has killed a man, whether lawfully, or whether initiating the violent
act, or whether on compulsion, seems not to be innocent or free
from responsibility; and this is owing to that supreme and general
relationship of all mankind with one other. Wherefore certain
expiations had to be undertaken by any man who had killed another, to
wipe out the guilt that was deemed to have been incurred).
What was the precise nature of the disease that the Jews had brought
on themselves by their intercourse with the Moabitish women cannot
indeed be determined; but that it affected the genital organs can
hardly admit of a doubt. The fact, if it is a fact, that not a few lost
their lives owing to it, need be no objection, since the ulceration
of the genitals that prevailed at the end of the XVth. Century caused
similar fatalities, and as we shall presently see, the uncircumcised
_Apion_ met his death in some such way. Now the Jews were almost
without exception still uncircumcised at that time, for it was
_Joshua_[110] who first on his arrival in Canaan, at the bidding of
Jehovah, circumcised the children of Israel with stone knives on the
hill Araloth. When the people adopted the worship of Baal Peor, we may
be sure they ceased at the same time to observe the ancestral laws of
purification,—if indeed these latter even as regards foul discharge
and leprosy as well as intercourse with women during menstruation were
not perhaps, as might almost be believed, _first_ enacted in all their
severity only in consequence of the plague of Baal Peor. Again it may
well have been this experience that first taught the inhabitants of
Palestine the necessity of circumcision, which was then laid down as an
ordinance by command of Jehovah!
Brothels and Courtesans[111].
§ 10.
There is no doubt that it was in the Asiatic cult of Venus that the
first elements were given for sexual excesses. It is hardly a matter
of surprise therefore if these same elements came constantly, as has
been shown above, into greater and greater prominence, and in this
way pushed the original form of the Worship into the background. By
degrees as enlightenment increased and the respect felt towards the
gods diminished, Venus also soon lost her old character as goddess of
procreation and sank into the patroness of sensual gratification. Her
temples as well as her holy groves lost their exclusive title to bestow
the blessing of fruitfulness on the embraces of the sexes, and came
merely to serve as appointed trysting-places of carnal pleasures. The
offerings made at her shrines were no longer to win an assurance of
posterity; they became bribes paid to buy a free opportunity for the
indulgence of sensuality. They degenerated into fornication-fees, as
her temples did into brothels. The priestesses of Astarté or Mylitta
stood at the beck and call alike of strangers and natives, and the
opportunity was ever open for sexual enjoyment. Hence too it is that a
special designation for the brothel will be looked for in vain in Asia.
The thing existed there without the name being required; and the State
found no need to establish an institution, which had long ago, without
any intervention on its part, taken form under the cloak of religion.
Even amongst _the Jews_, who frequently enough, but always as a
temporary aberration merely, adhered to the foreign cult, brothels in
the strict sense seem never to have existed[112]. Although courtesans
are frequently mentioned in the Old Testament, and even the dwelling
of a Wanton as well as her behaviour pictured with considerable
fullness of detail[113], yet all this would seem to have had more of a
private than of a public character,—due heed being given to the fact
that not a few passages are to be taken only in a figurative sense.
Prostitution as a regular calling was strictly prohibited[114] to the
daughters of Israel; and such women as practised it openly seem to have
been mainly foreigners, perhaps natives of Phoenicia and Syria, who
at the same time entertained with dancing and the music of stringed
instruments[115]. But the attempt to draw a conclusion from this as to
the pre-eminent chastity of the Jewish women, as e.g. _Beer_ (on p. 25
loco citato) wishes to do, would be justifiable neither for earlier nor
yet for later times. The passages of the Old Testament dealing with
Sodom and with the dissoluteness under Mannasseh even in the very
Temple at Jerusalem are sufficient by themselves to prove the contrary.
As to _Macedonia_ there is a passage in _Athenaeus_, quoted from
_Hermesianax_ to this effect: ἀλλὰ Μακεδονίης πάσας κατενίσατο λαύρας
(But he went through all the alleys of Macedonia), where _Dalechamp_
translates the word λαύρα by brothel, but _Casaubon_ even in his time
threw doubt on this rendering.[116] Possibly however this judgement
is connected with similar licentious practises among the Macedonians
to what we find among the Persians[117], who indulged in sexual
intercourse with their own mothers, daughters, etc., and begat children
upon them,—a practice which _Euripides_[118] makes the Barbarians
generally guilty of.
But if there _were_ actually brothels existing in Macedonia, this would
be the less surprising, as its inhabitants may well be reckoned amongst
Greeks in many respects.
The Greek knew perfectly the boundary between the physical and the
ethical, and sought ever to subordinate the former to the latter. His
whole life belonged in the first instance to the State, of it he
was bound to be a citizen, and for it to endeavour to produce good
citizens. Consequently polygamy early disappeared in Greece, and so
too community of wives, a custom which prevailed down to historical
times at Sparta only. Monogamy was the first law of marriage, and
marriage was the bounden duty of every true citizen[119], to save his
family from dying out. But while the Asiatic prided himself on the
number of his children, the Greek’s boast was of their excellence.
Only with the object of procreating offspring was the Greek husband
to rest in the arms of his spouse (ἐπ’ ἀρότῳ παίδων γνησίων—for the
sowing, procreation of lawful children), and not to desecrate the holy
Torus (marriage-couch) by mere lustfulness. Where this was stirred in
him, he ceased to be free; a slave of lust, he must consort only with
slave-women, and not with free citizenesses[120]. Nay! even this was
permitted solely to avoid greater evils; and illicit coition never
ceased to be held as something οὐ καλόν—unseemly[121], particularly
when it was indulged in by married men.
It has been shown how under the clearer skies of Greece the Asiatic
worship of Venus took on a form more worthy of mankind, how the Greek
distinguished his Venus Urania (Heavenly Venus) from the Venus of the
rest of the world, the Pandemian (Venus common to all), and so set up
a barrier to the flood of dissoluteness,—a barrier however that was
little by little broken down in later times. Foreigners, especially the
voluptuous inhabitants of Asia, when they saw that the Greek cult did
not like their native worship abet their carnal appetites, imported
slave-women. These were purchased by the Greeks, and handed over as
offerings to the temple of Aphrodité under the title of Temple-servants
or “Hieroduli”[122]; and acquainted as they were with the needs of
their fellow-countrymen, sought in every way to supply them,—as was in
particular the case at Corinth.
This example could not well remain without influence on private
life. The Greek indeed took no part in the Asiatic form of the
Venus-worship; all the same illicit connection grew more and more
universally prevalent, and as it could not be gratified in any other
way, wives[123] and daughters of fellow-citizens were imperilled. To
avert this danger _Solon_ (B. C. 594) according to the statements of
_Philemon_ and _Nicander_[124] introduced actual _brothels_, οἴκημα,
πορνεῖον, (house, brothel) and public women, πόρναι (prostitutes),
who were accessible at a trifling charge. The houses of ill-fame were
situated, as _Pollux_ informs us, at Athens in the neighbourhood of
the Harbour[125], and in the Ceramicus according to _Hesychius_[126],
in later times also in the city itself[127]. They were presided
over by a Whoremaster (πορνοβοσκός, πορνοτρόφος—harlot-maintainer,
harlot-keeper). As to the internal arrangements of brothels among the
Greeks we have been unable so far to discover anything more precise,
but in all probability the same conditions held good as among the
Romans.
Besides the regular brothels, women were also kept at the taverns[128]
(καπηλεία, καπηλεῖον, καπήλιον, πανδοκεῖα,—tavern, inn), which likewise
were situated chiefly near the Port. The women were bought slaves, as
the passages quoted above (p. 70. note 2.) show; and even such free
Greek women[129] as at a later period undertook the calling, were
then looked upon as slaves[130]. All women of this class, as well as
the whore-masters, were professionally under the supervision of the
Ἀγορανόμοι (Market Commissioners[131], who fixed how much each was
allowed to receive for her services. This fee was called μίσθωμα,
διάγραμμα or ἐμπολή,—fee, scale, purchase). It varied in amount;—8
Chalci— = 1 obol, a little less than twopence (τριαντοπόρνη,—an
obol, two-penny, girl)[132], 2 obols— = about three-pence halfpenny
(διωβολιμαῖα, χαλκιδῖτις,—a two obol, three-pence halfpenny,
girl)[133], a drachma—a franc, say ten-pence[134], a Stater—= 4
drachmae, say three and three-pence (στατηριαία,—a stater, three and
three-penny, girl)[135].
The Hetaera (Lady-Companion) seems in this respect to have enjoyed a
greater liberty of choice, and a knowledge of their prices to have
been regarded as something out of the common[136]. The well-known
_Gnathaena_ at Athens asked 1000 Drachmae for a night from a foreign
Satrap[137]; _Phryné_ a mina (= 100 drachmae, something over four
pounds sterling). But the most notorious of all was _Lais_ at Corinth
for the high price at which she sold the marks of her favour, from
which arose the proverb: Non cuivis homini contingit adire Corinthum,
(It is not every man that can go to Corinth)[138].
Licences to follow the calling were granted to the whore-masters, and
also the women, on payment of a fixed duty, called “prostitute tax”
(τέλος πορνικόν)[139], which was leased out yearly by the Magistracy,
and collected by professional _farmers of the prostitution-tax_ or
Collectors, known as πορνοτελώναι, who kept a complete list, in which
were included even the “Pathici” (pathic sodomites), of all liable to
the impost. From the proceeds of this prostitution-tax _Solon_ would
seem to have built a temple at Athens to Aphrodité Pandemos[140].
From this an idea may be formed, even if nothing more than a sort of
brothel is to be understood by the term, of the large number of women
of this character and of the considerable revenue of the city.
The public women were either such as lived in the brothels (πόρναι,
αἱ προστᾶσαι τῶν οἰκημάτων,—harlots, prostitutes of the “houses”),
where they used to stand at the doors, and that in rows (ἐπὶ κέρως
τεταγμένας,—drawn up in column) more or less stripped, in almost
transparent dresses (γυμναὶ, ἐν λεπτοπήνοις ὑμέσιν,—stripped, in
fine-woven robes)[141], or else they were kept partly as ἑταῖραι
μουσικαί—“musical” hetaerae, like the harp-girls in German beer-halls,
or with procurers (μαστροπός, προαγωγός,—bawds, procurers) in their
taverns (προαγωγεῖα, μαστρόπιον, ματρύλλεια,—procurer’s house,
bawdy-house, brothel). Or again they followed their trade in the
Port-Market (the δεῖγμα) as δεικτηριάδες (Market-girls)[142], in
the στοὰ μακρὰ, (Long Portico), and generally in the Lanes of that
neighbourhood (χαμαιτύπαι[143], χαμαιευνάδες, χαμαιεύνης, χαμαιτηρίς,
χαμεύνης,—all nick-names for common strumpets, “ground-thumpers,”
“sleepers on the ground”), where they either surrendered themselves on
the spot or hied to recognised harlots’ dens (χαμαιτυπεῖον) or houses
of accommodation (τέγος)[144].
The place of their abode shows at once what class of men frequented
“filles de joye” of the sort. It was foreign sailors[145] in particular
who here indemnified themselves for their compulsory continence at
sea. Of Greeks only the dregs of the people and debauchees who had
lost all self-respect came here; and even these used by preference
the taverns[146], where procuration was carried on as well[147],—for
which reason they had fallen into general disrepute. For as late as
Aristophanes’[148] time the lower class of citizens felt no hesitation
about taking their pleasure along with their wives in inns. On the
other hand persons of repute, prominent by office and dignities, were
actually forbidden by law to visit such places. “Were an Areopagite
to have been seen but once in an Inn,” says _Hyperides_[149], “his
colleagues would no longer have tolerated him as a member of the
Areopagus.” Later, matters changed, for the moralizing _Isocrates_[150]
says, “Nay! no well-conducted slave dares even eat or drink anything in
an Inn”; and _Theophrastus_, portraying the character of a madman quite
devoid of shame gives this as a trait,—he would be quite capable of
keeping an Inn!
The hetaera (female-companion) must be distinguished from the πόρνη
(harlot), though both were under similar conditions as to police
surveillance. The hetaera was also strictly speaking a slave-woman,
usually stolen as a child or otherwise obtained by procuresses, or
bought by older hetaerae. They were educated[151] in all that was
understood by the Ancients under the name “Music”, that over and above
their charms of person, they might especially captivate their lovers
by their intellectual cultivation, who bought them to give them their
freedom,—and then more often than not were presently abandoned by them.
The great nursery of hetaerae was above all places Corinth, from which
centre they travelled through all parts of Greece, as e.g. did Neaera,
and frequently acquired enormous riches. The better class of them were
everywhere held in high esteem; and many a hetaera, grown weary of
her condition, gave her hand to a husband, in order to close her life
as an honest wife[152], or else retired so as at any rate to lead a
blameless existence[153]. Frequently indeed they were also “Dames de
Maison”, and often kept a considerable number of girls under the title
of hand-maids. This was the case with Nicareta, just mentioned, at
Corinth, as well as with the famous Aspasia at Athens, the latter of
whom flooded all Hellas with her protegées[154]. Such as were held in
less respect often put themselves under the protection of their more
renowned sisters, or else carried on the calling on their own account,
and this especially when they were not so well educated, not “musical”
(πέζαι ἑταίραι—_prose lady-companions_)[155], at Athens going to
settle at the Peiraeus to entice the merchants who arrived in the port,
whilst the more choice merely showed themselves there[156]. They often
followed the troops on service in crowds, accompanying for instance
the general _Chares_[157] and _Pericles_ to Samos, where they made so
large an income that they even built a temple of Ἀφροδίτη ἐν Καλάμοις
(Aphrodité at Calami,—the Reeds)[158]. For the remaining details as
to the life of the hetaerae the classical Treatise of _Friedrich
Jacobs_[159] should be consulted.
Even these regular “filles de joie” at first existed almost exclusively
for foreigners, who often squandered prodigious sums in their arms;
the Athenians at any rate up to the time of Themistocles did not go
with them[160]. But the example proved too strong to resist. Little by
little the younger men acquired a taste for the freer society of the
highly educated and luxuriously bedecked[161] courtesans, who on their
side were possessed of tact enough to subordinate the purely sensual
to the intellectual, in order to captivate the Greek sense of beauty.
Even older men might easily be seen at their feet, for the Greek
ladies had but too little aptitude for stepping beyond the household
sphere[162]. And so it was no longer matter for surprise when _Chares_
took with him on his expedition, as stated above, a large number of
hetaerae. The Athenian youth was already in the habit of killing time
in their society[163]; and the important rôle they played in the time
of _Pericles_ needs to be no further insisted on. The Greek however
never descended to the lowest level of shameless, brutal, coarseness.
Before he threw himself into the arms of the foreign Wanton, he first
raised her to some equality with himself; and of the handmaid and slave
made a friendly companion or hetaera!
The account here given applies particularly only to Athens, for our
efforts to discover anything more precise as to brothels and courtesans
in the remaining States and Cities of Greece have not so far been
crowned with success.
§ 11.
With the Roman, who could spare hardly a thought to any other feeling
than his pride, love played but an insignificant rôle in his existence.
Even the deference he showed towards marriage and the married woman was
not really so much the outcome of a pure morality as of the interest
that the State must of necessity feel in the nursing-mothers of each
succeeding generation; in fact it can scarcely be regarded as much
more than a mere measure of policy. When a Censor like _Metellus_ in
a public Speech intended to encourage matrimony could say[164]: Si
sine uxore possemus, Quirites, esse, omnes ea molestia careremus:
sed quoniam ita natura tradidit, ut nec cum illis satis commode, nec
sine illis ullo modo vivi possit, saluti perpetuae potius quam brevi
voluptati consulendum. (If we could live without a wife, Quirites,
we should all be free from such inconvenience; but since nature
has arranged it in this wise that neither with women in any real
comfort, nor without them at all, can existence be carried on, we
ought to think of our life-long well-being rather than of a momentary
gratification),—and when even the strict _Cato_ declared[165]: In
adulterio uxorem tuam si deprehendisses, sine iudicio impune necares:
illa te, si adulterares, digito non auderet contingere, _neque ius
est_. (If you should have detected your wife in adultery, you might
kill her without trial and be scatheless; but she, if _you_ were the
adulterer, would not dare to lay a finger upon you, _nor is it lawful_
she should),—it can hardly surprise us to find a complete lack of the
ideal or intellectual element in the relations of the sexes. These
never really rose among the Romans much above the level of the bestial;
and harlots are found already in evidence at the very threshold of
Roman history[166], whilst association with them far from ever being a
subject of blame, is rather represented as being a custom sanctified by
immemorial usage that had never been forbidden[167].
In spite of this however, and of the fact that the _Etruscans_[168],
at a time when Rome was hardly more than _coming_ into existence,
already led a life that was worse than licentious, while _Messapians_,
_Samnites_ and _Locrians_, as has been shown, habitually gave up their
daughters to prostitution,—in spite of all this I say, the sexual
excesses of the Romans were for the first 500 years on the whole
insignificant. Their way of life as warriors and husbandmen hardly
suffered them to sink into indolent sloth, the beginning of all vicious
living, whilst the law of the XII Tables, “_coelibes prohibeto_” (be it
forbidden to remain bachelors)[169] forced men in the vigour of their
powers to satisfy the impulse of nature in the arms of the lawful
wife. But more and more did the Romans come into contact with foreign
Peoples, and began to adopt more and more their customs and vices. In
the year 513 A.U.C. (B.C. 240) the Floralia were introduced, which
even granting they cannot have had the origin that _Lactantius_[170]
assigns them, yet by the very nature of the celebrations were an
outrage on all good morals. Yet so universally popular were they that
_Cato_ could win no greater concession to his indignant zeal against
them than that their closing scenes should be delayed until he had
retired[171].
The enormous wealth the Romans had won as booty in their continual
Wars of spoliation, could not be hoarded unused, it must be enjoyed;
and how enjoyed, the warriors knew already. The younger members of the
Equestrian and Patrician orders went on travels, and learned in the
arms of Greek and Asiatic wantons how to lavish their money _secundum
artem_. Then on their return to Rome finding the native Scorta (common
harlots) no longer to their taste, they brought home with them their
freed-woman “Amica” (Mistress), who was a fair match for the Greek
hetaera in greed, if not in refinement. It was not long before the
old-fashioned Roman matron succumbed in the struggle with her for
supremacy, and by dint of her only too successful endeavours to outdo
the foreign courtesan in _recherché_ vice and effrontery, became but
the more despicable in the eyes of the proud Roman. She had indeed
learned to be a mother, but not to love. At the same time the Roman
himself, surrounded as he thus was by no softening influences, ceased
not only to be a citizen of the state, but even to be a man at all;
and the Ruler of the World sank at last to such a depth of exaggerated
viciousness that it became his glory and boast to be without a rival in
its enormity.
The conclusion then is indisputable that only subsequently to the
Wars in Asia was Roman morality undermined[172]. At the same time it
is impossible from the information given above to assign any definite
point of time at which brothels and public women came into vogue at
Rome, or at any rate when their existence as such was officially
recognized by those in charge of the police supervision of the city.
With the regulations and arrangements however we are more precisely
acquainted. The brothels, _lupanaria_[173], _fornicas_[174], were
situated chiefly in the Second District (Secunda Regio) of the
city[175], the _Coelimontana_, particularly in the Subura (Suburbana)
that bordered the town-walls, lying in the Carinae,—the valley between
the Coelian and Esquiline Hills. In the same district was the _Macellum
magnum_, or Great Market, for all sorts of provisions[176] along
the banks of the Tiber, as well as the Cookshops, Stalls or Shops
(Tabernae)—of the Barbers, even of the Public Executioner[177], and
the Castra peregrina, (Foreign Camp), barracks for foreign troops
quartered in Rome under the Emperors as a garrison,—all circumstances
that occasioned a great concourse of men[178]. To the North the Subura
marched with the “Isis and Serapis”,—the Third District (Tertia
Regio), where was situated the temple of Isis with its gardens and
groves. The regular brothels are pictured to us as being in the
highest degree uncleanly and dirty[179], so that their frequenters
carried away the smell with them. They possessed a definite number of
“chambers”, _Cellae_[180], and above the door of each of these was
inscribed the name of the girl, that which she had adopted on her first
admission[181], and the price of her embraces[182]. In each “chamber”
was to be found a bed (_pavimentum_, cubiculum, pulvinar,—pavement,
sleeping-place, couch), which was spread with a particular kind of
coverlet, _lodix_, _lodicula_, (blanket, little blanket)[183], and a
lamp, _lucerna_[184].