10 WOMAN IN SCIENCE 



'into these relations without exposing themselves to the 

 slightest stigma or reproach. Many of the hetaerae, con- 

 trary to what is sometimes thought, were ' ' of highly moral 

 character, temperate, thoughtful and earnest, and were 

 either unattached or attached to one man, and to all in- 

 tents and purposes married. Even if they had two or three 

 attachments but behaved in other respects with temper- 

 ance and sobriety, such was the Greek feeling in regard 

 to their peculiar position that they did not bring down 

 upon themselves any censure from even the sternest of 

 the Greek moralists. ' n 



The most famous men of Greece, married as well as un- 

 married, had their " companions, " many of whom were as 

 distinguished for their accomplishments as for their wit 

 and beauty. Thus Epicurus had Leontium, Menander 

 Glycera, Isocrates Metaneira, Aristotle Herpyllis, and 

 Plato Archlanassa, while Aristippus, the philosopher, Di- 

 ogenes, the cynic, and Demosthenes, the great orator, each 

 had a companion bearing the name of Lais. 2 More than 

 this. So strongly had many of the hetaerae impressed them- 

 selves on the esthetic sense of the beauty-loving Greeks 

 that not a few of them had statues erected in their honor, 

 especially in Athens and Corinth, and thus shared in the 

 honor that hitherto had been reserved exclusively for the 

 goddess of beauty and love, fair Aphrodite. 



The hetaarae from Ionia and JEtolia were particularly 

 conspicuous for their intelligence and culture. And all 

 of them, whencesoever they came, enjoyed unrestricted lib- 

 erty and, unlike the wives of the citizens of Athens, had 

 free access to the Portico and the Academy and the Ly- 



1 Woman: Her Position and Influence in Ancient Greece and 

 Rome and Among the Early Christians, pp. 58 and 59, by James 

 Donaldson, London, 1907. 



2 There were several hetserae named Lais. One of them, apparently 

 a native of Corinth, was celebrated throughout Greece as the most 

 beautiful woman of her age. 



