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[10.] [560] 
And I do not think that any of you are ignorant, my friends, that the greatest wars have taken place on account of women:- the Trojan war on account of Helene; the plague which took place in it was on account of Chryseis; the anger of Achilles was excited about Briseis; and the war called the Sacred War, on account of another wife (as Duris relates in the second book of his History), who was a Theban by birth, by name Theano, and who was carried off by some Phocian. And this war also lasted ten years, and in the tenth year was brought to an end by the cooperation of Philippus; for by his aid the Thebans took Phocis.
The war, also, which is called the Crissaean War 
(as Callisthenes tells us in his account of the Sacred War), when the Crissaeans made war upon the Phocians, lasted ten years; and it was excited on this account,- because the Crissaeans carried off Megisto, the daughter of Pelagon the Phocian, and the daughters of the Argives, as they were returning from the Pythian temple: and in the tenth year Crissa was taken. And whole families also have been ruined owing to women;- for instance, that of Philippus, the father of Alexander, was ruined on account of his marriage with Cleopatra; and Heracles was ruined by his marriage with Iole, the daughter of Eurytus; and Theseus on account of his marriage with Phaedra, the daughter of Minos; 
and Athamas on account of his marriage with Themisto, the daughter of Hypseus; and Jason on account of his marriage with Glauce, the daughter of Creon; and Agamemnon on account of Cassandra. And, the expedition of Cambyses against Egypt (as Ctesias relates) took place on account of a woman; for Cambyses, having heard that Egyptian women were far more amorous than other women, sent to Amasis the king of the Egyptians, asking him for one of his daughters in marriage. But Amasis did not give him one of his own daughters, thinking that she would not be honoured as a wife, but only treated as a concubine; 
but he sent him Nitetis, the daughter of Apries. And Apries had been deposed from the sovereignty of Egypt, because of the defeats which had been inflicted on him by the Cyrenaeans; and afterwards he had been put to death by Amasis. Accordingly, Cambyses, being much pleased with Nitetis, and being very violently in love with her, learnt the whole circumstances of the case from her; and she entreated him to avenge the murder of Apries, and persuaded him to make war upon the Egyptians. But Dinon, in his History of Persia, 
and Lynceas of Naucratis, in the third book of his History of Egypt, say that it was Cyrus to whom Nitetis was sent by Amasis; and that she was the mother of Cambyses, who made this expedition against Egypt to avenge the wrongs of his mother and her family. # But Duris the Samian says that the first war carried on by two women was that between Olympias and Eurydice; in which Olympias advanced something in the manner of a Bacchant, with drums beating; but Eurydice came forward armed like a Macedonian soldier, having been already accustomed to war and military habits at the court of Cynnane the Illyrian.
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[15.] [563] Myrtilus, having cited these lines of Alexis, and then looking round on the men who were partisans of the Stoic school, first recited the following passage out of the Iambics of Hermeias of Curium-
Listen, you Stoiclings, traffickers in nonsense,
Punners on words,- gluttons, who by yourselves
Eat up the whole of what is in the dishes,
And give no single bit to a philosopher.
Besides, you are most clearly proved to do
All that is contrary to those declarations
Which you so pompously parade abroad,
Hunting for beauty;-
and then went on to say,- # And in this point alone you are imitators of the master of your school, Zenon the Phoenician, who was always a slave to the most infamous passions (as Antigonus of Carystus relates, in his Life of Zenon); for you are always saying that "the proper object of love is not the body, but the mind;" you who say at the same time, that you ought to remain faithful to the objects of your love, till they are eight-and-twenty years of age. And Ariston of Ceos, the Peripatetic, appears to me to have said very well (in the second book of his treatise on Likenesses connected with Love), to some Athenian who was very tall for his age, and at the same time was boasting of his beauty, (and his name was Dorus,) "It seems to me that one may very well apply to you the line which Odysseus uttered when he met Dolon [ Homer, Il_10'401 ],
Great was thy aim, and mighty is the prize."
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[25.] [569] And Philemon, in his Brothers, relates that Solon at first, on account of the unbridled passions of the young, made a law that women might be brought to be prostituted at brothels; as Nicander of Colophon also states, in the third book of his History of the Affairs of Colophon, saying that he first erected a temple to the Public Aphrodite with the money which was earned by the women who were prostituted at these brothels.
But Philemon speaks on this subject as follows:
But you did well for every man, O Solon;
For they do say you were the first to see
The justice of a public-spirited measure,
The saviour of the state- (and it is fit
For me to utter this avowal, Solon);-
You, seeing that the state was full of men,
Young, and possessed of all the natural appetites,
And wandering in their lusts where they'd no business,
Bought women, and in certain spots did place them,
Common to be, and ready for all comers.
They naked stand: look well at them, my youth,-
Do not deceive yourself; are you not well off?
You're ready, so are they: the door is open-
The price an obol: enter straight- there is
No nonsense here, no cheat or trickery;
But do just what you like, and how you like.
You're off: wish her good-bye; she's no more claim on you.
And Aspasia, the friend of Socrates, imported great numbers of beautiful women, and Greece was entirely filled with her
courtesans; as that witty writer Aristophanes relates [ Acharn_524 ], saying that the Peloponnesian war was excited by Pericles, [570] on account of his love for Aspasia, and on account of the girls who had been carried away from her by the Megarians.
For some young men, drunk with the cottabus,
Going to Megara, carry off by stealth
A harlot named Simaetha. Then the citizens
Of Megara, full of grief and indignation,
Stole in return two of Aspasia's girls;
And this was the beginning of the war
Which devastated Greece, for three lewd women.
[26.] I therefore, my most learned grammarian, warn you to beware of the courtesans who want a high price, because
You may see other girls who play the flute,
Playing the tunes of Apollo, or of Zeus;
But these play no tune save the tune of the hawk,
as Epicrates says in his Anti-Lais; in which play he also uses the following expressions concerning the celebrated Lais:-
But this fair Lais is both drunk and lazy,
And cares for nothing, save what she may eat
And drink all day. And she, as I do think,
Has the same fate the eagles have; for they,
When they are young, down from the mountains stoop,
Ravage the flocks and eat the timid hares,
Bearing their prey aloft with fearful might.
But when they're old, on temple tops they perch,
Hungry and helpless; and the soothsayers
Turn such a sight into a prodigy.
And so might Lais well be thought an omen;
For when she was a maiden, young and fresh,
She was quite savage with her wondrous riches;
And you might easier get access to
The satrap Pharnabazus. But at present,
Now that she's more advanced in years, and age
Has meddled with her body's round proportions,
'Tis easy both to see her and to scorn her.
Now she runs everywhere to get some drink;
She'll take a stater -aye, or three obols;
She will admit you, young or old; and is
Become so tame, so utterly subdued,
That she will take the money from your hand.
Anaxandrides also, in his Old Man's Madness, mentions Lais, and includes her with many other courtesans in a list which he gives in the following lines:
(A) You know Corinthian Lais?
(B) To be sure;
My countrywoman.
(A) Well, she had a friend,
By name Anteia.
(B) Yes; I knew her well.
(A) Well, in those days Lagisce was in beauty;
Theolyte, too, was wondrous fair to see,
And seemed likely to be fairer still;
And Ocimum was beautiful as any.
[27.] This, then, is the advice I want to give you, my friend Myrtilus; and, as we read in the Huntress of Philetaerus,-
Now you are old, reform those ways of yours;
Know you not that 'tis hardly well to die
In the embraces of a prostitute,
As men do say Phormisius perished ?
Or do you think that delightful which Timocles speaks of in his Marathonian Women ?-
How great the difference whether you pass the night
With a lawful wife or with a prostitute
Bah! Where's the firmness of the flesh, the freshness
Of breath and of complexion? Oh, ye gods!
What appetite it gives one not to find
Everything waiting, but to be constrained
[571] To struggle a little, and from tender hands
To bear soft blows and buffets; that, indeed
Is really pleasure.
And as Cynulcus had still a good deal which he wished to say, and as Ulpianus was preparing to attack him for the sake of Myrtilus, Myrtilus, getting in ahead of him (for he hated the Syrian), said-
But our hopes were not so clean worn out,
As to need aid from bitter enemies;
as Callimachus says. For are not we, O Cynulcus, able to defend ourselves?
How rude you are, and boorish with your jokes!
Your tongue is all on the left side of your mouth;
as Ephippus says in his Philyra. For you seem to me to be one of those men
Who of the Muses learnt but ill-shaped letters,
as some one of the parody writers has it.
[28.] I therefore, my friends and messmates, have not, as is said in the Aurae of Metagenes, or in the Mammacythus of Aristagoras,
Told you of female dancers, courtesans
Who once were fair; and now I do not tell you
Of flute-playing girls, just reaching womanhood,
Who not unwillingly, for adequate pay,
Have borne the love of vulgar men;
but I have been speaking of the real companions- that is to say, of those who are able to preserve a friendship free from trickery; whom Cynulcus does not venture to speak ill of, and who of all women are the only ones who have derived their name from friendship, or from that goddess who is named by the Athenians Aphrodite Hetaera: concerning whom Apollodorus the Athenian speaks, in his treatise on the Gods, in the following manner:- And they worship Aphrodite Hetaera, who brings together male and female companions (ἑταίρους καὶ ἑταίρας)- that is to say, mistresses." Accordingly, even to this day, freeborn women and maidens call their associates and friends their ἑταῖραι; as Sappho does, where she says-
And now with tuneful voice I'll sing
These pleasing songs to my companions (ἑταίραις).
And in another place she says-
Niobe and Leto were of old
Affectionate companions (ἑταῖραι) to each other.
They also call women who prostitute themselves for money, ἑταῖραι. And the verb which they use for prostituting oneself for money is ἑταιρέω, not regarding the etymology of the word, but applying a more decent term to the trade; as Menander, in his Deposit, distinguishing the ἑταῖροι from the ἑταῖραι, says-
You've done an act not suited to companions (ἑταίρων),
But, by Zeus, far more fit for courtesans (ἑταιρῶν),
These words, so near the same, do make the sense
Not always easily to be distinguished.
[29.] But concerning courtesans, Ephippus, in his Merchandise, speaks as follows:
And then if, when we enter through their doors,
They see that we are out of sorts at all,
They flatter us and soothe us, kiss us gently,
Not pressing hard as though our lips were enemies,
But with soft open kisses like a sparrow;
They sing, and comfort us, and make us cheerful,
And straightway banish all our care and grief,
And make our faces bright again with smiles.
And Eubulus, in his Campylion, introducing a courtesan of modest deportment, says-
How modestly she sat the while at supper!
Not like the rest, who make great balls of leeks,
And stuff their cheeks with them, and loudly crunch
Within their jaws large lumps of greasy meat;
[572] But delicately tasting of each dish,
In mouthfuls small, like a Milesian maiden.
And Antiphanes says in his Hydra -
But he, the man of whom I now was speaking,
Seeing a woman who lived near his house,
A courtesan, did fall at once in love with her;
She was a citizen, without a guardian
Or any near relations, and her manners
Pure, and on virtue's strictest model formed,
A genuine mistress (ἑταῖρα); for the rest of the crew
Bring into disrepute, by their vile manners,
A name which in itself has nothing wrong.
And Anaxilas, in his Neottis, says-
(A) But if a woman does at all times use
Fair, moderate language, giving her services
Favourable to all who stand in need of her,
She from her prompt companionship (ἑταιρίας) does earn
The title of companion (ἑταῖρα); and you,
As you say rightly, have not fallen in love
With a vile harlot (πόρνη), but with a companion (ἑταῖρα).
Is she not one of pure and simple manners?
(B) At all events, by Zeus, she's beautiful.
[30.] But that systematic debaucher of youths of yours, is such a person as Alexis, or Antiphanes, represents him, in his Sleep:
On this account, that profligate, when supping
With us, will never eat an onion even,
So as not to annoy the object of his love.
And Ephippus has spoken very well of people of that description in his Sappho, where he says-
For when one in the flower of his age
Learns to sneak into other men's abodes,
And shares of meals where he has not contributed,
He must expect some other mode of payment.
And Aeschines the orator has said something of the same kind in his Speech against Timarchus.
[31.] But concerning courtesans, Philetaerus, in his Huntress, has the following lines:-
'Tis not for nothing that wherever we go
We find a temple of Hetaera there,
But nowhere one to any wedded wife.
I know, too, that there is a festival called the Hetaerideia, which is celebrated in Magnesia, not owing to the courtesans, but to another cause, which is mentioned by Hegesander in his Commentaries, who writes thus:- "The Magnesians celebrate a festival called Hetaerideia; and they give this account of it: that originally Jason, the son of Aeson, when he had collected the Argonauts, sacrificed to Zeus Hetaereius, and called the festival Hetaerideia. And the Macedonian kings also celebrated the Hetaerideia." There is also a temple of Aphrodite the Prostitute (πόρνη) at Abydus, as Pamphylus asserts:- "For when all the city was oppressed by slavery, the guards in the city, after a sacrifice on one occasion (as Cleanthus relates in his essays on Fables), having got intoxicated, took several courtesans; and one of these women, when she saw that the men were all fast asleep, taking the keys, got over the wall, and brought the news to the citizens of Abydus. And they, on this, immediately came in arms, and slew the guards, and took possession of the walls, and recovered their freedom; and to show their gratitude to the prostitute, they built a temple to Aphrodite the Prostitute."
And Alexis the Samian, in the second book of his Samian Annals, says- "The Athenian prostitutes who followed Pericles when he laid siege to Samos, having made vast sums of money by their beauty, dedicated a statue of Aphrodite at Samos,
which some call Aphrodite among the Reeds, and others Aphrodite in the Marsh." [573] And Eualces, in his History of the Affairs of Ephesus, says that there is at Ephesus also a temple to Aphrodite the Courtesan (ἑταῖρα). And Clearchus, in the first book of his treatise on Amatory Matters, says-" Gyges the king of the Lydians was very celebrated, not only on account of his mistress while she was alive, having submitted himself and his whole dominions to her power, but also after she was dead; inasmuch as he assembled all the Lydians in the whole country, and raised that mound which is even now called the tomb of the Lydian Courtesan; building it up to a great height, so that when he was travelling in the country, inside of Mount Tmolus, wherever he was, he could always see the tomb; and it was a conspicuous object to all the inhabitants of Lydia." And Demosthenes the orator, in his Speech against Neaera (if it is a genuine one, which Apollodorus says it is), says [ 59'122 ]- "Now we have courtesans for the sake of pleasure, but concubines for the sake of daily cohabitation, and wives for the purpose of having children legitimately, and of having a faithful guardian of all our household affairs."
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[37.] [576] And did not Themistocles, as Idomeneus relates, harness a chariot full of courtesans and drive with them into the city when the market was full? And the courtesans were Lamia and Scione and Satyra and Nannium. And was not Themistocles himself the son of a courtesan, whose name was Abrotonum? as Amphicrates relates in his treatise on Illustrious Men-
Abrotonum was but a Thracian woman,
But for the weal of Greece
She was the mother of the great Themistocles.
But Neanthes of Cyzicus, in his third and fourth books of his History of Greek Affairs, says that he was the son of Euterpe.
And when Cyrus the younger was making his expedition against his brother, did he not carry with him a courtesan of Phocaea, who was a very clever and very beautiful woman? and Zenophanes says that her name was originally Milto, but that it was afterwards changed to Aspasia. And a Milesian concubine also accompanied him. And did not the great Alexander keep Thais about him, who was an Athenian courtesan? And Cleitarchus speaks of her as having been the cause that the palace of Persepolis was burnt down. And this Thais, after the death of Alexander, married Ptolemaeus, who became the first king of Egypt, and she bore him sons, Leontiscus and Lagus, and a daughter named Eirenê, who was married to Eunostus, the king of Soli, a town of Cyprus. And the second king of Egypt, Ptolemaeus Philadelphus by name, as Ptolemaeus Euergetes relates in the third book of his Commentaries, had a great many mistresses,- namely, Didyme, who was a native of the country, and very beautiful; and Bilistiche; and, besides them, Agathocleia, and Stratonice, who had a great monument on the sea-shore, near Eleusis; and Myrtium, and a great many more; as he was a man excessively addicted to amatory pleasures. # And Polybius, in the fourteenth book of his History [ 14.11 ], says that there are a great many statues of a woman named Cleino, who was his cup-bearer, in Alexandria, clothed in a tunic only, and holding a cornucopia in her hand. "And are not," says he, "the finest houses called by the names of Myrtium, and Mnesis, and Potheine? and yet Mnesis was only a female flute-player, and so was Potheine, and Myrtium was one of the most notorious and common prostitutes in the city."
[577] # Was there not also Agathocleia the courtesan, who had great power over king Ptolemaeus Philopator? in fact, was it not she who was the ruin of his whole kingdom? And Eumachus of Neapolis, in the second book of his History of Hannibal, says that Hieronymus, the tyrant of Syracuse, fell in love with one of the common prostitutes who followed her trade in a brothel, whose name was Peitho, and married her, and made her queen of Syracuse.
[38.] And Timotheus, who was general of the Athenians, with a very high reputation, was the son of a courtesan, a Thracian by birth, but, except that she was a courtesan, of very excellent character; for when women of this class do behave modestly, they are superior to those who give themselves airs on account of their virtue. But Timotheus being on one occasion reproached as being the son of a mother of that character, said,- "But I am much obliged to her, because it is owing to her that I am the son of Conon." And Carystius, in his Historical Commentaries, says that Philetaerus the king of Pergamum, and of all that country which is now called the New Province, was the son of a woman named Boa, who was a flute-player and a courtesan, a Paphlagonian by birth. And Aristophon the orator, who in the archonship of Eucleides [ 403 B.C. ] proposed a law, that every one who was not born of a woman who was a citizen should be accounted a bastard, was himself convicted, by Calliades the comic poet, of having children by a courtesan named Choregis, as the same Carystius relates in the third book of his Commentaries.
# Besides all these men, was not Demetrius Poliorcetes evidently in love with Lamia the flute-player, by whom he had a daughter named Phila? And Polemon, in his treatise On the Painted Stoa at Sicyon, says that Lamia was the daughter of Cleanor an Athenian, and that she built the before-mentioned colonnade for the people of Sicyon. Demetrius was also in love with Leaena, and she was also an Athenian courtesan; and with a great many other women besides.
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