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Prostitutes &
Classics / Women’s Studies / Ancient History
Prostitutes & Courtesans
Courtesans in the
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“Demonstrates, quite splendidly, how the study of prostitution in the ancient e &
world provides crucial insight into the nature of ancient life, its mores, social
practices, and political ideologies and discourses.”
–Ellen Greene, author of The Erotics of Domination µ µ
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Prostitutes and Courtesans in the Ancient Worldexplores the implications of sex-for-pay across a r
broad span of time, from ancient Mesopotamia to the early Christian period. In ancient times, to
although they were socially marginal, prostitutes connected with almost every aspect of daily hs
life. They sat in brothels and walked the streets; they paid taxes and set up dedications in t
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religious sanctuaries; they appeared as characters–sometimes admirable, sometimes i
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despicable–on the comic stage and in the law courts; they lived lavishly, consorting with
famous poets and politicians; and they participated in otherwise all male banquets and drinking nu
parties, where they aroused jealousy among their anxious lovers. ct
The chapters in this volume examine a wide variety of genres and sources, from legal and ie
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religious tracts to the genres of lyric poetry, love elegy, and comic drama to the graffiti scrawled s
on the walls of ancient Pompeii. These essays reflect the variety and vitality of the debates n &
engendered by the last three decades of research by confronting the ambiguous terms for pros- t
titution in ancient languages, the difficulty of distinguishing the prostitute from the woman W C
who is merely promiscuous or adulterous, the question of whether sacred or temple
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prostitution actually existed in the ancient Near East and Greece, and the political and social o
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implications of literary representations of prostitutes and courtesans. r
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“This volume engages provocatively with previous studies on the topic of d
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prostitution in Greece, Rome, and the Near East. The readable style and lively
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English translations will make this book accessible not only to students and a
specialists but also to the broader reading public.” n
—Judith P. Hallett, coeditor of Roman Sexualities s
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CHRISTOPHERA. FARAONEis professor of classics at the University of Chicago, author of
Ancient Greek Love Magic, and coeditor of Magika Hiera: Ancient Greek Magic and Religion.
LAURAK. MCCLUREis professor of classics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, author
of Courtesans at Table: Gender and Greek Literary Culture in Athenaeus, and editor of Sexuality and
Gender in the Ancient World.
Wisconsin Studies in Classics µ µ
William Aylward, Nicholas D. Cahill, and
Patricia A. Rosenmeyer, General Editors Edited by
The University of Wisconsin Press
Christopher A. Faraone &
Madison, Wisconsin
W
www.wisc.edu/wisconsinpress IS
C Laura K. McClure
Cover Illustration: © The J. Paul Getty Museum, O
N
Villa Collection, Malibu, California. 978-0-299-21314-5 S
Cover Design: John Huston Graphic Design IN
Prostitutes and Courtesans
in the Ancient World
Publication of this volume has been made possible
through the generous support and enduring vision of
warren g. moon.
Prostitutes and
Courtesans in
the Ancient World
Edited by
christopher a. faraone
and
laura k. mcclure
t h e u n i v e r s i t y o f w i s c o n s i n p r e s s
The University of Wisconsin Press
1930 Monroe Street
Madison, Wisconsin 53711
www.wisc.edu/wisconsinpress/
3 Henrietta Street
London WC2E 8LU, England
Copyright © 2006
The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
All rights reserved
5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Prostitutes and courtesans in the ancient world / edited by
Christopher A. Faraone and Laura K. McClure.
p. cm.—(Wisconsin studies in classics)
Papers from the conference, “Prostitution in the Ancient World,”
held in Madison, April 12–14, 2002, hosted by the Classics and
Hebrew and Semitic Studies department at the University.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-299-21310-2 (cloth: alk. paper)
ISBN 0-299-21314-5 (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Prostitution—Greece—History—Congresses. 2. Prostitution—
Rome—History—Congresses. 3. Courtesans—Greece—History—
Congresses. 4. Courtesans—Rome—History—Congresses. 5. Sex
role—Greece—History—To 1500—Congresses. 6. Sex role—
Rome—History—To 1500—Congresses. I. Faraone, Christopher A.
II. McClure, Laura, 1959– III. Series.
HQ113P76 2005
306.74´0938—dc22 2005005455
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Abbreviations and Transliteration ix
Introduction 3
laura k. mcclure
Prostitution and the Sacred
Marriage, Divorce, and the Prostitute in
Ancient Mesopotamia 21
martha t. roth
Prostitution in the Social World and the Religious
Rhetoric of Ancient Israel 40
phyllis a. bird
Heavenly Bodies: Monuments to Prostitutes in
Greek Sanctuaries 59
catherine keesling
Sacred Prostitution in the First Person 77
stephanie l. budin
Legal and Moral Discourses on Prostitution
Free and Unfree Sexual Work: An Economic Analysis
of Athenian Prostitution 95
edward e. cohen
v
vi Contents
The Bad Girls of Athens: The Image and Function of
Hetairaiin Judicial Oratory 125
allison glazebrook
The Psychology of Prostitution in Aeschines’ Speech
against Timarchus 139
susan lape
Zoning Shame in the Roman City 161
thomas mcginn
The Politics of Prostitution: Clodia, Cicero, and Social
Order in the Late Roman Republic 177
marsha mccoy
Matronaand Whore: Clothing and Definition in
Roman Antiquity 186
kelly olson
Prostitution, Comedy, and Public Performance
Priestess and Courtesan: The Ambivalence of Female
Leadership in Aristophanes’ Lysistrata 207
christopher a. faraone
ACourtesan’s Choreography: Female Liberty and Male
Anxiety at the Roman Dinner Party 224
sharon l. james
Infamous Performers: Comic Actors and Female Prostitutes
in Rome 252
anne duncan
The Phallic Lesbian: Philosophy, Comedy, and Social
Inversion in Lucian’sDialogues of the Courtesans 274
kate gilhuly
Bibliography 295
Contributors 329
Index 333
Index Locorum 353
Acknowledgments
The editors would like to acknowledge the Anonymous Fund of the
College of Letters and Science at the University of Wisconsin for their
generous funding of the conference at which these papers were first de-
livered, “Prostitution in the Ancient World,” held in Madison, April 12–
14, 2002. We are also grateful to colleagues in the Classics and Hebrew
and Semitic Studies Department at Wisconsin for their hospitality dur-
ing the conference. The series editor for UW Press, Patricia Rosen-
meyer, deserves special thanks for her support of the manuscript at an
early stage. The volume benefited from the remarks of the readers for
the press, Judith Hallett and Ellen Greene, especially on the Roman ma-
terials. Thanks also to our editor, Sheila Moermond, for her help in the
preparation of the manuscript and to Alex Pappas in Madison and Mar-
tin Devecka in Chicago for their help with the bibliography and indices.
Lastly, we would like to thank all of our contributors for their patience
with what has been a rather protracted editing process, especially given
the postponement of the original conference date due to the events of
September 11, 2001. We hope that their thoughtful reflections on a com-
plex yet integral aspect of the ancient world will engender further di-
alogue in the fields of ancient gender studies and cultural criticism.
vviiii
Abbreviations and Transliteration
Abbreviations for frequently cited books, journals, and reference works
appear in the list below. All other references to modern works consist of
the author’s name and the date of publication; full citations can be
found in the bibliography at the end of this volume. In transliterating
Greek, it has seemed reasonable, if not entirely consistent, to use the fa-
miliar Latinized spelling of those names for which this has become
“normal” English usage and in other cases to use a direct transliteration
from the Greek.
ARV2 J. D. Beazley. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed.
Oxford, 1963.
BDB Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon.
BM British Museum.
CCSL Corpus christianorum: Series latina.
CEG P.A. Hansen, ed. Carmina epigraphica graeca, saeculorum
VIII–V a. Chr. n.Berlin, 1983.
CEG2 P. A. Hansen, ed. Carmina epigraphica graeca, saeculi IV a.
Chr. n.Berlin, 1989.
Etym. Magn. Etymologicum magnum.Venice, 1499.
FGrH. F. Jacoby, ed. Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker.
Berlin, 1923–.
HAL L. Koehler, W. Baumgartner, and J. J. Stamm, eds.
Hebräisches und aramäisches Lexikon zum Alten Testament.
Leiden, 1967–1995.
IG 13 D. Lewis, ed. Inscriptiones graecae. 3rd ed. of vol. 1.
Berlin, 1981.
IG 22 J. Kirchner, ed. Inscriptiones graecae. 2nd ed. of vol. 2.
Berlin,1913–40.
ix
