Traditionally, historians of ancient Greece have distinguished between hetairai and pornai , another class of prostitute in ancient Greece. In contrast to pornai, who provided sex for a large number of clients in brothels or on the street, hetairai were thought to have had only a few men as clients at any one time, to have had long-term relationships with them, and to have provided companionship and intellectual stimulation as well as sex.
More recently, however, historians have questioned the extent to which there was really a distinction between hetairai and pornai. The second edition of the Oxford Classical Dictionary , for instance, held that hetaira was a euphemism for any kind of prostitute. A third position, advanced by Rebecca Futo Kennedy, suggests that hetairai "were not prostitutes or even courtesans". Even when the term hetaira was used to refer to a specific class of prostitute, though, scholars disagree on what precisely the line of demarcation was.
Kurke emphasises that hetairai veiled the fact that they were selling sex through the language of gift-exchange, while pornai explicitly commodified sex. Along with sexual services, women described as hetairai rather than pornai seem to have often been educated, and have provided companionship.
Free hetairai could become very wealthy, and control their own finances. However, their careers could be short, and if they did not earn enough to support themselves, they might have been forced to resort to working in brothels , or working as pimps, in order to ensure a continued income as they got older.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For similarly spelled words, see Hetair- disambiguation. Women in Greek Society. The Oxford Classical Dictionary 2 ed. Apollodoros 'Against Neaira' [D. Immigrant Women in Athens: Gender, Ethnicity, and Citizenship in the Classical City. Apollodorus' Deliberate Use of Terms for Prostitutes". The American Journal of Philology. Retrieved from " https: Articles containing Ancient Greek-language text Commons category link is on Wikidata.
