1st Edition
Courtesans at Table Gender and Greek Literary Culture in Athenaeus
By Laura McClure
Copyright 2003
256 Pages
by
Routledge
254 Pages
by
Routledge
254 Pages
by
Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
Witty nicknames, crude jokes, public nudity and lavish monuments, all of these things distinguished Greek courtesans from respectable citizen women in ancient Greece. Although prostitutes appear as early as archaic Greek lyric poetry, our fullest accounts come from the late second century CE. Drawing on Book 13 of the Athenaeus' Deipnosophistae--which contains almost all known references to... Read more
TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION The Courtesan as Fetish / Ancient Greek Terms for Prostitutes Distinguishing the Hetaera from the Porne The Pallake The Auletris and Other Female Entertainers The Eromene Conclusion CHAPTER ONE Genres of Courtesans: Athenaeus and Nostalgia Athenaeus and the Literary Symposium Genres of Courtesans: Athenaeus and the Literary Quotation Book 13 and the Discourse on Hetaeras Cynulcus' Invective against Hetaeras Myrtilus' Encomium of Hetaeras Conclusion CHAPTER TWO The Women Most Mentioned: The Names of Athenian Courtesans The Problem of Names The Names of Athenian Women / Attic Identity, Foreign Birth The Names of Hetaeras The Names of Slaves The Use of the Metronymic Conclusion CHAPTER THREE Parody and Subversion: The Witticisms of Courtesans Flattery, Riddles, and Double Entendres Hetaeras as Poets and Poets as Hetaeras Sympotic Mocker The Laughter of Hetaeras The Chreia as a Literary Genre Tragic Humor, Comic Obscenity Philosophers and Courtesans / Conclusion CHAPTER FOUR
Biography
Laura K. McClure is Associate Professor of Classics and Chair of the Integrated Liberal Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She has edited two essay collections on women and sexuality in ancient Greece, and has written a book on speech and gender in Greek drama.
