Lais of Hyccara  

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Lais of Hyccara (d. 340 BCE) was a courtesan of Ancient Greece. She was probably born in Hyccara, Sicily (in the place of modern Carini) and died in Thessalia. Another hetaera (an older one) with the same name was Lais of Corinth. Since ancient authors in their (usually indirect) accounts often confuse them or do not indicate which they refer to, the two are inextricably linked.

There are a number of anecdotes about her. For example, it was said Demosthenes was willing to pay 1,000 Greek drachmas for a night with her, but she raised her price to 10,000 drachmas after viewing him, while she gave herself to Diogenes for nothing.

She was the daughter of Timandra (Damasandra acc. to Athenaeus). She was a contemporary and a rival of Phryne. She fell in love with a Thessalian named Hippostratus or Hippolochus, who brought her to Thessaly. It is said that Thessalian women out of jealousy lured her into the temple of Aphrodite and stoned her to death. She was buried on the banks of Peneus.

Giving herself for free to Diogenes

And Aristippus every year used to spend whole days with her in Aegina, at the festival of Poseidon. And once, being reproached by his servant, who said to him- "You give her such large sums of money, but she admits Diogenes the Cynic for nothing" he answered, "I give Lais a great deal, that I myself may enjoy her, and not that no one else may." And when Diogenes said, "Since you, O Aristippus, cohabit with a common prostitute, either, therefore, become a Cynic yourself, as I am, or else abandon her;" Aristippus answered him- "Does it appear to you, O Diogenes, an absurd thing to live in a house where other men have lived before you ?" "Not at all," said he. "Well, then, does it appear to you absurd to sail in a ship in which other men have sailed before you?" "By no means," said he. "Well, then," replied Aristippus, "it is not a bit more absurd to be in love with a woman with whom many men have been in love already." --Athenaeus, --Deipnosophists, xiii. 588EF[1]

Asking 10,000 drachmas to Demosthenes

In the Adagia by Desiderius Erasmus one reads:

"Lais, one of the courtezans, was esteemed to be the most beautiful and accomplished woman of the age in which she lived. She drew visitors from the most distant countries, to whom she sold her favours at a very high price. Of Demosthenes, who wished to pass an evening with her, she required ten thousand drachmas. Astonished at the boldness and largeness of the demand, he quitted her, " not choosing," he said, "to buy repentance at so dear a rate[2]." --Proverbs, chiefly taken from the Adagia of Erasmus, with explanations; and further illustrated by corresponding examples from the Spanish, Italian, French & English languages (1814)

Pages linking in as of June 2021

340 BC, 340s BC, Carini, Courtesan, Epigrams (Plato), Éponine, Julius Sabinus, Lais of Corinth, Lais, List of ancient Greeks, Maja-Lisa Borgman, Manipur

See also

• Lais in Hades[3] is the title of a painting by Gustave Courtois.
• Athenaeus on Lais of Hyccara