Hetaira

hetaerae /hɪˈtɪriː/), was a type of courtesan or prostitute in ancient Greece, who served as an artist, entertainer, and conversationalist in addition to providing sexual service.

Custom excluded the wives and daughters of Athenian citizens from the symposium, but this prohibition did not extend to hetairai, who were often foreign born and could be highly educated.

[3] This position is supported by Konstantinos Kapparis, who holds that Apollodorus' famous tripartite division of the types of women in the speech Against Neaera ("We have courtesans for pleasure, concubines for the daily tending of the body, and wives in order to beget legitimate children and have a trustworthy guardian of what is at home.

[13] According to Kurke, the concept of hetairism was a product of the symposium, where hetairai were permitted as sexually available companions of the male party-goers.

[14] In Athenaeus' Deipnosophistai, hetairai are described as providing "flattering and skillful conversation": something which is, elsewhere in classical literature, seen as a significant part of the hetaira's role.

However, the reliability of all of these indications has been questioned: for instance nudity in the context of athletics, wedding rituals, or supplication does not necessarily relate to sex work.

Greek hetaira and her client, approx. 430 BC. The fact that she is on the couch with him is telling, as wives were not allowed into the symposium .
Two banqueters and a psalterion -playing hetaera sitting together on a klinē . Terracotta from Myrina, Mysia, c. 25 BC. The harp is an angular harp .
Painting, on the inside of a kylix , of a hetaira or prostitute playing kottabos , a drinking game played at symposia in which the participants flicked the dregs of their wine at a target. [ 9 ]