early period any light has been thrown, we discover the prevalence of
similar customs. The most celebrated appear the most licentious, but
probably only because they have been the most strictly investigated.
The wealthy and luxurious capitals, in which the spoils of great
conquests were piled up, never failed to supply a sufficient number
of abandoned women, supported by the looser sort of men, in various
degrees of position, from penury to splendour. Though circumstances
of time and place, of religion and civilization, imparted peculiar
characteristics to the prostitute class of each age and country, the
general features of the system were invariably the same, and the
prostitutes of Babylon resembled very much the prostitutes of New
Orleans and London. We turn next to ancient Egypt, a country of whose
laws and manners we have had interesting, if not complete, accounts
bequeathed us.
OF PROSTITUTION IN ANCIENT EGYPT.
Turning to ancient Egypt, we find, in the records of that singular
people, little directly bearing on the question before us. Herodotus,
and Diodorus the Sicilian, are almost the sole lights which guide
us in our researches among them. Recently, the labours of a learned
antiquarian have tended to increase our acquaintance with the people
of old Egypt, by translating into language the volumes of information
engraved or painted on the walls of tombs, temples, palaces, and
monuments, so numerous in the cities on the banks of the Nile. We
have thus had broad glimpses of the ancient history, the geography,
population, government, the arts, the industry, and the manners of
that country at that period; but the extent of the prostitute system
has not been touched upon. Nevertheless, as one of the most ancient
civilizations known to history, Egyptian society deserves some
attention, and it is worth while to glance at the general condition of
its women, especially as a few facts throw light on the especial point
of our inquiry.
The position of a woman in ancient Egypt was in some respects
remarkable. Entire mistress of the household, she exercised
considerable influence over her husband, and was not subjected to any
intolerable tyranny. In all countries, however, where concubinage
is allowed, the condition of the sex must be in a degree degraded.
Herodotus tells us that the Egyptians married only one wife, Diodorus
that they married as many as they pleased, the restriction applying
only to the sacerdotal order. The contradiction may be reconciled
by supposing that the former writer described the general practice,
and the latter the permission granted by the law; or, which is more
probable, that he confounded concubinage with polygamy. From frequent
allusions to this system we know it was tolerated. Wise laws, however,
held a check upon the practice. Every child, the fruit of whatever
union, was to be reared by its parents, infanticide being severely
punished. Illegitimacy was a term not recognised. The son of the free,
and the son of the bondwoman, had an equal right to inheritance, the
father alone being referred to, since the mother was viewed as little
more than a nurse to her own offspring. Women in Egypt bore numerous
children, which rendered many concubines a burden too heavy for any but
the wealthy to bear; nevertheless, some did indulge themselves in this
manner, procuring young girls from the slave-merchants who came from
abroad, or captives taken in the field.
In a country where the marriage of brother and sister was allowed,
we might expect to find curious laws relating to the subject before
us. But they were not curious, in any particular degree. Adultery was
punished in the woman by the amputation of her nose, in the man by a
thousand blows with a stick. The wealthier men were extremely jealous,
forcing their wives to go barefooted, that they might not wander in
the streets. Eunuchs, also, were maintained by some. Among classes of
a lower grade, the women enjoyed peculiar freedom, being allowed to
take part in certain public festivals, on which occasions they wore
a transparent veil. Among all sorts and conditions of the sex, the
drinking of wine was permitted, as it was by the Greeks, though not by
the Romans; and ladies are occasionally represented on the monuments,
exhibiting all the evidences of excess.
These observations apply to the respectable female society of ancient
Egypt. There existed, however, another class, nowhere indeed indicated
under the term harlot, or prostitute, but evidently such from the
accounts we have received. If the descriptions transmitted to us of
the ordinary female society be correct, the women to whom we allude
could have been no other than public prostitutes. Such were, in all
probability, those who enlivened the festival of Bubastis, and danced
at the private entertainments. What ideas of decency prevailed among
them, may be imagined from the brief though curious account afforded
by Herodotus. When the time of the festival arrived, men and women
embarked promiscuously, and in great numbers, on board the vessels
which conveyed them up or down the river. During the voyage, they
played on various instruments, and whenever they arrived at a city
moored the boats. Then some of the women, who could have been no
other than the Almé of those days[21], played furiously all kinds of
music, flung off their garments, challenged the women of the town with
gross insulting language, and outraged decency by their gestures and
postures. An immense concourse of people assembled on the occasion,
and a large proportion of them belonged to the female sex. “Some of
them” only, according to our author, took part in the exhibitions of
profligacy we have noticed.
The public dancers and musicians of the female sex were also, in all
probability, members of the sisterhood we allude to. They were, it is
well known, held in extremely low estimation: they were clothed, like
the prostitutes of ancient Greece, in a single light garment; indeed,
from the monuments, it is questionable whether they did not, like
those in the Roman saturnalia of Flora, dance entirely naked at some
of the more dissolute private festivals of the wealthy. At any rate,
their forms are represented so completely undraped, that any garment
they wore must have been a light veil which clung to the skin, and was
transparent. But from what we are told of the festival of Bubastis, it
is by no means improbable that they were actually nude.
In that remote period, fancifully called the age of Sesostris, chastity
does not appear to have been the capital virtue of society among the
Egyptians. At least, we must draw this inference if we are to attach
any significance to traditions or fables, which generally reflect
some phase of truth. Sesostris, it is said, having offended the gods,
was struck blind, and ordered to find a woman who had been strictly
faithful to her husband. He was very long in performing the task, being
furnished with an unerring rule of judgment. Of course the account is
an idle fable, yet it is not altogether unworthy of notice, for it
indicates an opinion as to the chastity of that period[22].
OF PROSTITUTION IN ANCIENT GREECE.
In the heroic ages of Greece, we find women--on the authority, indeed,
of poets, the sole historians of those times--enjoying a considerable
share of liberty, held in much respect, accustomed to self-reliance,
and allowed freely to mingle with others of their own sex and with men.
A modest simplicity of manners is ascribed to them, which is wholly
foreign to modern ideas of refinement. What education they received is
not well known, though they appear to have been trained to practise
many of the useful as well as the elegant arts of life; but with
respect to the morality prevalent among them little exact information
can be gained. As in the Bible, however, frequent allusion is made to
harlots and strange women, waiting at the corners of the streets, so
in the poets of antiquity, passages occur which point to the existence
of a class, dedicating itself to serve, for gain, the passions of
men who could not afford marriage, or would not be bound by its
restrictions. The science of statistics, however, does not seem to have
been cultivated in those days. We are not told with certainty of the
population of cities, or even whole countries, and men were not then
found to calculate how many in a hundred were immoral, or to compare
the prostitute with the honourable classes of women.
With the commencement of the strictly historical age, though
statistics are still wanting, there have been collected materials
from which we may gather fair ideas of the _status_ of women, and the
position and extent of the prostitute class among them. Beginning
with Sparta, a very peculiar system displays itself. Among the
citizens of that celebrated Doric state, women were regarded as
little more than agencies for the production of other citizens. The
handsome bull-stranglers of Lacedæmon held exceedingly lax notions
of morality, and would have considered a delicately chaste woman as
one characterized by a singular natural weakness. Taught to consider
themselves more in their capacity of citizens than of women, their
duty to their husbands, or to their own virtue, occupied always the
second place. Their education inculcated the practice of immorality.
All ideas of modesty were by a deliberate public training obliterated
from their minds. Scourged with the whip when young, taught to wrestle,
box, and race naked before assemblages of men, their wantonness and
licentiousness passed every bound. Marriage, indeed, was an institution
of the state; but no man could call his wife his own. On occasions
when the male population was away in the field, the women complained
that there was no chance of children being born, and young men were
sent back from the camp, to become the husbands of the whole female
population, married and single.
[Illustration: GREEK DANCING-GIRL--HETAIRA: _Age of Socrates_.
[From “_Costume Antico e Moderno_.”--Milan, 1616.]]
In times of peace, also, the public laws gave every woman a chance
of becoming what we should in these days term a public prostitute. A
man without a wife might insist on borrowing for a certain time the
wife of another. Should her husband resist, the law was called in to
enforce the demand. It is asserted, indeed, by some, that adultery was
unknown in Sparta. There was no such offence, in truth, recognised in
the code. It was common, legal, and occurred every day. At the same
time, however, it is to be remembered, that the severe laws of Sparta,
recognising no concessions to the weaker passions of men, allowed these
things only for state purposes, that citizens might be brought forth.
There appears to have been no class of prostitutes gaining a livelihood
by selling their persons to the pleasures of men: the rigorous code of
the state forbade such sensual indulgences. Women were not allowed,
apparently, to walk the streets. The young were strictly watched by the
elders, the elders jealously observed by the young; and any proneness
to a practice subversive of that vigorous health in the population,
considered essential to preserve the manhood of Sparta, would have
been denounced as an attempt to introduce luxury and effeminacy--the
vices, in their eyes, of slaves. To assert that in the whole state no
virtuous women, and no public prostitutes, in our sense of the word,
could be found, would be rash; but it is certain that no authority
which has come down to us represents chastity as a Spartan virtue,
or prostitution for money, or from predilection, one of their social
institutions.
In Athens a wholly different picture is presented. There, and generally
among the Ionians, the duty of the wife was to preserve a chastity as
delicate and pure as any which is required in our strictest social
circle. There, at the same time, the courtezan class existed, and men
of all descriptions and all ages encouraged prostitution, to which a
considerable class of women devoted themselves. This is a complete
contrast with Sparta.
The young girls of Attica were early trained to all the offices of
religion; they acquired considerable knowledge; their intellectual
qualities were to some degree developed: they were educated to become
housekeepers, wives, and mothers, such as we describe under those
heads. Exercising considerable influence over their male relatives,
they possessed consequently considerable weight in the community, and
altogether held a higher position than the women of Sparta. They led
secluded lives, yet they enjoyed many opportunities of intercourse with
the other sex; and though, in their theatres, and in their temples,
indecency of the grossest description was frequently displayed to
their sight, they seem otherwise to have been somewhat refined in this
respect. In Sparta, the virgins never hesitated to expose themselves
naked before any circle of spectators: in Athens they observed at least
the public forms of decorum, and, with the exception of the Hetairæ or
prostitute class, were sufficiently modest in their conversation and in
their behaviour.
Accustomed to be present at public spectacles, to converse with men, to
share in the performance of ceremonies at religious or civic festivals,
the women of Athens occupied a position somewhat approaching that
which we believe is proper to their sex. Marriages, as among us, were
contracted, some from sentiment, others from interest. We are led
to form a high idea of the general morality prevailing in the Attic
states of Greece at an early period, from the exalted view of love, of
chastity, of matronly duties, urged in the writers of the time. This
seems a fair measure to employ, since, in a later age, when morals were
more corrupt, and the regular class of prostitutes might be confounded
with the general society, the style and sentiment of poets and others
formed an exact reflex of the prevailing state of morality.
Traditions point to a period in the social history of Greece, when
men and women dispensed altogether with the ceremony of marriage,
living not only out of wedlock, but promiscuously, without an idea
of any permanent compact between two individuals of opposite sexes.
If such a state of things ever existed, it must have been before any
regular society was formed, and it is therefore vain to dwell upon
it. Polygamy, we know, long continued in practice among the Greeks,
though it was a privilege and a propensity chiefly followed by the
powerful and rich. In Athens marriage was held sacred. The character
of a bachelor was disreputable. So, indeed, was it in Sparta, where
young men remaining single after a certain period might be punished
for the neglect of a duty exacted from them by the severe laws of
the state. In both states, but in different degrees, the prohibition
of marriage within certain limits of consanguinity extended; but
when once the union took place, it was, in Athens, a crime of great
enormity to defile its sanctity. The influence of the wife was, in the
household, powerful; and commanding, as she did, the respect of men,
the advantages of her position were so great, that to risk their loss
by a transgression of the moral law, was not a common occurrence. We
may therefore assign to the women of Athens a high average of morality,
and consider them as having been held in remarkable estimation.
An important point in the manners of every people is the institution
of marriage. From an inquiry into its estimation, whether it be held
a religious rite, or a civil contract, or both, with various other
circumstances in connection with these, we are aided in forming a just
idea of the prevalent civilization. In the Doric states of Greece,
it was esteemed as little more than a prudent ceremony, binding man
and woman together for purposes of state. As among the savages of
Australasia, it was the custom for a man to bear a woman forcibly from
among her companions, when he took her to the bridesmaid’s house, and,
her hair being cut short and her clothes changed, she was delivered
to him as wife. His intercourse with her however, was, for some time
clandestine, and he shunned being seen in her society. This was the
case with the wealthier maidens. The portionless girls were, from time
to time, shut up in a dark edifice, and the youths, being introduced,
accepted each the woman he happened to seize upon. A penalty was
imposed on any one refusing to abide by the decision of chance.
Occasionally public ceremonies were enacted at the marriages of the
rich; but from all testimony it appears certain that the union of
man with woman at Sparta was entirely of a civil, and by no means of
a sacred character. Private interest, sentiment, and happiness were
indeed, in this, as in all other matters, subordinate to the public
exigencies. When a woman had no children by her own husband, she was
not only allowed, but required by the law to cohabit with another man.
Anaxandrides, to procure an heir, had, contrary to all custom, two
wives. The state excused no licentiousness for its own sake, but any
amount for a public object[23].
In Attic Greece, the ceremony of marriage was viewed in a more poetical
light, and divinity was supposed to preside over it. We have already
alluded to the notion of the promiscuous intercourse among them at a
remote period; but, passing from this fable, we find traces of polygamy
long discernible. Heracles maintained a regular seraglio. Egeus,
Pallas, Priam, Agamemnon, and nearly all the chiefs, possessed harems,
but these were irregularities, contrary to law and custom, and only in
fashion among royal personages. The story of the two wives of Socrates
seems a pure invention.
In the Athenian Republic, marriage, being held in reverence, was
protected by the law. In the later and better known ages, consanguinity
within certain limits was a bar to such union. Men, however, might
marry half-sisters by the fathers’ side, though few availed themselves
of the permission. Betrothed long before marriage by their parents,
the young man and woman were nevertheless allowed on most occasions to
consult their own inclinations. Numerous religious rites preceded the
actual ceremony, and heavenly favour was invoked upon it. The marriage
was performed at the altar in the temple, where sacrifice was made,
and a mutual oath of fidelity strengthened by every sacred pledge.
Adultery was held a debasing crime, and divorce discreditable to man
and wife[24].
In connection with the subject of marriage is that of infanticide. It
prevailed among the Greeks, under the sanction of philosophy. Among the
Thebans and the Tyrrhenians it was, however, unknown. Why? Because they
were more humane, or moral? Not by any means. They were among the most
profligate societies of antiquity. It is generally shame which induces
to child-murder women bearing offspring from illicit intercourse
with men. Where no disgrace attaches to illegitimate offspring, the
principal incentive to destroy them is taken away; and in Tyre, where
female slaves served naked at the table of the rich, and even ladies
joined the orgies in that condition, modesty was by no means a common
grace of their sex.
The Thebans, a very gross people, made infanticide a capital crime; but
allowed the poor to impose on the state, under certain circumstances,
the burden of their children. In Thrace, the infant, placed in an
earthen pot, was left to be devoured by wild beasts, or to perish of
cold and hunger[25].
In Sparta, clandestine infanticide was a crime; but the state often
performed what it declared a duty, by condemning weakly and delicate
infants to be flung into a pit. In Athens, on the contrary, it was left
for desperate women, and cold-blooded men, privately to accomplish
the act, exposing their children in public places to perish, or to
claim charity from some wayfarer. Frequently the rich had recourse to
this, for concealing an intrigue, and left a costly dowry of gold and
jewels in the earthen jar where they deposited the victim. The temple
steps sometimes received the foundling; but occasionally they were left
to die in desert places.
In the flourishing period of the Republic, however, poverty was so
rare, indeed so unknown, that it seldom exacted these sacrifices from
the humbler people. Infanticide was then left to the wholly unnatural
who refused the burden, or the guilty who dreaded the shame, of a child.
But in the female society of that state, there was, as we have said,
a sisterhood which exercised no inconsiderable influence on public
manners. These were the Hetairæ, or prostitutes, who occupied much the
same position which the same class does in most civilized communities
of modern times. The youthful, beautiful, elegant, polished, and
graceful, commanded, while their attractions lasted, the favours and
the deference of wealthy and profligate young men, and, when their
persons had faded, sank by degrees, until they dragged themselves in
misery through the streets, glad to procure a meal by indiscriminate
prostitution, with all who accepted their company. When children
were born to them, infanticide usually--especially in the case of
girls--relieved them of the burden.
The position the prostitute class of Athens occupied in relation to the
other women in the community was peculiar. They entered the temples
during the period of one particular festival--and in modern countries
the church is never closed against them; but they were not, as among
us, allowed to occupy the same place at the theatre with the Athenian
female citizen. Yet this was not altogether to protect the virtue of
the woman; it was to satisfy the pride of the citizen, since every
stranger suffered an equal exclusion from these “reserved seats.”
Notwithstanding this, however, the courtezans occasionally visited the
ladies in their own houses, to instruct them in those accomplishments
in which, from the peculiar tenor of their lives, they were most
practised, while it appears that both classes mingled at the public
baths.
The Hetairæ, or prostitute class, exercised undoubtedly an evil
influence on the society of Athens. They indulged the sensual tastes
and the vanity of the young, encouraged among them a dissolute manner
of life, and, while the power of their attractions lasted, led them
into expensive luxury, which could not fail of an injurious effect
on the community. The career of the prostitute was, as it is in all
countries, short, and miserable at its close. While their beauty
remained unfaded they were puffed up with vanity, carried along by
perpetual excitement, flattered by the compliments of young men, and
by the conversation of even the greatest philosophers, and maintained
in opulence by the gifts of their admirers. Premature age, however,
always, except in a few celebrated cases, assailed them. They became
old, ugly, wrinkled, deformed, and full of disease, and might be seen
crawling through the market places, haggling for morsels of provision,
amid the jeers and insults of the populace.