Courtesans at table : gender and Greek literary culture in Athenaeus / Laura K. McClure.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McClure, Laura, 1959-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Athenaeus, of Naucratis. Deipnosophistae.

Athenaeus.

Athenaeus, of Naucratis--Characters--Women.

Athenaeus, of Naucratis.

Women and literature--Greece--Athens.

Women and literature.

Dinners and dining--Greece--Athens.

Dinners and dining.

Dinners and dining in literature.

Women--Greece--Athens.

Women.

Prostitutes in literature.

Courtesans in literature.

Sex role in literature.

Athens (Greece)--In literature.

Athens (Greece).

Greece--Athens.

Physical Description:

xii, 242 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Routledge, 2003.

Summary:

Witty nicknames, scurrilous jokes, public nudity and lavish monuments distinguished the most celebrated Greek courtesans from respectable citizen women in ancient Greece. Variously described as mistresses, concubines, dancers, and flute players, courtesans were well-known public figures in classical Athens. They were featured in legal speeches and comic plays; they consorted with philosophers, poets, and politicians. Indeed, they openly displayed their naked bodies at religious festivals and even in the courtroom. Their legendary beauty inspired works of art and architectural dedications as well as the devotion of powerful men. In reality, such women were often slaves and few ever achieved the level of economic independence and erudition attributed to them by the literary tradition. Rather, as Laura McClure demonstrates in this engaging book, they were literary creations closer to fiction than to fact, embellished by anecdote and comic convention. Focusing on the Deipnosophistae of Athenaeus, the most extensive treatment of the courtesan in ancient literature, Courtesans at Table is a highly original and sophisticated investigation of the courtesan's status as a cultural trope in the imagination of Classical and Hellenistic Greece. The courtesans of Athenaeus' Deipnosophistae, McClure shows, serve as potent reminders of a lost golden age of literary production and unified cultural identity. By the late second century CE, the Athenian courtesan is not a historical entity, but a cultural sign through which writers and their audience confronted problems of authenticity and cultural origin, cultural identity, and dislocation.

Contents:

The Courtesan as Fetish 3

Ancient Greek Terms for Prostitutes 9

Distinguishing the Hetaera from the Porne 11

The Pallake 18

The Auletris and Other Female Entertainers 21

The Eromene 22

Chapter 1 Genres of Courtesans: Athenaeus and Literary Nostalgia 27

Athenaeus and the Literary Symposium 33

Genres of Courtesans: Athenaeus and the Literary Quotation 37

Book 13 and the Discourse on Hetaeras 46

Cynulcus' Invective against Hetaeras 47

Myrtilus' Encomium of Hetaeras 51

Chapter 2 The Women Most Mentioned: The Names of Athenian Courtesans 59

The Problem with Names 60

The Names of Athenian Women 64

Attic Identity, Foreign Birth 65

The Names of Hetaeras 68

The Names of Slaves 74

The Use of the Metronymic 76

Chapter 3 The Witticisms of Courtesans and Attic Paideia 79

Flattery, Riddles, and Double-Entendres 80

Hetaeras as Poets and Poets as Hetaeras 83

Sympotic Mockery 86

The Laughter of Hetaeras 88

The Chreia as a Literary Genre 90

Tragic Humor, Comic Obscenity 91

Philosophers and Courtesans 101

Chapter 4 The Spectacle of the Body: Courtesans in Performance 107

Staging the Female Body 108

Cynulcus' Praise of Brothels 110

Metaphors of the Body 117

Performing the Hetaera 119

The Movements of Hetaeras 120

The Hetaera and Epideixis 124

The Courtesan as Model: Phryne and her Statues 126

The Rhetoric of the Body: Phryne's Trial 132

Chapter 5 Temples and Mirrors: The Dedications of Hetaeras 137

Hetaeras and the Worship of Aphrodite 139

Narratives of Transgression 143

Funerary Monuments 145

Narratives of Benefaction 155

Tools of the Trade: Anathematic Epigrams 161

Appendix I List of Authors and Titles in Book 13 of Athenaeus' Deipnosophistae 171

Appendix II Narrative Structure of Book 13 of Athenaeus' Deipnosphistae 179

Appendix III Named Courtesans and Prostitutes in Book 13 of Athenaeus' Deipnosophistae 183

Appendix IV Courtesans and their Lovers in Book 13 of Athenaeus' Deipnosophistae 199.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 225-233) and index.

ISBN:

0415939461

041593947X

OCLC:

52423854