And in another place she says:
Niobe and Latona were of old
Affectionate companions ἑταίρα to each other.”[248]
That mediæval scholasticism has not been able wholly to obscure the greatness of the Greek hetairai is shown by the declaration of a renowned writer of modern times who says: “Of all the poets who have appeared on the earth Sappho was undoubtedly the greatest.”
Notwithstanding the aspersions which have been cast upon the name and fame of the hetairai of Greece, it is doubtful if the intelligent women of the present age who carefully examine the shreds and remnants concerning them which have withstood the envy of mediocrity, and the bigotry of scholasticism, will be brought to believe that the excesses which are foreign to the female nature, and which belong to ruder and less highly developed structures, were practised by these gifted women. We must bear in mind that the hetairai were free, and therefore that they were able to direct their movements according to the natural characters developed within the female,—characters which it will be remembered are correlated with the maternal instinct.
The licentiousness, not only of Greek and Roman women, but of those in certain portions of Asia as well, has been the favourite theme of many writers of past ages; more especially has the lewdness of Lydian and Babylonian women been noted and commented upon. After referring to the annual sale of women in Babylonia, Herodotus says that the people
have lately hit upon a very different plan to save their maidens from violence, and prevent their being torn from them and carried to distant cities, which is to bring up their daughters to be courtesans. This is now done by all the poorer of the common people, who since the conquest have been maltreated by their lords, and have had ruin brought upon their families.[249]
It is recorded that the various classes of “kept women” in Greece were foreigners, that they were either bought or captured from surrounding countries. As in the case of the Lydians and Babylonians, they were doubtless carried from their homes at a tender age after having been reared to their profession. Many of the maidens thus taken to Greece subsequently became philosophers, statesmen, and scholars, whereupon they abandoned their former calling. Lysias mentions the fact that Philyra gave up her former course when she was still quite young, “and so did Scione, and Hippaphesis, and Theoclea, and Psamathe, and Lagisca, and Anthea.”[250]
As special mention is made of a woman who “did not cease to live a prostitute when she began to learn philosophy,”[251] we may reasonably infer that it was usual for these women to abandon the calling to which they had been born and bred, so soon as from such teachers as Aspasia and Hipparchia they began to imbibe principles of self-respect and womanly independence.
From the position occupied by the hetairai it is evident that by the philosophers of Greece, they were regarded with that respect which is ever due to cultured womanhood; indeed, from the evidence at hand we may believe that they were the most highly honoured citizens in Athens.