A Modern Madam - Part 1

She heard the whisper from a mouth covered by a palm. Furtive eyes looked over a delicately manicured hand. "Did you know her name means 'Gladly Welcomed'? It's most likely not even her real but her professional name. Can you imagine that?"

"That's a laugh," came the sarcastic female response. "She's gladly welcomed by all the aristocratic men in the city...welcomed right into their beds!"

Her companion continued in a malicious tone of voice. "It's said Pericles kisses her before he goes off to the agora each morning. Then, to make matters worse, he kisses her when he arrives back at home in the evening."

"Well! I've never heard of such a thing!"

Her head held high, Aspasia walked on, taking one graceful step after another. It was true that Pericles kissed her each morning before he left for work and that he kissed her when he got back. There was nothing wrong with that, she had decided. Just because other women in Athens were treated as guardians of the household rather than loved wives, didn't mean Pericles couldn't treat her with love and respect.

Not only that but the women in Athens were much more restricted in their movements than she was. She, a so-called courtesan, moved in the highest aristocratic circles. The two chatterboxes whom she had just passed had been accompanied by a man, since it was not acceptable for women to walk alone without some form of protection. Yet, here she was, a hetaira, and she didn't need protection nor to feel the restriction of being escorted if she went outside of her house.

She sighed. A hetaira was an educated courtesan, the nearest thing to an emancipated women in Ancient Greece. They were not only trained to give men intercourse in a sexual way but also were taught to sing, dance and play instruments. Aspasia herself had been better educated than most hetairai (a group of hetaira), but she hadn't been born in Athens where hetairai weren't as well-educated as hetairai elsewhere. She had been born in Miletus, on the coast of Ionia located in Asia Minor and had consequently been given more education than women in Athens. Now, as a leader of hetairai, she taught the young women rhetoric, or skilled discourse, so they could act as intelligent companions to the men they escorted to social gatherings, or symposiums, or drinking parties where men debated political and philosophical issues.

Go To Page: 1 2 3