuff their cheeks with them, and loudly crunch
4. Within their jaws large lumps of greasy meat;
5. But delicately tasting of each dish,
6. In mouthfuls small, like a Milesian maiden.

And Antiphanes says in his Hydra—

1. But he, the man of whom I now was speaking,
2. Seeing a woman who lived near his house,
3. A courtesan, did fall at once in love with her;
4. She was a citizen, without a guardian
5. Or any near relations, and her manners
6. Pure, and on virtue's strictest model form'd,
7. A genuine mistress (ἑταῖρα); for the rest of the crew
8. Bring into disrepute, by their vile manners,
9. A name which in itself has nothing wrong.

And Anaxilas, in his Neottis, says—

1. A. But if a woman does at all times use
2. Fair, moderate language, giving her services
3. Favourable to all who stand in need of her,
4. She from her prompt companionship (ἑταιρίας) does earn
5. The title of companion (ἑταῖρα); and you,
6. As you say rightly, have not fall'n in love
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7. With a vile harlot (πόρνη), but with a companion (ἑταῖρα).
8. Is she not one of pure and simple manners
9. B. At all events, by Jove, she 's beautiful.

But that systematic debaucher of youths of yours, is such a person as Alexis, or Antiphanes, represents him, in his Sleep—

1. On this account, that profligate, when supping
2. With us, will never eat an onion even,
3. Not to annoy the object of his love.

And Ephippus has spoken very well of people of that description in his Sappho, where he says—

1. For when one in the flower of his age
2. Learns to sneak into other men's abodes,
3. And shares of meals where he has not contributed,
4. He must some other mode of payment mean.

And Aeschines the orator has said something of the same kind in his Speech against Timarchus.

But concerning courtesans, Philetærus, in his Huntress, has the following lines:—

1. 'Tis not for nothing that where'er we go
2. We find a temple of Hetæra there,
3. But nowhere one to any wedded wife.

I know, too, that there in a festival called the Hetæridia, which is celebrated in Magnesia, not owing to the courtesans, but to another cause, which is mentioned by Hegesander in his Commentaries, who writes thus:—

The Magnesians celebrate a festival called Hetæridia; and they give this account of it: that originally Jason, the son of Aeson, when he had collected the Argonauts, sacrificed to Jupiter Hetæias, and called the festival Hetæridia. And the Macedonian kings also celebrated the Hetæridia.

There is also a temple of Venus the Prostitute (πόρνη) at Abydus, as Pamphylus asserts:—'

For when all the city was oppressed by slavery, the guards in the city, after a sacrifice on one occasion (as Cleanthus relates in his essays on Fables), having got intoxicated, took several courtesans; and one of these women, when she saw that the men were all fast asleep, taking the keys, got over the wall, and brought the news to the citizens of Abydus. And they, on this, immediately came in arms, and slew the guards, and made themselves masters of the walls, and recovered their freedom; and to show their gratitude to the prostitute they built a temple to Venus the Prostitute.

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.

I will now mention to you, O Cynulcus, an Ionian story (spinning it out, as Aeschylus 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:—

1. These damsels, in behalf of Greece, and all
2. Their gallant countrymen, stood nobly forth,
3. Praying to Venus, the all-powerful goddess;
4. Nor was the queen of beauty willing ever
5. To leave the citadel of Greece to fall
6. Beneath the arrows of the unwarlike Persians.

And even private individuals sometimes vow to Venus, that if they succeed in the objects for which they are offering their vows, they will bring her a stated number of courtesans.

As this custom, then, exists with reference to this goddess, Xenophon the Corinthian, when going to Olympia, to the games, vowed that he, if he were victorious, would bring her some courtesans. And Pindar at first wrote a panegyric on him, which begins thus:—

1. Praising the house which in th' Olympic games
2. Has thrice borne off the victory.[*](Pind. Ol. 13.)

But afterwards he composed a scolium[*](A σκολιὸν was a song which went round at banquets, sung to the lyre by the guests, one after another, said to have been introduced by Terpander; but the word is first found in Pind. Fr. lxxxvii. 9; Aristoph. Ach. 532. The name is of uncertain origin: some refer it to t e character of the music, νόμος σκολιὸς, as opposed to νὁμος ὄρθιος; others to the ῥυθμὸς σκολιὸς, or amphibrachic rhythm recognised in many scolia; but most, after Dicæarchus and Plutarch, from the irregular zigzag way it went round the table, each guest who sung holding a myrtle-branch, which he passed on to any one he chose.—Lid. & Scott, Gr. Lex. in voc. ) on him, which was sung at the sacrificial feasts; in the exordium of Which he turns at once to the courtesans who joined in the sacrifice to Venus, in the presence of Xenophon, while he was sacrificing to the goddess himself; on which account he says—

1. O queen of Cyprus' isle,
2. Come to this grove!
3. Lo, Xenophon, succeeding in his aim,
4. Brings you a band of willing maidens,
5. Dancing on a hundred feet.

And the opening lines of the song were these:—

1. O hospitable damsels, fairest train
2. Of soft Persuasion,—
3. Ornament of the wealthy Corinth,
4. Bearing in willing hands the golden drops
5. That from the frankincense distil, and flying

1. To the fair mother of the Loves,
2. Who dwelleth in the sky,
3. The lovely Venus,—you do bring to us
4. Comfort and hope in danger, that we may
5. Hereafter, in the delicate beds of Love,
6. Reap the long-wished-for fruits of joy,
7. Lovely and necessary to all mortal men.

And after having begun in this manner, he proceeds to say—

1. But now I marvel, and wait anxiously
2. To see what will my masters say of me,
3. Who thus begin
4. My scolium with this amatory preface,
5. Willing companion of these willing damsels.

And it is plain here that the poet, while addressing the courtesans in this way, was in some doubt as to the light in which it would appear to the Corinthians; but, trusting to his own genius, he proceeds with the following verse—

1. We teach pure gold on a well-tried lyre.

And Alexis, in his Loving Woman, tells us that the courtesans at Corinth celebrate a festival of their own, called Aphrodisia; where he says—

1. The city at the time was celebrating
2. The Aphrodisia of the courtesans:
3. This is a different festival from that
4. Which the free women solemnize: and then
5. It is the custom on those days that all
6. The courtesans should feast with us in common.

But at Lacedæmon (as Polemo Periegetes says, in his treatise on the Offerings at Lacedæmon,) there is a statue of a very celebrated courtesan, named Cottina, who, he tells us, consecrated a brazen cow; and Polemo's words are these:—

And the statue of Cottina the courtesan, on account of whose celebrity there is still a brothel which is called by her name, near the hill on which the temple of Bacchus stands, is a conspicuous object, well known to many of the citizens. And there is also a votive offering of hers besides that to Minerva Chalciœcos–a brazen cow, and also the before-mentioned image.

And the handsome Alcibiades, of whom one of the comic poets said—

1. And then the delicate Alcibiades.
2. O earth and all the gods! whom Lacedæmon
3. Desires to catch in his adulteries,

though he was beloved by the wife of Agis, used to go and hold his revels at the doors of the courtesans, leaving all the Lacedæmonian and Athenian women. He also fell in love with Medontis of Abydos, from the mere report of her beauty; and sailing to the Hellespont with Axiochus, who was a lover of his on account of his beauty, (as Lysias the orator states, in his speech against him,) he allowed Axiochus to share her with him. Moreover, Alcibiades used always to carry about two other courtesans with him in all his expeditions, namely, Damasandra, the mother of the younger Lais, and Theodote; by whom, after he was dead, he was buried in Melissa, a village of Phrygia, after he had been overwhelmed by the treachery of Pharnabazus. And we ourselves saw the tomb of Alcibiades at Melissa, when we went from Synadæ to Metropolis; and at that tomb there is sacrificed an ox every year, by the command of that most excellent emperor Adrian, who also erected on the tomb a statue of Alcibiades in Parian marble.

And we must not wonder at people having on some occasions fallen in love with others from the mere report of their beauty, when Chares of Mitylene, in the tenth book of his History of Alexander, says that some people have even seen in dreams those whom they have never beheld before, and fallen in love with them so. And he writes as follows: —

Hystaspes had a younger brother whose name was Zariadres: and they were both men of great personal beauty: And the story told concerning them by the natives of the country is, that they were the offspring of Venus and Adonis. Now Hystaspes was sovereign of Media, and of the lower country adjoining it; and Zariadres was sovereign of the country above the Caspian gates as far as the river Tanais. Now the daughter of Omartes, the king of the Marathi, a tribe dwelling on the other side of the Tanais, was named Odatis. And concerning her it is written in the Histories, that she in her sleep beheld Zariadres, and fell in love with him; and that the very same thing happened to him with respect to her. And so for a long time they were in love with one another, simply on account of the visions which they had seen in their dreams. And Odatis was the most beautiful of all the women in Asia; and Zariadres also was very handsome. Accordingly, when Zariadres sent to Omartes and expressed a desire to marry the damsel, Omartes would not agree to it, because he was destitute of male offspring;

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for he wished to give her to one of his own people about his court. And not long afterwards, Omartes having assembled all the chief men of his kingdom, and all his friends and relations, held a marriage feast, without saying beforehand to whom he was going to give his daughter. And as the wine went round, her father summoned Odatis to the banquet, and said, in the hearing of all the guests,—'We, my daughter Odatis, are now celebrating your marriage feast; so now do you look around, and survey all those who are present, and then take a golden goblet and fill it, and give it to the man to whom you like to be married; for you shall be called his wife.' And she, having looked round upon them all, went away weeping, being anxious to see Zariadres, for she had sent him word that her marriage feast was about to be celebrated. But he, being encamped on the Tanais, and leaving the army encamped there without being perceived, crossed the river with his charioteer alone; and going by night in his chariot, passed through the city, having gone about eight hundred stadia without stopping. And when he got near the town in which the marriage festival was being celebrated, and leaving, in some place near, his chariot with the charioteer, he went forward by himself, clad in a Scythian robe. And when he arrived at the palace, and seeing Odatis standing in front of the sideboard in tears, and filling the goblet very slowly, he stood near her and said, '0 Odatis, here I am come, as you requested me to,—I, Zariadres.' And she, perceiving a stranger, and a handsome man, and that he resembled the man whom she had beheld in her sleep, being exceedingly rejoiced, gave him the bowl. And he, seizing on her, led her away to his chariot, and fled away, having Odatis with him. And the servants and the handmaidens, knowing their love, said not a word. And when her father ordered them to summon her, they said that they did not know which way she was gone. And the story of this love is often told by the barbarians who dwell in Asia, and is exceedingly admired; and they have painted representations of the story in their temples and palaces, and also in their private houses. And a great many of the princes in those countries give their daughters the name of Odatis.

Aristotle also, in his Constitution of the Massilians, mentions a similar circumstance as having taken place, writing

as follows:—

The Phocæans in Ionia, having consulted the oracle, founded Marseilles. And Euxenus the Phocæan was connected by ties of hospitality with Nanus; this was the name of the king of that country. This Nanus was celebrating the marriage feast of his daughter, and invited Euxenus, who happened to be in the neighborhood, to the feast. And the marriage was to be conducted in this manner: —After the supper was over the damsel was to come in, and to give a goblet full of wine properly mixed to whichever of the suitors who were present she chose; and to whomsoever she gave it, he was to be the bridegroom. And the damsel coming in, whether it was by chance or whether it was for any other reason, gives the goblet to Euxenus. And the name of the maiden was Petta. And when the cup had been given in this way, and her father (thinking that she had been directed by the Deity in her giving of it) had consented that Euxenus should have her, he took her for his wife, and cohabited with her, changing her name to Aristoxena. And the family which is descended from that damsel remains in Marseilles to this day, and is known as the Protiadæ; for Protis was the name of the son of Euxenus and Aristoxena.

And did not Themistocles, as Idomeneus relates, harness a chariot full of courtesans and drive with them into the city when the market was full? And the courtesans were Lamia and Scione and Satyra and Nannium. And was not Themistocles himself the son of a courtesan, whose name was Abrotonum? as Amphicrates relates in his treatise on Illustrious Men—

1. Abrotonum was but a Thracian woman,
2. But for the weal of Greece
3. She was the mother of the great Themistocles.

But Neanthes of Cyzicus, in his third and fourth books of his History of Grecian Affairs, says that he was the son of Euterpe.

And when Cyrus the younger was making his expedition against his brother, did he not carry with him a courtesan of Phocæa, who was a very clever and very beautiful woman? and Zenophanes says that her name was originally Milto, but that it was afterwards changed to Aspasia. And a Milesian concubine also accompanied him. And did not the great Alexander keep Thais about him, who was an Athenian courtesan? And Clitarchus speaks of her as having been the

cause that the palace of Persepolis was burnt down. And this Thais, after the death of Alexander, married Ptolemy, who became the first king of Egypt, and she bore him sons, Leontiscus and Lagos, and a daughter named Irene, who was married to Eunostus, the king of Soli, a town of Cyprus. And the second king of Egypt, Ptolemy Philadelphus by name, as Ptolemy Euergetes relates in the third book of his Commentaries, had a great many mistresses,—namely, Didyma, who was a native of the country, and very beautiful; and Bilisticha; and, besides them, Agathoclea, and Stratonice, who had a great monument on the sea-shore, near Eleusis; and Myrtium, and a great many more; as he was a man excessively addicted to amatory pleasures. And Polybius, in the fourteenth book of his History, says that there are a great many statues of a woman named Clino, who was his cupbearer, in Alexandria, clothed in a tunic only, and holding a cornucopia in her hand.

And are not,

says he,

the finest houses called by the names of Myrtium, and Mnesis, and Pothina? and yet Mnesis was only a female flute-player, and so was Pothine, and Myrtium was one of the most notorious and common prostitutes in the city.

Was there not also Agathoclea the courtesan, who had great power over king Ptolemy Philopator? in fact, was it not she who was the ruin of his whole kingdom? And Eumachus the Neapolitan, in the second book of his History of Hannibal, says that Hieronymus, the tyrant of Syracuse, fell in love with one of the common prostitutes who followed her trade in a brothel, whose name was Pitho, and married her, and made her queen of Syracuse.

And Timotheus, who was general of the Athenians, with a very high reputation, was the son of a courtesan, a Thracian by birth, but, except that she was a courtesan, of very excellent character; for when women of this class do behave modestly, they are superior to those who give themselves airs on account of their virtue. But Timotheus being on one occasion reproached as being the son of a mother of that character, said,—

But I am much obliged to her, because it is owing to her that I am the son of Conon.

And Carystius, in his Historic Commentaries, says that Philetærus the king of Pergamus, and of all that country which is now called the New Province, was the son of a woman named Boa, who was a flute-player and a courtesan, a Paphlagonian by birth. And Aristophon the orator, who in the archonship of Euclides proposed a law, that every one who was not born of a woman who was a citizen should be accounted a bastard, was himself convicted, by Calliades the comic poet, of having children by a courtesan named Choregis, as the same Carystius relates in the third book of his Commentaries.

Besides all these men, was not Demetrius Poliorcetes evidently in love with Lamia the flute-player, by whom he had a daughter named Phila? And Polemo, in his treatise on the colonnade called Pæcile at Sicyon, says that Lamia was the daughter of Cleanor an Athenian, and that she built the before-mentioned colonnade for the people of Sicyon. Demetrius was also in love with Leæna, and she was also an Athenian courtesan; and with a great many other women besides.

And Machon the comic poet, in his play entitled the Chriæ, speaks thus:—

1. But as Leæna was by nature form'd
2. To give her lovers most exceeding pleasure,
3. And was besides much favour'd by Demetrius,
4. They say that Lamia also gratified
5. The king; and when he praised her grace and quickness,
6. The damsel answer'd: And besides you can,
7. If you do wish, subdue a lioness (λέαιναν.)

But Lamia was always very witty and prompt in repartee, as also was Gnathæna, whom we shall mention presently. And again Machon writes thus about Lamia:—

1. Demetrius the king was once displaying
2. Amid his cups a great variety
3. Of kinds of perfumes to his Lamia:
4. Now Lamia was a female flute-player,
5. With whom 'tis always said Demetrius
6. Was very much in love. But when she scoff'd
7. At all his perfumes, and, moreover, treated
8. The monarch with exceeding insolence,
9. He bade a slave bring some cheap unguent, and
10. He rubbed himself with that, and smear'd his fingers,
11. And said, "At least smell this, O Lamia,
12. And see how much this scent does beat all others."
13. She laughingly replied: "But know, O king,
14. That smell does seem to me the worst of all."

15. But,

    said Demetrius, "I swear, by the gods,
16. That 'tis produced from a right royal nut."

But Ptolemy the son of Agesarchus, in his History of

Philopator, giving a list of the mistresses of the different kings, says—

Philip the Macedonian promoted Philinna, the dancing woman, by whom he had Aridæus, who was king of Macedonia after Alexander. And Demetrius Poliorcetes, besides the women who have already been mentioned, had a mistress named Mania; and Antigonus had one named Demo, by whom he had a son named Alcyoneus; and Seleucus the younger had two, whose names were Mysta and Nysa.

But Heraclides Lenebus, in the thirty-sixth book of his History, says that Demo was the mistress of Demetrius; and that his father Antigonus was also in love with her: and that he put to death Oxythemis as having sinned a good deal with Demetrius; and he also put to the torture and executed the maidservants of Demo.

But concerning the name of Mania, which we have just mentioned, the same Machon says this:—

1. Some one perhaps of those who hear this now,
2. May fairly wonder how it came to pass
3. That an Athenian woman had a name,
4. Or e'en a nickname, such as Mania.
5. For 'tis disgraceful for a woman thus
6. To bear a Phrygian name; she being, too,
7. A courtesan from the very heart of Greece.
8. And how came she to sink the city of Athens,
9. By which all other nations are much sway'd?
10. The fact is that her name from early childhood
11. Was this—Melitta. And as she grew up
12. A trifle shorter than her playfellows,
13. But with a sweet voice and engaging manners,
14. And with such beauty and excellence of face
15. As made a deep impression upon all men,
16. She 'd many lovers, foreigners and citizens.
17. So that when any conversation
18. Arose about this woman, each man said,
19. The fair Melitta was his madness (μανία.) Aye,
20. And she herself contributed to this name;
21. For when she jested she would oft repeat
22. This word μανία; and when in sport she blamed
23. Or praised any one, she would bring in,
24. In either sentence, this word μανία.
25. So some one of her lovers, dwelling on
26. The word, appears to have nicknamed the girl
27. Mania; and this extra name prevailed
28. More than her real one. It seems, besides,
29. That Mania was afflicted with the stone.