Speaker 1: Now, the most shameful of the customs of the Babylonians
Speaker 1: is as follows. Every woman of the country must sit
Speaker 1: down in the precincts of Aphrodite once in her life
Speaker 1: and have commerce with a man who is a stranger.
Speaker 1: And many women who do not deign to mingle with
Speaker 1: the rest, because they are made arrogant by wealth, drive
Speaker 1: to the temple with pairs of horses in covered carriages,
Speaker 1: and so take their place, and a large number of
Speaker 1: attendants follow after them, but the greater number do. Thus
Speaker 1: in the sacred enclosure of Aphrodite sit great numbers of women,
Speaker 1: with a great wealth of cord about their heads. Some
Speaker 1: come and others go, And there are passages in straight
Speaker 1: lines going between the women in every direction, through which
Speaker 1: the strangers pass by and make their choice. Here. When
Speaker 1: a woman takes her seat, she does not depart again
Speaker 1: to her house until one of the strangers has thrown
Speaker 1: a silver coin into her lap and has had commerce
Speaker 1: with her outside the temple, And after throwing it he
Speaker 1: must say these words only, I demand thee in the
Speaker 1: name of the goddess Milita. Now Milita is the name
Speaker 1: given by the Assyrians to Aphrodite and the silver coin
Speaker 1: may be of any value, whatever it is, she will
Speaker 1: not refuse it, and for that is not lawful for her,
Speaker 1: seeing that his coin is made sacred by the act.
Speaker 1: And she follows the man who has first thrown and
Speaker 1: does not reject any And after that she departs to
Speaker 1: her house, having acquitted herself of her duty to the goddess.
Speaker 1: Nor will you be able thenceforth to give any gift
Speaker 1: so great as to win her. So then as many
Speaker 1: as have attained to beauty and stature are speedily released,
Speaker 1: But those of them who are unshapely remain there much time,
Speaker 1: not being able to fulfill the law. For some of
Speaker 1: them remain even as much as three or four years.
Speaker 1: And in some parts of Cyprus too, there is a
Speaker 1: custom similar to this. Oh hi, hello, welcome. This is
Speaker 1: let's talk about myths baby, and I am your host live,
Speaker 1: she who well likes to make fun of the dumb
Speaker 1: shit men have said in the past. Ultimately, today's episode
Speaker 1: is dedicated to sharing what I can about the real
Speaker 1: lives of women in ancient Greece, specifically sex workers. But
Speaker 1: I couldn't resist a healthy dose of stupid shit men
Speaker 1: have said in the past, because what I just read
Speaker 1: by her Row almost certainly isn't true, and is not
Speaker 1: only some form of wild xenophobia, either intentionally or otherwise,
Speaker 1: like you know, putting the Babylons into some other realm
Speaker 1: of bizarre behavior and suggesting that the Greeks would never
Speaker 1: but also just you know, super unlikely. It is, however,
Speaker 1: a little introduction into the concept of sex work in
Speaker 1: ancient Greece, because it was indeed dedicated to aphrodite, even
Speaker 1: if it wasn't some form of mass I don't even
Speaker 1: really know how to describe what Herodotus said happened in Babylon,
Speaker 1: but you know, ancient sex work probably wasn't ever that. Instead,
Speaker 1: today I want to talk to you about Heterai and Poorneye,
Speaker 1: ancient Greek sex workers, the women who lived outside the
Speaker 1: binary forced on wives, sometimes of their own free will
Speaker 1: and with the pride of someone who's accomplished something great
Speaker 1: when the world was stacked against them, and sometimes I
Speaker 1: mean obviously not that at all. There have always been
Speaker 1: different types of sex work, the type that can be
Speaker 1: freeing and empowering and the type that is forced by men.
Speaker 1: The former I want to go into as much detail
Speaker 1: as possible because it's fascinating and interesting, and I think
Speaker 1: these women deserve to have their stories told in ways
Speaker 1: that highlight their intelligence and strength in the ancient world,
Speaker 1: the way they figured shit out for themselves and built
Speaker 1: the life they wanted. And the latter group I want
Speaker 1: to talk about briefly to give them the voice, whatever
Speaker 1: voice that I can without focusing on what was probably
Speaker 1: a pretty shitty existence. And again along the way, we're
Speaker 1: going to reviuse just a little bit of the dumb
Speaker 1: ass misogynist drivel that I've come across while researching for
Speaker 1: this episode, like specifically a book that I own, not
Speaker 1: to take two seriously, but for when I want to
Speaker 1: remind myself not only how far we've come in just
Speaker 1: like imagining ancient women to be you know, people, but
Speaker 1: also how recent and tenuous it is. Because it's this
Speaker 1: book I found in a used bookshop called Love in
Speaker 1: Ancient Greece. It's written by a French guy in like
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty. It's mentioned in the description, but you'll see
Speaker 1: where this is going. That said, honestly, actually, for all
Speaker 1: this book is written very much in nineteen sixty. It's
Speaker 1: like pretty good about calling out misogyny, so maybe I'm
Speaker 1: being a little judgmental, but the words have been inspirational
Speaker 1: at the least because it's in this book where I
Speaker 1: got the idea to read that wild passage from Herodotus
Speaker 1: about what he says he learned about women in Babylon.
Speaker 1: I'm sure they weren't real. This book has a lot
Speaker 1: about sex work too, most of which actually isn't as
Speaker 1: horrifying as I was expecting. So maybe I made a
Speaker 1: snap judgment, but we will still begin. We have a
Speaker 1: little quote from it because the first paragraph of this
Speaker 1: section on courtizans in this book compares finding a sex
Speaker 1: worker to the practice of pederasty, you know, the Athenian
Speaker 1: tradition of men and boys that I don't frankly want
Speaker 1: to discuss again because it's a lot. I've talked about
Speaker 1: it before. Google it if you need. I mentioned it
Speaker 1: because it's relevant to the line that I'm going to
Speaker 1: read you, and honestly, it is important to note that
Speaker 1: pederasti is probably was probably very similar to ancient Greek
Speaker 1: sex work, the enforced kind, But regardless of that, it
Speaker 1: is relevant context for when I read you This last
Speaker 1: line of the introduction to ancient sex work quote the
Speaker 1: heterosexually minded could also easily find tera obliging little friends
Speaker 1: who lived by the sale of their bodies. Really, what
Speaker 1: do I to introduce the concept of sex work in
Speaker 1: the ancient Greek world? Not least because this author goes
Speaker 1: on to explain the enslavement of many ancient sex workers.
Speaker 1: So like to both acknowledge the enforced nature of many
Speaker 1: of their lives and existences while also calling them obliging
Speaker 1: little friends feels eh well, the word horrifying comes to
Speaker 1: mind if the gag wasn't enough. But it's a time
Speaker 1: of horrifying that at least in my opinion, we should
Speaker 1: laugh at for its utter absurdity and ability to both
Speaker 1: acknowledge these women while like also completely devaluing their lives.
Speaker 1: I feel like it's a very nineteen sixty It both
Speaker 1: points out misogyny while also being misogynist art. But I
Speaker 1: promise today's episode is mostly about the badassory that came
Speaker 1: along with at least two different stories of haterai in
Speaker 1: ancient Greece. This is episode two fifty three Beloved of Aphrodite,
Speaker 1: The lives and legacies of ancient Greek sex workers. Let
Speaker 1: us go into the temple and look at the image
Speaker 1: of Aphrodite curiously rot of gold. Polyarchis gave it from
Speaker 1: the rich harvest of her body's splendor. That was a
Speaker 1: third century poet called Gnosis writing about a shrine to
Speaker 1: Aphrodite in Magna Greca, the Greek colony in Italy, and
Speaker 1: presents the claim that a gold statue of Aphrodite in
Speaker 1: this temple was donated by a woman who had to
Speaker 1: be a pretty successful hittera in order to afford something
Speaker 1: so nice. Sex workers were sacred to Aphrodite. I won't
Speaker 1: pretend that meant they had it good, but they were
Speaker 1: broadly recognized as being associated with a goddess, and sometimes
Speaker 1: even might have worked in some explicit connection with her
Speaker 1: temples or shrines. In her book Venus and Aphrodite, Betnany
Speaker 1: Hughes talks about Aphrodite as also a goddess of ports
Speaker 1: broadly before saying quote, perhaps unsurprisingly, given her connection to
Speaker 1: both see and sex, Aphrodite was the goddess of not
Speaker 1: just ports and port towns, but also of prostitutes. Indeed,
Speaker 1: we hear from both Roman and Greek sources that she
Speaker 1: was considered the patron saint of the oldest profession. Hughes
Speaker 1: also goes on to point out the region of Kamaikos
Speaker 1: was one of the main places where ancient sex workers
Speaker 1: would find work in Athens and in the excavations of
Speaker 1: the cemetery there, which, just as an aside, is also
Speaker 1: a very fun place where one can often very appropriately
Speaker 1: find Athenian tortoises fucking, but tortoises aside. Lots of artifacts
Speaker 1: have been found there that are in dedication to the
Speaker 1: goddess and thus probably associated with sex work. But there
Speaker 1: also is at least one that was dedicated to the
Speaker 1: goddess as Starte, who's the Phoenician goddess who's often understood
Speaker 1: to have inspired the Greek Aphrodite. So it also has
Speaker 1: this connection to ports and trading and just travel. But
Speaker 1: there's one piece that Hughes details in this book that
Speaker 1: frankly I have to pass on to you. It's a medallion,
Speaker 1: maybe a wall hanging, she says, and on it quote
Speaker 1: Aphrodite rides a goat through the night sky with arrows
Speaker 1: as her companion. Kid goats and doves frolic across the scene.
Speaker 1: Another young naked boy leads the way in front of
Speaker 1: the goddess a ladder. The ancient Greek word for ladder
Speaker 1: is climax, is propped up behind the determined looking deity.
Speaker 1: She also goes on to note in a truly joyful
Speaker 1: parenthetical quote, a common ancient phrase for climactic orgasm was
Speaker 1: Aphrodite's finishing post. So you know you're welcome for all
Speaker 1: of that. Aphrodite contains multitudes, and one small part of
Speaker 1: that is certainly an affinity for sex work. This is
Speaker 1: a little less linked to Aphrodite save for Hughes' section
Speaker 1: on this book reminding me, but there are absolutely endless
Speaker 1: examples of erotic art on pottery that we generally understand
Speaker 1: to feature hitterai. One of the most famous types of
Speaker 1: parties from ancient Athens were symposia, drinking parties where only
Speaker 1: men were allowed, except like, that's not actually true. They
Speaker 1: just didn't let their wives come and they called it
Speaker 1: only men and then allowed hitterai to join them. And
Speaker 1: so we often find these pieces of pottery that show
Speaker 1: distinct sympotic imagery and also sex and also women. Thus
Speaker 1: probably hitteri and the type that were, for lack of
Speaker 1: a better term, fancy enough to attend these parties, and
Speaker 1: there are some amazing stories of what these women were
Speaker 1: able to accomplish with the riches that they got from
Speaker 1: men in this field of work. Work, though, is the
Speaker 1: key word here, So let's first lay out the different
Speaker 1: types of sex work that existed in ancient Greece. I'm
Speaker 1: certain there's like, there's far more detail and complexity to this,
Speaker 1: and there's no doubt that I will miss a lot
Speaker 1: about these women of the ancient world and maybe give
Speaker 1: them more success and agency than they might have felt.
Speaker 1: But I'm going to do my best, and God's it's
Speaker 1: well intentioned. So there is certainly so much complexity on
Speaker 1: an individual level, from you know, a woman to woman
Speaker 1: living these types of lives. But for the purpose of today,
Speaker 1: we're just going to simplify the nature of ancient Greek
Speaker 1: sex work into two basic categories. Hitterai, who have mentioned
Speaker 1: but we will go into detail, and porn i. Hittera
Speaker 1: is the singular form of the word hitterai, and as
Speaker 1: I have screamed into this microphone many times, it is
Speaker 1: best translated as companion. In fact, the male form of
Speaker 1: the word is hitteros, and it's most often translated as
Speaker 1: like friend, companion or comrade, and then when it's women,
Speaker 1: it's often accompanied by a modifier word that suggests something different,
Speaker 1: like a more transactional relationship. And as far as I
Speaker 1: understand it, you know, it became a kind of euphemism
Speaker 1: really for the type of sex worker that we're talking about,
Speaker 1: even if it just means compaginion. The worst is when
Speaker 1: it gets translated as whoror and you're like, and that's
Speaker 1: the whole reaction. Hitteri are often the type of sex
Speaker 1: workers that we might call like maybe escorts today. I
Speaker 1: don't even know if that term is still relevant. I'm old.
Speaker 1: It doesn't always come with sex is the point, though,
Speaker 1: but companionship, and often it wasn't money that was exchanged,
Speaker 1: but gifts of one kind or another. There are many
Speaker 1: examples of hitterai who began their lives enslaved too, perhaps
Speaker 1: as pornee, which again we'll get to, and then who
Speaker 1: were able to buy their freedom and make lives for themselves.
Speaker 1: We have stories of some pretty incredible feats. These women
Speaker 1: achieved greatness and wealth and names that are remembered even
Speaker 1: now now. Poor and I, on the other hand, were
Speaker 1: sex workers who were I gather typically enslaved, if not always,
Speaker 1: if they weren't, you know, formally enslaved by someone, then
Speaker 1: they were basically enslaved by poverty. These are the women
Speaker 1: who usually lived in port cities where they could get
Speaker 1: regular business. They worked or were enslaved to brothels and
Speaker 1: where money was exchanged for sex. We have less about them,
Speaker 1: though we do know that they were beloved by and
Speaker 1: sacred to Aphrodite, just like the haterai. And yes, this
Speaker 1: is where we get the word porn in all of
Speaker 1: its forms. When it comes to this type of sex
Speaker 1: worker and hitterai broadly, we unsurprisingly have lots of evidence
Speaker 1: for their lives in these port cities. I mean, it
Speaker 1: makes sense the cities where you have the most traffic
Speaker 1: of foreigners and travelers would be where these women would
Speaker 1: get the most business. It's why later we'll hear Herodotus
Speaker 1: mention the Egyptian port city of Naucratis. But it's also
Speaker 1: why I want to tell you a little bit about
Speaker 1: the role that Corinth played in this world of sex work,
Speaker 1: because oh Corinth. See Corinth is the city like it's
Speaker 1: right on the Isthmus, that bit of land that connects
Speaker 1: the Peloponnesian Peninsula with the Greek mainland. One of my sources,
Speaker 1: a book simply called Aphrodite, calls it quote the most
Speaker 1: prominent center for the secular profession of prostitution. I won't
Speaker 1: focus on them much, both because I worry about what
Speaker 1: we do know from the sources. Because something survives, I
Speaker 1: can't imagine that it's particularly kind or aware of the
Speaker 1: actual women who lived these lives. And also because well,
Speaker 1: I want to focus on the women that we know
Speaker 1: of who turned being a haterai into at least as
Speaker 1: far as I can see, a badass career where they
Speaker 1: got to not only live lives free of the confines
Speaker 1: of marriage that often forced a last Athenian women to
Speaker 1: be like little kermits in their homes whose roles are
Speaker 1: basically just like home and baby maker, but also, you
Speaker 1: know it, let them build lasting and truly incredible legacies
Speaker 1: for themselves. I don't want to suggest that the women
Speaker 1: who were not able to do this, or couldn't or
Speaker 1: didn't try were any less, but at least we have
Speaker 1: these stories of these women who were able to turn
Speaker 1: this into a career that they seem to have been
Speaker 1: incredibly proud of like, of course, the woman who inspired
Speaker 1: this episode in the first place. Freeany You might have
Speaker 1: heard Freanie's story before, either because you listened to my
Speaker 1: episode last year with Melissa Funky all about Franie, or
Speaker 1: because you've encountered her story somewhere or other on the internet,
Speaker 1: because she really is quite famous. I'm gonna first read
Speaker 1: how Britannica dot I'm assuming org explains her story before
Speaker 1: we get into more actual detail, because frankly, like I
Speaker 1: live for the drama and it is well said here quote.
Speaker 1: When accused of blasphemy a capital charge, Freani was defended
Speaker 1: by the orator Hyperodes. When it seemed as if the
Speaker 1: verdict would be unfavorable, he tore her dress and displayed
Speaker 1: her bosom, which so moved the jury that they acquitted her.
Speaker 1: Another version has Freeanie tear her own dress and plead
Speaker 1: with each individual juror. Yeah, Freanie is the one whose
Speaker 1: story goes around as a tumbler meme every now and then,
Speaker 1: the woman who got acquitted of a major capital charge
Speaker 1: because she showed her tits to the jury. Fortunately for
Speaker 1: us and Freani, there is so, so, so so much
Speaker 1: more to her story, and she probably never had to
Speaker 1: show her tits. In truth, she probably didn't get naked
Speaker 1: in the courtroom, and honestly, good for her. For more
Speaker 1: details on this trial and the sources that we have
Speaker 1: for it, listen to my episode with Melissa Funky, which
Speaker 1: I will be putting back into your feeds this week
Speaker 1: in some form, so stay tuned because it's just all
Speaker 1: too fitting and I don't want to rehash it all
Speaker 1: because that episode exists then it was so fun, and
Speaker 1: today I want to talk about not her trial, but
Speaker 1: the success and legacy of this woman who made a
Speaker 1: career as a hittera. Stories like hers are rare certain,
Speaker 1: but they're not singular. Probably the most famous is Aspasia. Aspasia,
Speaker 1: who I won't talk about today, but she probably started
Speaker 1: out as a hittera and then also was like a
Speaker 1: top advisor to Pericles. One day I will talk about her.
Speaker 1: But the fact that we have examples of more than
Speaker 1: one woman achieving utter greatness by being hittera is just
Speaker 1: fucking cool. I like to imagine that, you know, even
Speaker 1: if it wasn't an easy life or remotely guaranteed to
Speaker 1: gain success and wealth, that these stories of a few
Speaker 1: hitterai who left behind wealth and legacies that last for
Speaker 1: us today. Give us, you know, some hope that women
Speaker 1: in ancient Greece, ideally classical Athens, where it was worst
Speaker 1: you were able to find freedom and lives that they
Speaker 1: chose for themselves, rather than being either enslaved poor or
Speaker 1: the citizen wife confined to her home. Stories like Frenies
Speaker 1: and the other talk about today feel like women who
Speaker 1: were able to manipulate the system that oppressed them. They
Speaker 1: were able to use the only thing many men cared
Speaker 1: about them, their bodies, to gain riches and security and
Speaker 1: fame that allowed them to otherwise like basically live whatever
Speaker 1: lives they wanted, and even better, to be remembered for
Speaker 1: them millennia later. Freni was originally from Botia and her
Speaker 1: name was Mnesserete. At some point in her life she
Speaker 1: ended up in Athens and part of the sex trade
Speaker 1: in some way, but as Funky's book on her opens quote,
Speaker 1: by the end of the third century BCE, that girl,
Speaker 1: now known to the Greek world as Freni, had become infamous,
Speaker 1: a symbol of the elite culture of Athens. By the
Speaker 1: second century CE, she was synonymous with the city itself,
Speaker 1: and her name alone was sufficient to invoke the cultural
Speaker 1: heights of what was considered to be athens Golden Age.
Speaker 1: She was awesome, is the point Funky calls her the
Speaker 1: ultimate fragmented dream girl. We don't know too much about
Speaker 1: her for certain, because her life remains exactly that fragmentary
Speaker 1: and kind of mythical, but what we know is more
Speaker 1: than enough to present a strong woman who made a
Speaker 1: life for herself on her own terms and left a
Speaker 1: legacy worth talking about. Twenty three hundred years later. She
Speaker 1: amassed wealth and influence. She had relationships with some big
Speaker 1: names in the history of Athens, and of course she
Speaker 1: was said to be the model for one of the
Speaker 1: most famous statues of Aphrodite, the Aphrodite of Canidos by Praxateles.
Speaker 1: And again, yes, that is the statue that I recently
Speaker 1: mentioned in the episode on Pygmalion, the in cell and
Speaker 1: Stories of men Fucking Statues, because of course it is.
Speaker 1: And she wasn't just the model for status choos of
Speaker 1: effort Titi, but herself too. There was even said to
Speaker 1: be a statue of her in the Temple of Aros,
Speaker 1: not a statue of her as a goddess, but one
Speaker 1: of Freni herself. She was even said to have paid
Speaker 1: to rebuild the walls of Thebes after they were destroyed
Speaker 1: by Alexander the Great, and like, there was even apparently
Speaker 1: a stipulation that these new walls bear an an inscription
Speaker 1: that said quote Alexander raised them, but Freni the Hitera
Speaker 1: put them back up again. It's not nothing, too, that
Speaker 1: she required there to be the inclusion of her status
Speaker 1: as a hittera on the inscription. Funky describes this as
Speaker 1: quote a Freni who plays with and builds on her
Speaker 1: own personal brand of infamy, so that Freni the individual
Speaker 1: is inseparable from Freni the icon. Oh, she knew what
Speaker 1: she was. She did that it was through her status
Speaker 1: as hittera that she had not only amassed enough wealth
Speaker 1: to rebuild the walls of Thebes, but also fame enough
Speaker 1: that she became so famously impressive and beautiful that she
Speaker 1: was at least a bit untouchable, or at least not
Speaker 1: afraid of saying loudly how she gained her wealth and power.
Speaker 1: The empowerment that comes with this this kind of status, too,
Speaker 1: like just cannot be understated. Like it sounds amazing now,
Speaker 1: let alone back then, she knew how to work the system.
Speaker 1: She knew the men to keep as her clients, the
Speaker 1: ones that could not only make her rich, but powerful
Speaker 1: and famous for good or bad, those that she could
Speaker 1: use to not only keep herself in a life of
Speaker 1: her own on her terms, but like a pretty fucking
Speaker 1: good one. By descent. Rhodopis was of Thrace, and she
Speaker 1: was a slave of Iadmon, the son of Hefeistopoulos, a Samian,
Speaker 1: and a fellow slave of Esop, the maker of fables.
Speaker 1: She came to Egypt, brought by Xanthis the Samian, and
Speaker 1: having come thither to exercise her calling, she was redeemed
Speaker 1: from slavery for a great sum by a man of Mittelini, Caraxos,
Speaker 1: son of Scamandronimos and brother of Sappho, the lyric poet.
Speaker 1: Thus was Rhodopis set free, and she remained in Egypt,
Speaker 1: and by her beauty one so much liking that she
Speaker 1: made great game of money. For one like Rhodopis. In truth,
Speaker 1: there is no need to ascribe to her very great riches,
Speaker 1: considering that tithe of her wealth may still be seen
Speaker 1: even to this time by anyone who desires it. For
Speaker 1: Rhodopis wished to leave behind her a memorial of herself
Speaker 1: in Hellas, namely to cause a thing to be made,
Speaker 1: such as happens not to have been thought of or
Speaker 1: dedicated in a temple by any besides, and to dedicate
Speaker 1: this at Delphi as a memorial of herself. Accordingly, with
Speaker 1: the tithe of her wealth, she caused to be made
Speaker 1: spits of iron of size large enough to pierce a
Speaker 1: whole ox, and many in number, going as far therein
Speaker 1: as her tithe allowed her, and she sent them to Delphi.
Speaker 1: These are even at the present time, lying there heaped
Speaker 1: altogether behind the altar which the Heeans dedicated, and just
Speaker 1: opposite to the cell of the temple. Now it now
Speaker 1: cra As it happens, the Cortizans are rather apt to
Speaker 1: win credit for this woman first, about whom the story
Speaker 1: to which I refer as told became so famous that
Speaker 1: all the Hellenes without exception come to know the name
Speaker 1: of Rodopus. That was a passage from Heroditus, adjusted slightly
Speaker 1: so I didn't confuse you with unfinished details about another
Speaker 1: famous hetera called obviously Rhodopis. I also can slowly hear
Speaker 1: myself pronouncing Greek words more Greek and less ENGLISHY. I
Speaker 1: hope they still make sense. Apparently I can't help myself.
Speaker 1: I'm too obsessed. There's a rumor that Herodotus is addressing
Speaker 1: here in this passage. Actually I cut it from the
Speaker 1: paragraph because it didn't make enough sense with how much
Speaker 1: I could read to you, So we're talking about it
Speaker 1: now instead. See, there was apparently a rumor amongst the
Speaker 1: Greeks that one of the great pyramids of Giza, though
Speaker 1: admittedly the smallest of the three, was actually built by
Speaker 1: or for Rhodopus. It's a rumor. Obviously it's not true.
Speaker 1: It is a rumor that Herodotus even is trying to
Speaker 1: disprove because he had sense and realized that that wasn't
Speaker 1: possible or even remotely likely, no matter how impressive she
Speaker 1: could have been, I mean, even just time. He knew.
Speaker 1: But the rumor seems to have remained like long after Herodotus.
Speaker 1: Even writers during the Roman period mention it as a possibility,
Speaker 1: or like at least something that's been talked about in
Speaker 1: the past. This idea that it was the tomb of
Speaker 1: Rohodopus built by her or for her by the wealthy
Speaker 1: and like highly influential men of Egypt that she kept
Speaker 1: as clients. That's pretty impressive. This as I already hope
Speaker 1: I've made very clear. Though again it's not true, but Rhodopus,
Speaker 1: as a woman, a hatera who made enough money to
Speaker 1: leave a mark, is certainly likely to have been a
Speaker 1: real person. Herodotus is speaking of the way that she did,
Speaker 1: like actually leave her mark, not on a pyramid, but
Speaker 1: instead he's saying that she paid a tithe of her
Speaker 1: earnings and saved enough to buy big ass spits for
Speaker 1: Delphi for like feasting and worship, and that they were
Speaker 1: known to have been dedicated by her, and he was
Speaker 1: said to have just even seen them. She also famously
Speaker 1: was rumored not only to have lived her earlier life
Speaker 1: enslaved on Samos, but by the same man who enslaved
Speaker 1: the famous Esop writer of fables. We're taught to believe
Speaker 1: we're for kids, but were absolutely not. And later, when
Speaker 1: Rodopus eventually found her way to Egypt, where she certainly
Speaker 1: continued to make a name for herself, she is rumored
Speaker 1: to have met a man named her Axis, brother of
Speaker 1: none other than Sapho, and who said to have paid
Speaker 1: to free Rodopus from her enslavement. If this is true,
Speaker 1: once she's been freed by Sappho's brother, she would have
Speaker 1: been able to continue her career working for herself and
Speaker 1: then so eventually save that money enough that she could
Speaker 1: dedicate at Delphi, and also so that we remember her now.
Speaker 1: And if she was real, she would have lived probably
Speaker 1: a few hundred years before freeeny too. And there's another
Speaker 1: there's one more hatera who's mentioned by Herodotus by name,
Speaker 1: a woman named Arkadikie. She doesn't have too much to
Speaker 1: say about her, unfortunately, but he does say that she
Speaker 1: became the subject of poets songs all over Greece, even
Speaker 1: if she wasn't quite as well known as Rhodopis. It's
Speaker 1: hard for me to do these history episodes. They're so piecemeal,
Speaker 1: and like, I don't want to. I don't want this
Speaker 1: episode to suggest that being a hatera in ancient Greece
Speaker 1: would have been like a particularly good job or often
Speaker 1: resulted in freedom and wealth, anything like these two women
Speaker 1: were able to make for themselves, like obviously, most cases
Speaker 1: were probably pretty horrifying, since most cases of sex work
Speaker 1: would have been enslaved then, either by nature of war
Speaker 1: or poverty. Most of the women probably had it pretty tough,
Speaker 1: to put it mildly, But at the same time, just
Speaker 1: like not all sex work now is coerced and dangerous,
Speaker 1: it wasn't always then either, and I think it's important
Speaker 1: to highlight those stories. Like these women deserve attention, and
Speaker 1: they deserve it to remain linked to their careers that
Speaker 1: they made for themselves and eventually, like one can imagine
Speaker 1: that they took some pride in, if not lots of it,
Speaker 1: like Frani had her career as a hittera labeled on
Speaker 1: the rebuilt walls of Thebes, and Rhodopis happily sent her
Speaker 1: tie the way to Delphi evidence of her success in
Speaker 1: her career. And sure, these women began their careers in
Speaker 1: sex work enslaved, which certainly again should not be called
Speaker 1: the career, but they were both freed from that and
Speaker 1: chose to continue it for themselves, making names for themselves
Speaker 1: and fame and wealth and status. If I learned anything
Speaker 1: from the conversation that I had with Melissa Funky last year,
Speaker 1: it's that Franny's fame was enormous some during her life
Speaker 1: and so much after, but she like achieved something real
Speaker 1: and tangible in her life, which is something that we
Speaker 1: have so little evidence for when it comes to real
Speaker 1: women of the ancient world, that their stories they just
Speaker 1: deserve to be celebrated. Even if they were the exception
Speaker 1: to the rule, they were something so real and huge
Speaker 1: and just fucking cool. Ugh Nerds, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for listening. As always, I've been itching to talk about
Speaker 1: Hitterai for ages, so I'm just I'm thrilled that I've
Speaker 1: finally been able to do it. I'm always on the
Speaker 1: lookout for more conversations that I can have with experts
Speaker 1: who know far more than me on the lives of
Speaker 1: Hatera and poorn Eye in the ancient world. Hopefully I'll
Speaker 1: be able to bring you more of those eventually, But
Speaker 1: for now, I feel like we've celebrated their lives, both
Speaker 1: good and bad, and their achievements, like at least a little.
Speaker 1: What women like Rhodopus and Freeny achieved in their lives
Speaker 1: when literally every single thing was stacked against them is
Speaker 1: fucking enormous, Like as if everything wasn't already stacked against women,
Speaker 1: but they were enslaved and got out of that and
Speaker 1: then did this again. I don't want to suggest that
Speaker 1: anyone who wasn't able to get out is any less.
Speaker 1: But fuck, it's cool to have these stories. Plus, I
Speaker 1: think it's vital that we all know that climax means
Speaker 1: ladder and climax, And as a bonus, you should also
Speaker 1: know that clitteris also means little hill. That's where it
Speaker 1: comes from. It's a Greek word. You're welcome. I also
Speaker 1: don't want to suggest that it was only women who
Speaker 1: were enslaved to sex work or even found fame in it.
Speaker 1: We don't have a lot of evidence about the men
Speaker 1: because it tends to be written by pro pederasty sources
Speaker 1: and so there's a lot going on there. But I
Speaker 1: don't want to suggest it was only women. It's just
Speaker 1: only women that I've talked about today because it's Women's
Speaker 1: History Month, and speaking of Women's History Month, I I
Speaker 1: don't want to go another episode without talking about the
Speaker 1: women of Gaza who are experiencing some of the most horrifying,
Speaker 1: horrifying everything. I don't even know how to put it
Speaker 1: into words anymore, because I just I don't even know how.
Speaker 1: I don't know how anyone is just not thinking about
Speaker 1: this all the time, let alone the idea that I
Speaker 1: know a lot of people think I'm wrong for saying
Speaker 1: that's so many innocent peace people just didn't deserve to die,
Speaker 1: Like somehow that's a controversial topic. I'm just so exhausted
Speaker 1: by the idea that we can't agree that killing so
Speaker 1: many people who did nothing wrong is bad. I mean,
Speaker 1: I know, Western propaganda is so real, it's so real,
Speaker 1: and this is evidence every day, this is evidence of
Speaker 1: how well it's worked. But the women of Gaza deserve everything.
Speaker 1: The people of Gaza deserve everything. They deserve a permanent ceasefire.
Speaker 1: They deserve to remain on the land that their parents
Speaker 1: gave to them, that their parents gave to them all
Speaker 1: the way down the line. Because newsflash, Like whatever you believe,
Speaker 1: the history tells us that multiple groups of people existed
Speaker 1: on the same land in the ancient Mediterranean. It just
Speaker 1: I mean, the word Palestine is twenty five hundred years old,
Speaker 1: and I don't say that to suggest that Jewish people
Speaker 1: were not on that land or don't deserve to be
Speaker 1: on that land. There just does not and should not
Speaker 1: ever be a state that gives rights to one group
Speaker 1: and nothing to the other. Anyone who truly belongs on land,
Speaker 1: knows how to treat that land, and it says an
Speaker 1: awful lot that a country is willing to destroy so much.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about myths. Baby is written and produced by
Speaker 1: Me Live. Albert Michaelasmith is the Hermes to my Olympians.
Speaker 1: My assistant producer, Laura Smith is the production assistant and
Speaker 1: audio engineer. Select music used in this episode was by
Speaker 1: Luke Chaos. The podcast is part of the iHeart Podcast Network.
Speaker 1: Listen on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Help
Speaker 1: me continue bringing you the world of Greek mythology and
Speaker 1: the Ancient Mediterranean by becoming a patron, where you'll get
Speaker 1: bonus episodes and more. Visit patreon dot com slash myths Baby,
Speaker 1: or click the link in this episode's description. I am
Speaker 1: live and I love this stuff. Know what I'd love more?
Speaker 1: Permanent ceasefire and a free Palestine