Neaira (hetaera)
The courtesan Neaira ( Greek Νέαιρα Neaira ) lived in v 4th century. . BC in ancient Greece ; There is no reliable information about the exact date of birth and death. She became the key figure in several sensational processes , the documentation of which conveys a vivid picture of the living conditions of women in the societies of the Greek city-states . Thanks to an extensive written tradition, Neaira is today the prostitute of antiquity about whose circumstances most of the details are known.
Life
The early years
Neaira was probably founded around 400 BC. Born in BC. Her origins are uncertain, possibly she was a foundling or came from one of the outskirts of Greece, perhaps Thrace . It was bought around 390 by Nikarete , a brothel landlady from Corinth . Nikarete ran a "better" establishment in Corinth, a city that was famous in antiquity for its prosperous prostitution economy. Of these, the traditional in the literature testifies verb korinthiazein which can be roughly translated as "(around) whoring".
Nikarete passed Neaira off as her daughter and took care of the "training" to become a prostitute. Due to the pre-existing family relationship, Nikarete tried to drive up the price that customers had to pay: It was common for free women to charge higher prices for their services.
According to the testimony of the Greek writer Apollodoros (who opposes Neaira almost exclusively in a negative way in his texts), Neaira began to sell herself before puberty, which in practice means nothing other than that Nikarete forced her into prostitution as a child. Her training included not only dealing with men, sexual practices, personal hygiene and beauty tips; Part of the job description of a hetaerae was to provide intellectually stimulating company to customers at symposia . Therefore, the young girls had to acquire extensive cultural knowledge, for example in the areas of literature, art and music, which Greek women usually did not have at the time.
In addition to Neaira, six other girls of different ages known by name lived in the Nikaretes brothel: Metaneira , Anteia, Stratola, Aristokleia, Phila and Isthmias. Probably they were all very prominent in their day. Several dramas were named after Anteia, and the poet Philetairos even mentions three of Nikarete's girls in his play The Huntress (Neaira, Phila and Isthmias). Most of the clientele belonged to the better society of the time. Often it also came from outside Corinth, as the city was a trading center thanks to its convenient location on the isthmus . Politicians, athletes, philosophers and poets are known as customers, including the poet Xenokleides and the actor Hipparchus .
A prominent guest in the Nikaretes brothel and a regular at Metaneira was the speaker Lysias . Since his money only went to Nikarete and he also wanted to do his lover a favor, he financed a trip to Eleusis near Athens in the mid-380s , where she was introduced to the local mystery cult at his expense . On this trip to Athens, both were accompanied not only by Nikarete, but also by Neaira. It was probably Neaira's first stay in the Attic metropolis.
378 BC BC she came to the city again, this time to the Panathenaia , this time in the company of her mistress and her own regular customer Simos from Thessaly . The latter belonged to the important Thessalian family of the Aleuads and was in the middle of the 4th century BC. A celebrity in Greece, even if nothing more can be said about his status at the time of the trip.
As the connections Metaneiras to Lysias and Neairas to Simos show, a connection to Nikarete's hetaera did not have to be a one-time, quick pleasure, but could turn into a long-term relationship. Nevertheless, they cannot be counted among the highest class of prostitutes, since as slaves they had no freedom of choice with regard to their customers.
Between brothel and freedom
The financially most productive time for Nikarete were the years between puberty and the beginning of the third decade of life of her slaves, after which their attractiveness for interested customers began to decline. So it was probably not inconvenient for Nikarete when Timanoridas from Corinth and Eukrates from Leukas probably shortly after the trip to Athens in 376 BC. Bought Neaira. They were probably one of Neaira's regular customers and were of the opinion that it would be cheaper for both of them in the long run if they bought the whole woman straight away, even if it turned out that the transaction should cost both of them another handsome amount.
Nikarete asked for no less than 3,000 drachmas (ten times the price of a skilled craft slave and five to six times the annual income of a worker). Although both of them went to their financial limits, the deal was done. Now Neaira had two new owners who could handle her as they please. This practice was not unusual and is attested several times in ancient sources. Unlike other similar arrangements, however, there was no dispute between the two owners in this case.
After about a year, one of the two (or even both) wanted to get married. Maintaining a hetaera was expensive, so a way out had to be found. The three came to an agreement that Neaira could buy herself out for 2,000 drachmas if she then left Corinth forever. With the help of previous customers, especially a man named Phrynion , she raised the money and bought herself free. With Phrynion she went to his hometown Athens, where the couple lived together for some time.
Phrynion was a bon vivant and, as Apollodorus describes, regularly took Neaira with him to his debauchery. He is said to have even had sexual intercourse with Neaira in public , which was unusual in ancient Greece and not allowed even in open-minded circles. A feast in the late summer of 374 with the Athenian strategist Chabrias , who just celebrated his victory at the Pythian Games , is described in great detail . During the festival, Neaira is said to have been drunk to the point of unconsciousness, so that in her drunk state many of the guests and even slaves molested her.
Sometime between the summers of 373 and 372 BC BC Neaira packed her belongings and left Phrynion. It is unclear why she took this step; she was probably mistreated by him. In addition to her own possessions, she probably also took a few items from Phrynion's possession. Their destination was Megara , like Corinth a center of prostitution. Neaira would have had a good living if the Boiotian War had not been fought at that time , which brought trade (and prostitution) to a standstill because customers stayed away from the city. Neaira stayed in the city for two years and during this time made a living as a prostitute, although it should be remembered that she not only had to support herself, but also her two slaves, Thratta and Kokkaline, whom she had probably already acquired had while living with Phrynion.
Life with Stephanos
After the Battle of Leuktra , which shifted the balance of power in Greece to the detriment of the Spartans and in favor of the Thebans, the rich Athenian Stephanos came to Megara and apparently stayed in Neaira's house for a while. Here the two began an affair and apparently fell in love. However, it is also possible that Neaira was not in love, but preferred security with Stephanos to the uncertain and unsteady life. Even after the Battle of Leuktra, her situation in Megara had not improved, so she returned to Athens with Stephanos. She probably believed that in Stephanos she had a protector who could offer her security from Phrynion.
It is interesting that Apollodorus now claimed that Neaira had taken three children of her own to Athens when she left Megara: the two sons Proxenus and Ariston and a daughter named Strybele, who was called Phano in later life . Apollodoros also reports that Phano had meanwhile also become a hetaera and as such was a serious competitor for her mother. Allegedly, after returning to Athens, Neaira even had to provide for Stephanos' livelihood as a hetaera. However, all of these statements are hardly tenable, and Apollodorus offers no evidence to support these claims.
One problem at first was that, as expected, as soon as Phrynion learned of Neaira's presence in Athens, she was abducted from Stephanos' house with the help of several friends. Such an act meant that he wanted to assert rights that a master had over his slave girl. But it is more than questionable that Neaira would have gone back to Athens in such a case. Stephanos then filed a lawsuit against Phrynion, who in turn responded with a counterclaim. Thus Neaira's status had to be clarified in court.
First she was able to return to Stephanos, who and two friends vouched for her; however, there was never a hearing. Both sides agreed to consult private arbitrators ( diaitetai ). They each selected a mediator and a third who was both acceptable. They also agreed to submit to the arbitration award and not take any further legal action.
As is often the case in such arbitration proceedings, the result was a compromise that both Phrynion and Stephanos could live with. Neaira had no choice from the start anyway. It was found that she was not a slave but a freedwoman . However, she had to give back everything she had taken from the Phrynion household except clothing, jewelry and her self-purchased slaves. In addition, it should be equally available to both men sexually. The man she lived with had to pay for her livelihood. How long this agreement was kept is unclear because from then on Phrynion is never mentioned again in the sources.
Phano affairs
More than ten years after this event, Phano, who Apollodorus would later claim to have been Neaira's biological daughter, was married for the first time. Her husband was an Athenian named Phrastor . However, this marriage was not a happy one, they were divorced after about a year when Phano was just pregnant. As a reason for divorce, Phrastor stated that he had discovered that Phano was not the daughter of Stephanos and his first wife, but that of Neaira. However, marriages between Athenians and non-Athenians were not permitted. The real reason, however, was probably that, in his opinion, Phano did not show him enough respect and thus did not embody the ideal of the Athenian housewife.
What followed was a muddled game. Since Phrastor did not want to surrender the dowry of 3000 drachmas, Stephanos sued him, whereupon Phrastor filed a counterclaim in which he accused Stephanos of having given him a non-Athenian wife. Because the Athenian jurisdiction was in the hands of lay judges and in the end the party whose rhetoric was the most convincing won in court , there was always the danger of blatant misjudgments. This fact caused Stephanos to withdraw his complaint, which Phrastor did the same shortly afterwards. For Stephanos, in the event of a defeat, not only the 3000 drachmas were at stake, but also the loss of his civil and honorary rights, just as Phano's status as a citizen could have been revoked.
Shortly after this episode, Phrastor fell seriously ill. Despite everything that had happened, Phano and Neaira looked after him, probably not without ulterior motives. During his illness, Phrastor recognized in his will Phanos son - who was also his descendant - as a legitimate child and rightful heir.
Another affair brought Stephanos to trial in the mid or late 350's. He caught a guest of the family - Epainetus of Andros , who was allegedly a former customer of the Neaira - having sex with Phano. As kyrios , as head of the house and protector of all people living in his household, Stephanos had the right to punish Epainetus, even to kill him. But he only asked for 3,000 drachmas in damages, and Epainetus was wise enough to accept, for which he appointed two guarantors. Hardly back in freedom, the caught sued Stephanos for allegedly unjustified capture. He also claimed that he was not a moichos (adulterer) himself . In addition, Phano is a prostitute and Stephanos' house is a brothel. It was all just a plot to extort money from him, and Neaira also knew about the project. Actually, all of these statements should have been refuted, since Epainetus would hardly have found any witnesses who would have testified against Phanos in court. Nevertheless, the judges might have assumed that a girl who grew up in the house of the notorious Neaira was also a hetaera.
Again Stephanos renounced his rights and thus the 3000 drachmas. Even if he had been right, the affair would have ended up in a court where Phanos' promiscuity could not have been concealed - the chances of a respectable re-marriage of the young woman would have been considerably reduced. In an arbitration procedure, Stephanos was awarded an amount of 1,000 drachmas. A second marriage to Phanos shortly thereafter was indeed extremely prestigious, but in the end it was again not happy.
The process
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Stephanos was not only concerned with family problems: He was also a politically active person and as such was often involved in litigation. The already mentioned Apollodorus , who was one of the richest Athenians of his time, developed into one of his most important opponents . Stephanos had faced this in several court hearings and inflicted painful defeats on him.
Between 343 and 340 BC BC brought Theomnestes as a deputy for Apollodorus a lawsuit for presumed civil rights ( xenias graphe ) against Neaira, which should hit Stephanos. According to those charges, Neaira was wrongly married to Stephanos and their children were illegally passed off as citizens of Athens. Most of the time, Apollodorus carried the prosecution word and tried to prove that Neaira had committed a large-scale fraud. From the beginning it was mentioned openly that it was only about revenge on Stephanos. A lawsuit against a third, uninvolved person such as Neaira was considered legitimate in Athens society.
Apollodorus set out in detail the life story of Neaira and described, wherever he could, her alleged depravity. He also tried to prove that all of Stephanos' children were children of Neaira, using arguments that sometimes seem adventurous today. Stephanos violated laws that forbade marriages with non-Athenian women and former prostitutes. The evidence Apollodoros for a marriage put forward - that hardly from concubinage was different and could be seen especially on the position of common children - are not very convincing.
But today only the accusation speech and not the result of the trial is known. The sources received do not report anything about the further fate of the most important participants. According to the customs of Athenian male society , Neaira was not even allowed to attend the trial as a spectator, although her defeat would have resulted in renewed enslavement. In addition, in this case the legal status of the children would have become extremely uncertain, and Stephanos would have had to forego his property as well as his civil and honorary rights.
reception
Although no other prostitute of antiquity has received such extensive information, Neaira is less present in our consciousness today than, for example, Lais , Thaïs or Phryne . The indictment against Neaira offers historians a key source on the cultural, family and marital history of Athens, as well as prostitution and hetarianism in ancient Greece. The indictment, which Theomnestes and Apollodorus had brought before the court, was handed down in a collection of speeches by Demosthenes , to whom Apollodorus was politically close. Today, however, it is considered certain that this speech belongs to the pseudo-demosthenic speeches and was erroneously handed down under his name.
The actual personality of the hetaera is difficult to reconstruct from the sources, Neaira acted as a plaything of various interests during the trials and takes a back seat himself. None of the authors - least of all Apollodorus - is seriously interested in characterizing a woman of "dubious reputation". If something similar is ever done, it is only to support the prosecution and not for the purposes of an objective presentation. Thus, although we know many details from different phases of their lives, about their own wishes, worries and needs, let alone their character as a whole, we cannot say anything for sure and remain dependent on guesswork.
Especially in the last few years the speech and the life of the Neaira have been the subject of special investigations. Debra Hamel wrote a monograph on her person in 2004, which, like the speech itself , was translated into German by Kai Brodersen . Despite the latest investigations, there are still historians who take Apollodorus' indictment at face value and carry on the easily refutable allegations of the accuser in the scientific literature. For example, Sarah B. Pomeroy claims in her 1975 book Goddesses, Whores, Wives and Slaves. Women in Classical Antiquity that Phano was the daughter of Neaira and that she had raised three children alone and as a hetaerae.
Portraits of Neaira, also later fantasy products, have not survived from antiquity.
The German melodic death metal band Neaera is named after Neaira.
swell
- Athenaios 13,593 f.-594a
- Pseudo-Demosthenes or. 59
Editions, translations, comments
- William Rennie: Against Neaera. (= Oxford Classical Texts ), Clarendon Press, Oxford 1931.
- Christopher Carey: Apollodoros against Neaira [Demosthenes 59]. Aris & Phillips, Warminster 1992, ISBN 0-85668-525-9 .
- Konstantinos Kapparis: Apollodorus "Against Neaira" [D. 59]. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin and New York 1999, ISBN 3-11-016390-X .
- Kai Brodersen : Antiphon, Against the Stepmother, and Apollodoros, Against Neaira (Demosthenes 59). Women in court. (= Texts on Research. Volume 84). Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2004, ISBN 3-534-17997-8 .
literature
- Johannes Ernst Kirchner: On the credibility of the testimony inserted in the [Demosthenic] speech against Neaira. In: Rheinisches Museum für Philologie NF 40 (1885), pp. 377–386.
- Grace H. Macurdy: Apollodorus and the Speech against Neaera (Pseudo-Dem. LIX). In: The American Journal of Philology 63, 1942, pp. 257-271.
- Konstantinos Kapparis: Critical Notes on Ps.-Dem. 59 'Against neaira'. In: Hermes 123 (1995), pp. 19-27.
- James N. Davidson : Courtesans and Seafood. The consuming passions in classical Athens . Siedler, Berlin 1999, Berliner Taschenbuch, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-8333-0199-6 (Original: Courtesans and Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions of Classical Athens . London 1997.)
- Debra Hamel : The Neaira Case. The true story of a hetaera in ancient Greece . Primus-Verlag, Darmstadt 2004, ISBN 3-89678-255-X (Reviews: Ingrid D. Rowland (English) , Debra Hamel: The case of Neaira Winfried Schmitz at Sehepunkte )
- Allison Glazebrook: The Making of a Prostitute: Apollodoros's Portrait of Neaira. In: Arethusa. 38, 2005, pp. 161-187.
- Geoffrey Bakewell: Forbidding marriage: Neaira 16 and metic spouses at Athens. In: The Classical Journal. 104 (2008/2009), pp. 97-109.
- David Noy: Neaera's Daughter: A Case of Athenian Identity Theft? In: The Classical Quarterly . 59, 2009, pp. 398-410.
Web links
- Literature by and about Neaira in the catalog of the German National Library
Remarks
- ↑ Debra Hamel, The Case of Neaira. The true story of a hetaera in ancient Greece , Primus-Verlag, Darmstadt 2004, ISBN 3-89678-255-X .
- ↑ On Nikarete and her brothel: Pseudo-Demosthenes 59,18 & 19
- ↑ Pseudo-Demosthenes 59:22
- ↑ Pseudo-Demosthenes 59:19; Athenaios, Deipnosophists 13 567c & 586e
- ↑ Pseudo-Demosthenes 59,22 & 23
- ↑ Pseudo-Demosthenes 59:24
- ↑ Pseudo-Demosthenes 59.30
- ↑ Pseudo-Demosthenes 59.30
- ↑ Pseudo-Demosthenes 59: 30-32
- ↑ Pseudo-Demosthenes 59:33
- ↑ Pseudo-Demosthenes 59,35 & 36
- ↑ Pseudo-Demosthenes 59:37
- ↑ Pseudo-Demosthenes 59, 38 & 119
- ↑ Pseudo-Demosthenes 59.40
- ↑ Pseudo-Demosthenes 59.45
- ↑ Pseudo-Demosthenes 59: 46-48
- ↑ Pseudo-Demosthenes 59.50
- ↑ Pseudo-Demosthenes 59: 50-53
- ↑ Pseudo-Demosthenes 59: 55-59
- ↑ Pseudo-Demosthenes 59: 64-66
- ↑ Pseudo-Demosthenes 59.67
- ↑ Pseudo-Demosthenes 59: 69-71
- ↑ Pseudo-Demosthenes 59: 3-5
- ↑ Pseudo-Demosthenes 59.2
- ↑ Pseudo-Demosthenes 59: 13-15
- ↑ Hamel (see list of references), pp. 61–132.
- ↑ Hamel, p. 179.
- ^ Sarah B. Pomeroy : Women's Life in Classical Antiquity (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 461). Kröner, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-520-46101-3 , p. 136 (Original: Women in classical antiquity, Schocken Books, New York 1975).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Neaira |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Greek hetaera |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 4th century BC Chr. |
| DATE OF DEATH | 4th century BC Chr. |