Neaira (hetaera)  

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Neaira, or Neaera, (pronounced "neh-EYE-ruh") (Νέαιρα ) was a hetaera who lived in the 4th century BC in ancient Greece; there is no reliable data about the exact dates of her birth and death. She was brought to trial in the mid-fourth century, and the prosecution speech from that trial (Demosthenes 59 Against Neaira) provides a great deal of information about the life of Neaira and the sex trade in the ancient Greek city-states (poleis). More is known today about Neaira than any other prostitute of antiquity.

Conclusion

Although no other prostitute of antiquity is as well documented, Neaira is in our contemporary consciousness less than, for example, Lais, Thaïs, or Phryne. The indictment of Neaira offers a key source to historians about Athenian social history and the history of women in Greece. Traditionally Apollodoros' speech against Neaira has been attributed to Demosthenes: the speech appears in the Demosthenic corpus as speech 59 Against Neaira, although Apollodoros is now accepted as the true author of the speech.

The true nature of the hetaera can't be totally reconstructed from these sources; Neaira served several parties' interests during the trial and placed herself in the background. None of the authors - at the very least Apollodoros - are seriously interested in characterizing a woman of ill repute; and then only when something of note happens that will support the accusation, not for the purpose of objective representation.

In the last few years, the trial and life of Neaira have become frequent topics of scrutiny. Debra Hamel wrote a monograph in 2003 to this extent. It and the trial were translated into German by Kai Brodersen. There is also an excellent commentary on the speech by K.A. Kapparis. Likenesses and later representations of Neaira have not survived.

See also




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Neaira (hetaera)" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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