#pornoi

Thaïs and Hetairai

To explain the exceptions, we need to understand the larger context of ancient Greek prostitution.

Hetairai in particular occupied a “gray” category. They were, and were not, pornoi. Greeks tended to divide women into two main groups, but with an overlapping “neither fish nor fowl” in the middle.

“Citizen women” are the freeborn mothers, wives, sisters, daughters, and nieces of citizen men. “Metic women” are the freeborn mothers, wives, sisters, daughters, and nieces of metics (metoikos), or resident foreigners. The term metic is specifically Athenian, but the category existed in other city-states. There just weren’t many [if any], with the exception of Corinth, another large cosmopolitan polis. (Also some in Asia Minor.) Some city states, such as Sparta, actually outlawed resident foreigners. One could stay only a limited time.

Anyway, these “proper” women got married, produced heirs, etc.

Women outside this category had no (or very limited) rights and protections, and the vast bulk were slaves—whether owned by a family (a house slave or a nurse), owned by the city-state itself (polis slaves), or pornoi (prostitutes) owned by businesses like brothels.

Prostitution was legal in ancient Greece—and taxed. Levels of prostitutes existed, depending on what skills, if any, she possessed. So a flute-player or gymnast was a skilled slave as opposed to a brothel worker—although even brothel workers might be tasked with weaving during the daylight hours.

The more skills (and natural beauty) a porna possessed, the better (and longer) her life was likely to be. But we shouldn’t assume any of it was particularly good.

Now we come to the gray area: the mistress (pallakē) and the hetaira: partially overlapping categories. These categories exist, in part, to avoid the prostitution tax.

A pallakē was a kept woman, or mistress, usually the daughter of a high-born resident foreigner in city-states like Athens with citizenship restrictions. These girls could not legally marry a citizen male to produce heirs, but the citizen man and the girl’s father might have an important business relationship. Marriage was often a political or business tool for upper-class citizens. So this is a marriage-like arrangement. The girl would be provided for by the citizen man, often in a separate residence form his own (where he likely also had a wife). This is almost exclusively an upper-class phenomenon in large poleis like Athens, Corinth, or Miletos. Because she is freeborn (even if not a citizen) she is not a slave, nor is she a prostitute…ergo, there’s no tax. Her house, clothes, and support are considered “gifts,” not “payment.”

The term hetaira means “Companion.” The male form, hetairos, was used in Homer of the elite warriors who accompanied a king, and was still used in Macedonia into the historical period for their aristocrats.

But hetairai were the top category of prostitute, selected for their beauty, intelligence, and education. Unlike many citizen women, they could read and do sums, and kept up with politics, even philosophy. Their job was as escort: sex assumed to be part of it, but not the whole.

Because it took money to train hetairai to become hetairai (education, etc.), many began life as select slaves, not uncommonly purchased by older hetairai who were past their "use-by" date, so to speak. Some of these women adopted them as “daughters,” trained them, then put them to work. It tended to be more small-scale than the (usually male-owned) brothels with dozens of sex workers. And while some situations were no doubt cruel to the younger girls, there’s some evidence that strong bonds were formed between the madam and her girls.

The tricky part here was how these girls were paid, or how their owners were paid. Instead of a literal exchange of cash, their men would buy them things as a gift. So the madam would have olive oil provided, or the rent on the place she lived, or wool, or what-have-you “given” to her, then her clients had use of her girls (or herself). This allowed the madam to skate past that prostitution tax. Yet these women often lived in fear of being taken to court and accused of being prostitutes. The famous court case “Against Naiara” tells us a lot about the social fabrications of these top-level prostitutes. Also in that case (prosecuted by Demosthenes), we have his line that defines how (Athenian) men saw women:

“We have hetairai for pleasure, pallakai to care for our daily body’s needs, and gunaikes (wives) to bear us legitimate children and to be faithful guardians of our households.”

If a hetaira became famous enough, she might earn enough to purchase her freedom or—as in Dancing with the Lion: Rise, with Kampaspē—have one of her clients buy her/buy her free. She then became that man’s pallakē; he doesn’t have to share her with anyone else. In DwtL: Rise, technically, Kampaspē is still Alexandros’s slave (which has legal repercussions), but she is no longer a hetaira. (And—spoiler—she will eventually become a freed woman who takes in her own girls.)

Girls who were given as a pallakē would sometimes have to make the lateral move to hetaira if their sponsor died, or even if he dumped her as she aged. Because a pallakē did not have the legal protections of a wife, she was easier to discard. (Although some form of contract was likely made between her father and her sponsor to protect her.) But if her sponsor died, she isn't a widow and can't remarry, like a “proper” wife might. She could be transferred to another man, or she might become a hetaira, especially if she had the needed skills. This appears to be what happened to Aspasia. (See Madeleine Henry’s brilliant A Prisoner of History.) These girls may never have been slaves at all, then.