A Modern Madam - Part 3

Pericles, and many of his friends were accused of one crime or another in an attempt to gain political control of Athens. Aspasia herself was not immune from this bickering. Athens might have been the crucible of democracy but it didn't make politicians any less vindictive than they had been in any other period of history.

Around 438 BC, Pericles' political enemies began attacking him, his friends and Aspasia in the courts of law. Aspasia was charged with impiety and with procuring free women. These may have been trumped up charges, and only Pericles, the accusers and Aspasia could assert the truthfulness of the charges.

For the charge of procuring women, Aspasia knew there were five classes of prostitutes in Athens. There were slaves in brothels; street walkers who consisted of foreign women, slaves and poor Athenian women; dancers at symposiums who made music and pleasured men; concubines who usually entered into long-term relationships and were exempt from being taxed; and courtesans (or hetairai) who high-class and educated.

There was no shame attached to prostitution simply because it was a man's world and aristocratic women weren't available for casual sex. Men demanded cheap prostitution to satisfy themselves both sexually and intellectually and so the supply was cheap - usually costing one drachma which was the daily wage of a laborer. Prostitutes who attended symposiums charged two drachmas.

To make matters even less comprehensive to us, there was no shame attached to being heterosexual or homosexual. For an aristocratic Greek man, sex was sex, whether it was with a woman or a young boy. They were not considered two separate categories, as they are now. This lack of distinction might be difficult to grasp but it was there. Ancient Greek society didn't revolve around gender differences but rather around the predominance of males and the concept of virility. Because a man was a man and a citizen, he had sexual precedence. His needs had to be satisfied.

Athenian women had marriages arranged for them at the age of fourteen. This seems a very early age to marry for us but in Ancient Greece, when the lifespan was between twenty-eight and thirty-two years of age, this can no longer be seen as a discrepancy. It was a hard and cold reality.

Men had a different attitude towards their wives than they do now as well. Some of this has already been discussed in an earlier article. Ancient Greek men believed that the function of marriage was to create legitimate children. The popular saying of the day was "Courtesans we love for the sake of pleasure and concubines for the daily care of the body, but wives we love to bear us legitimate children and be trusted guardians of our household."

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