O earth and all the gods! whom Lacedæmon
Desires to catch in his adulteries,
though he was beloved by the wife of Agis, used to go and held his revels at the doors of the courtesans, leaving all the Lacedæmonian and Athenian women. He also fell in love with Medontis of Abydos, from the mere report of her beauty; and sailing to the Hellespont with Axiochus, who was a lover of his on account of his beauty, (as Lysias the orator states, in his speech against him,) he allowed Axiochus to share her with him. Moreover, Alcibiades used always to carry about two other courtesans with him in all his expeditions, namely, Damasandra, the mother of the younger Lais, and Theodote; by whom, after he was dead, he was buried in Melissa, a village of Phrygia, after he had been overwhelmed by the treachery of Pharnabazus. And we ourselves saw the tomb of Alcibiades at Melissa, when we went from Synadæ to Metropolis; and at that tomb there is sacrificed an ox every year, by the command of that most excellent emperor Adrian, who also erected on the tomb a statue of Alcibiades in Parian marble.
35. And we must not wonder at people having on some occasions fallen in love with others from the mere report of their beauty, when Chares of Mitylene, in the tenth book of his History of Alexander, says that some people have even seen in dreams those whom they have never beheld before, and fallen in love with them so. And he writes as follows:—"Hystaspes had a younger brother whose name was Zariadres: and they were both men of great personal beauty. And the story told concerning them by the natives of the country is, that they were the offspring of Venus and Adonis. Now Hystaspes was sovereign of Media, and of the lower country adjoining it; and Zariadres was sovereign of the country above the Caspian gates as far as the river Tanais. Now the daughter of Omartes, the king of the Marathi, a tribe dwelling on the other side of the Tanais, was named Odatis. And concerning her it is written in the Histories, that she in her sleep beheld Zariadres, and fell in love with him; and that the very same thing happened to him with respect to her. And so for a long time they were in love with one another, simply on account of the visions which they had seen in their dreams. And Odatis was the most beautiful of all the women in Asia; and Zariadres also was very handsome. Accordingly, when Zariadres sent to Omartes and expressed a desire to marry the damsel, Omartes would not agree to it, because he was destitute of male offspring; for he wished to give her to one of his own people about his court. And not long afterwards, Omartes having assembled all the chief men of his kingdom, and all his friends and relations, held a marriage-feast, without saying beforehand to whom he was going to give his daughter. And as the wine went round, her father summoned Odatis to the banquet, and said, in the hearing of all the guests,—'We, my daughter Odatis, are now celebrating your marriage-feast; so now do you look around, and survey all those who are present, and then take a golden goblet and fill it, and give it to the man to whom you like to be married; for you shall be called his wife.' And she, having looked round upon them all, went away weeping, being anxious to see Zariadres, for she had sent him word that her marriage-feast was about to be celebrated. But he, being encamped on the Tanais, and leaving the army encamped there without being perceived, crossed the river with his charioteer alone; and going by night in his chariot, passed through the city, having gone about eight hundred stadia without stopping. And when he got near the town in which the marriage festival was being celebrated, and leaving, in some place near, his chariot with the charioteer, he went forward by himself, clad in a Scythian robe. And when he arrived at the palace, and seeing Odatis standing in front of the side-board in tears, and filling the goblet very slowly, he stood near her and said, 'O Odatis, here I am come, as you requested me to,—I, Zariadres.' And she, perceiving a stranger, and a handsome man, and that he resembled the man whom she had beheld in her sleep, being exceedingly rejoiced, gave him the bowl. And he, seizing on her, led her away to his chariot, and fled away, having Odatis with him. And the servants and the handmaidens, knowing their love, said not a word. And when her father ordered them to summon her, they said that they did not know which way she was gone. And the story of this love is often told by the barbarians who dwell in Asia, and is exceedingly admired; and they have painted representations of the story in their temples and palaces, and also in their private houses. And a great many of the princes in those countries give their daughters the name of Odatis."
COURTESANS.
36. Aristotle also, in his Constitution of the Massilians, mentions a similar circumstance as having taken place, writing as follows:—"The Phocæans in Ionia, having consulted the oracle, founded Marseilles. And Euxenus the Phocæan was connected by ties of hospitality with Nanus; this was the name of the king of that country. This Nanus was celebrating the marriage-feast of his daughter, and invited Euxenus, who happened to be in the neighbourhood, to the feast. And the marriage was to be conducted in this manner:—After the supper was over the damsel was to come in, and to give a goblet full of wine properly mixed to whichever of the suitors who were present she chose; and to whomsoever she gave it, he was to be the bridegroom. And the damsel coming in, whether it was by chance or whether it was for any other reason, gives the goblet to Euxenus. And the name of the maiden was Petta. And when the cup had been given in this way, and her father (thinking that she had been directed by the Deity in her giving of it) had consented that Euxenus should have her, he took her for his wife, and cohabited with her, changing her name to Aristoxena. And the family which is descended from that damsel remains in Marseilles to this day, and is known as the Protiadæ; for Protis was the name of the son of Euxenus and Aristoxena."
37. And did not Themistocles, as Idomeneus relates, harness a chariot full of courtesans and drive with them into the city when the market was full? And the courtesans were Lamia and Scione and Satyra and Nannium. And was not Themistocles himself the son of a courtesan, whose name was Abrotonum? as Amphicrates relates in his treatise on Illustrious Men—
Abrotonum was but a Thracian woman,
But for the weal of Greece
She was the mother of the great Themistocles.