What is being purchased here is at once obvious, as is the joy both parties take in the contractual process.

Prostitution was legal in Greece, and beginning after the time Solon was made lawgiver (594 B.C.), three were three officially recognized classes of prostitutes in Greece: the dicteriades, auletrides, and hetairae. The dicteriades were the lowest class, At first the dicteria were operated by the municipal government, but later they became private enterprises that paid taxes. As these ladies were immensely popular, their combined earnings brought substantial revenues to the state. In fact, in Solon's lifetime they financed the construction of a temple of worship dedicated to Aphrodite. However, the dicteriades were not educated, except for sexual technique.

It was the middle class prostitutes, auletrides, and the upper class hetairae, who were educated. The auletrides (literally, "flute-players"), were lovely and accomplished musicians, singers, dancers, and strippers. With these skills, they stirred up quite a bit more passion, and, hence, more revenue.

The most famous auletride was Lamia, who, after being the delight of Alexandria and of King Ptolemy for two decades, was taken with the city by Demetrius of Macedon, and rose to the rank of his mistress. Through her skills of seduction, she soon ruled Demetrius and, through him, Athens. The Athenians built a temple in her honor, even deifying her under the name "Aphrodite Lamia".

However, the 'upper class' hetairae had more freedom than any of the more "respectable" Athenian matrons, as they were thoroughly educated and free to leave the confines of the home to see plays, attend banquets, or debate philosophy and politics with the most learned men.

One such hetaira, Aspasia, was quite erudite, and had founded a renowned gynaceum, a school for hetairae at Athens. She emphasized intellectual studies, and lectured publicly on rhetoric and philsophy. Socrates himself brought his friends and students to hear her speak; she thus influenced his ideas as well as those of Plato and other great philosophers. Like Lamia, Aspasia also became the unofficial ruler of Athens through her lover, Pericles. Such was the power that these women had in a different age than ours.

from "The History of Prostitution" by William W. Sanger, 1987 reprint

       
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