Improper women

• Sex work (exchanging sexual acts for money)

  • Was entirely legal in Athens
  • Sex workers would work in brothels, managed by individuals or by the state
  • This was seen as an ordinary part of Athenian life - there was no stigma attached to a man visiting a sex worker
  • Athenian women were not allowed to visit sex workers
• Sex with a prostitute (or any person from a non-citizen family) was not considered to be adultery
• Athenian men would often host drinking parties called symposia


  • These were opportunities to bond with other men
  • For political reasons (boost reputation, make alliances)
  • For business reasons (forging relationships, making deals)
  • For family reasons (arrange marriage matches)
  • For enjoyment (opportunity to drink, dine and be merry!)
• The women of the household were not invited (but they did have to decorate the room beforehand)
• Common entertainment at symposia

  • Fine food & wine
  • Drinking games
  • Intellectual discussions (philosophy, politics, literature)
  • Professional performances (music, dancing, acrobatics)
  • The presence of a hetaira, who might sing, dance or play music, as well as chat and flirt with the guests
• Metics in Athens


  • Metics were resident foreigners in Athens, not Athenian-born
  • Metics were welcome in Athens, but they were thought of as lesser to the Athenian people, with less of a right to live in Athens
  • Metics had to pay a special tax, serve in the military, and could not vote on political issues or marry Athenian citizens
  • Despite the disadvantages, foreigners streamed into Athens as metics could compete on equal terms with citizens as traders and artisans
• Case Study: Aspasia
• Additional Source: Plato's Menexenus
• Improper Woman Case Study: Aspasia (Ass-parz-cea)
• Prescribed Source: Plutarch's Life of Pericles
• Improper Woman Case Study: Neaira (knee-air-ah)
• When you are writing an essay that compares two or more things, it's a good idea to come up with a list of criteria that you use to judge, then think about each side of the question within every paragraph
• Criteria to judge


  • Were they free or enslaved?
  • Were they educated?
  • Did they have children?
  • Did they have a partner?
  • Did they have proper status?
  • Were they making good money?
  • Did their life have a good outcome?
• Neaira


  Enslaved for most of her life, sold to a brothel at a very young age, had 3 children, was a free woman, learned how to speak rhetoric
• Aspasia


  Was a free woman, had a partner, was able to have political influence, was helped by whoever she was with, was 10 times more educated than Neaira, had a job as a courtesan, had a proper home, lived a good life although she was ridiculed
• Aspasia had the better life
• Sex Workers in Rome
• Meretrix


  In Rome, whenever meretrices (plural of meretrix) were in public, they had to wear a toga. This meant that they were immediately recognisable, since the only other people who wore togas were freeborn men.
• Aspects of the meretrix's life that seem unpleasant


  • They were seen as public property
  • They had to wear a toga as a symbol of shame which is very embarrassing
  • Their status depended on their connections, clientele, and education - if they weren't excelling in those categories they could suffer
• Dinner Parties in Rome
• The experience of a meretrix at a Roman dinner party would differ from the experience of a hetaira at an Athenian symposium in that there would be more competition as well as fewer women present at the Roman dinner party
• The experience of a meretrix at a Roman dinner party would be similar to the experience of a hetaira at an Athenian symposium in that both were important for the family to build a reputation, and both involved entertainment, business, and enjoying dinner and drinks
• The Lena/Leno in Roman Culture
• Lena


  A brothel keeper who would own a premises (brothel), and either own enslaved people or hire people to act as sex workers on her behalf
• Leno


  A male brothel keeper
• Being a Lena was one of the most shameful professions in Rome, even though she was not a sex worker herself
• Several Roman comedy plays include a Lena whose meretrix is referred to as "daughter", which may be a strategy to earn more money from the meretrix's clients
• The lena was viewed by Romans as shamefully greedy
• Cytheris/Lycoris


  A famous courtesan in Rome, born a slave, who became known throughout Rome for her beauty and talent. She had relationships with powerful men like Mark Antony, and was either owned or indebted to a leno named Volumnius for her whole life, despite being famous and respected by some.
• Clodia/Lesbia


  A freeborn woman from a noble Roman family, who was married to her cousin Metellus Celer. She had affairs with famous Roman men like Caelius Rufus and the poet Catullus, and was seen by some as behaving improperly. She was a witness in a court case against Caelius Rufus, which the lawyer Cicero tried to discredit her in.
• Catullus was an elegiac poet who wrote over 300 poems, many of which were addressed to Lesbia, the pseudonym he gave to Clodia
• Cicero gave a famous speech called the Pro Caelio to defend Caelius Rufus, in which he tried to discredit Clodia as a witness by attacking her character