Athenaeus - Deipnosophists Book XIIIa
Book XIII 555 a
The comic poet Antiphanes, friend Timocrates, was once reading one of his plays to King Alexander, who, however, made it plain that he did not altogether like it. “No wonder, sire,” the poet said; “for the man who likes this play of mine must have dined often at contribution-dinners, and he must have received and given even oftener hard knocks over a courtesan;” this we have on the authority of Lycophron of Chalcis in his work On Comedy.
Book XIII. 557 b – e
Philip of Macedon did not, to be sure, take women along with him on his campaigns, as did Darius, the one who was deposed by Alexander; for Darius although engaged in a war in which his entire empire was at stake, took round with him three hundred and sixty concubines, according to the account given by Dicaearchus in the third book of his History of Greece. Yet Philip always married a new wife with each new war he undertook. “In the twenty-two years of his reign, at any rate,” as Satyrus says in his Life of him, “he married Audata of Illyria, and had by her a daughter, Cynna; he also married Phila, a sister of Derdas and Machatas. Wishing to put in a claim to the Thessalian nation as his own besides others, he begot children by two women of Thessaly, one of whom was Nicesipolis of Pherae, who bore to him Thettalonice, while the other was Philinna of Larisa, by whom he became the father of Arrhidaeus. Again, when he subjugated Thrace, there came over to his side Cothelas the Thracian king, who brought with him his daughter Meda and a large dowry. By marrying her also he thus brought home a second wife after Olympias. After all these women he married Cleopatra, with whom he had fallen in love, the sister of Hippostratus and niece of Attalus; and by bringing her home to supplant Olympias, he threw the entire course of his life into utter confusion. For immediately, during the celebration of the wedding itself, Attalus remarked, ‘But now, I warn you, princes will be born who will be legitimate, and not bastards.” Alexander, on hearing that, threw the goblet which he held in his hand at Attalus, and he retaliated upon Alexander with his own cup. After this Olympias fled to the country of the Molossians, while Alexander went to Illyria. Cleopatra, in her turn, bore to Philip a daughter, the one who was called Europa.
Book XIII. 560 b - d
I think that none of you, my friends, are unaware that even the gravest wars have broken out because of women. Helen was the cause of the Trojan War, Chryseis of the pestilence, Briseis of Achilles’ wrath: and the so-called Sacred War, as Duris says in the second book of his Histories, was caused by another woman a Theban by birth, named Theano, who had been carried off by a Phocian. This war, like the Trojan, lasted ten years, but in the tenth year it came to an end when Philip entered into alliance with the Thebans: for then the Thebans overcame Phocis. And again, the war called Cirrhaean, as Callisthenes says in his book On the Sacred War, at the time when the men of Cirrha went to war against the Phocians, lasted ten years, the Cirrhaeans having carried away Megisto, daughter of the Phocian Pelagon, as well as the daughters of Argives who were on their way home from the Delphic shrine. But in the tenth year Cirrha also was overcome. And even entire households have been overthrown through women: that of Philip, Alexander’s father, by his marriage with Cleopatra; of Heracles, by his subsequent marriage with Iole, the daughter of Eurytus; of Theseus, on account of Phaedra, the daughter of Minos; of Athamas, by his marriage with Themisto, the daughter of Hypseus; of Jason, by his marriage with Glauce, the daughter of Creon; and of Agamemnon, on account of Cassandra.
Book XIII. 560 f
Duris of Samos says that the first war between two women was that waged by Olympias and Eurydice; in it Olympias marched forth rather like a Bacchant, to the accompaniment of tambourines, whereas Eurydice was armed cap-a-pie in the Macedonian fashion, having been trained in military matters by Cynna, the princess from Illyria.
Book XIII. 564 f – 565 b
Now you Stoics take your favourites about with their chins shaven; shaving the beard came into fashion under Alexander, as your Chrysippus says in the fourth book of his work On Pleasure and the Good. It will not be inappropriate, I am convinced, if I recall his exact words; for I like the man very much for his wide learning and respectable character. The philosopher speaks as follows: “The custom of shaving the beard increased under Alexander, although the foremost men did not follow it. Why even the flute-player Timotheus wore a long beard when he played the flute*. And at Athens they maintain that it is not so very long ago that the first man shaved his face all round, and had the nickname Shaver.”
Book XIII. 572 d – e
Concerning the professional “companions” Philetaerus says this in The Huntress: “No wonder there is a shrine to the Companion everywhere, but nowhere in all Greece is there one to the Wife.” But I know also of a festival, the Hetairideia, celebrated in Magnesia, not in honour of these “companions” (hetaerae) but for a different reason, which is mentioned by Hegesander in his Commentaries, writing thus: The Magnesians celebrate the festival of the Hetairideia. They record that Jason the son of Aeson, after gathering the Argonauts together, was the first to sacrifice to Zeus Hetaireios* and that he called the festival Hetairideia. And the kings of Macedonia also celebrate with sacrifices the Hetairideia.”
Book XIII. 575 a – f
We need not wonder that people have fallen in love with others on mere report, seeing that Chares of Mytilene in the tenth book of his Histories of Alexander asserts that many, having seen in a dream certain persons whom they never had seen before, fell in love with them; he writes as follows*: Hystaspes had a younger brother named Zariadres; concerning both of them the natives say that they were sons of Aphrodite and Adonis. Now Hystaspes was overlord of Media and the territory below it, whereas Zariadres ruled over the region above the Caspian Gates, as far as the Tanais river. And Homartes, who was king of the Marathi, beyond the Tanais, had a daughter named Odatis; of her it is recorded in the histories that she saw Zariadres in a dream and became enamoured of him, while the same passion for her attacked him in the same way. At any rate they continued to long for each other in the imaginings of sleep. Now Odatis was the most beautiful woman in Asia, and Zariadres also was handsome. So Zariadres sent to Homartes in his eager desire to marry the woman, but Homartes would not agree to the match, because he lacked male children and wanted to give her to a male of his own household. After a brief interval Homartes gathered the princes of the kingdom together with his friends and relatives, and proceeded to celebrate the nuptials without announcing to whom he intended to give his daughter. Well, when the drinking was at its height the father summoned Odatis to the symposium, and in the hearing of the guests he said: ‘My daughter Odatis, today we are celebrating your nuptials. Look around, therefore, and after inspecting all the men take a gold cup, fill it with wine, and give it to the man to whom you wish to be married; for his wife you shall be called.’ And the poor girl, after looking all around, turned away in tears, yearning as she did to see Zariadres; for she had warned him that the nuptials were to be celebrated. He, meanwhile, was encamped at the Tanais river, which he crossed without the knowledge of his army, and accompanied solely by his chariot-driver he started off at night in his chariot, traversing a large territory for a distance of about 800 stades. And getting near the village in which they were celebrating the nuptials he left the chariot-driver with the chariot in a certain place and proceeded on his way disguised in Scythian clothes. Passing into the court he spied Odatis standing in front of the sideboard weeping, while she slowly mixed the cup; and taking his stand beside her he said, ‘Odatis, I am here according to your desire, I Zariadres.’ And she, perceiving a stranger there who was at once handsome and like the one she had seen in her sleep, was overjoyed, and gave the cup to him; he, catching her up, carried her off to his chariot and escaped with Odatis as his bride. Meanwhile the slaves and the serving-maids, conscious that this was a love affair, lapsed into silence, and although the father commanded them to speak out they professed not to know where the young man had gone. Now this love affair is held in remembrance among the barbarians who live in Asia and it is exceedingly popular; in fact they picture this story in their temples and palaces and even in private dwellings; and most princes bestow the name Odatis on their own daughters.”
Book XIII. 576 e
And did not Alexander the Great keep with him Thais, the Athenian prostitute? Cleitarchus speaks of her as having occasioned the burning of the palace at Persepolis. This Thais, after Alexander’s death, was married to Ptolemy, the first king of Egypt, and bore to him Leontiscus and Lagus, also a daughter, Irene, who was married to Eunostus, the king of Soli in Cyprus.
Book XIII. 578 a
Ptolemy, the son of Agesarchus, in his Histories of Philopator, when giving a list of kings’ mistresses says; “The mistress of Philip, who raised Macedonia to power, was the dancing-girl Philinna, by whom he became the father of Arrhidaeus, who succeeded to the throne after Alexander; of Demetrius Poliorcetes, after the women mentioned above, there was Mania; of Antigonus, Demo, who bore him Alcyoneus and of Seleucus the Younger, there were Mysta and Nysa.”
Book XIII. 586 b – d
Hypereides, again, in the Speech against Mantitheus, in an action for assault, has this to say about Glycera: “Taking with him Glycera, daughter of Thalassis, in a chariot and pair.” It is uncertain whether she is the Glycera who lived with Harpalus; of her Theopompus says, in his treatise On the Chian Letter, that after the death of Pythionice Harpalus summoned Glycera from Athens; on her arrival she took up her residence in the palace at Tarsus and had obeisance done to her by the populace, being hailed as queen; further, all persons were forbidden to honour Harpalus with a crown unless they also gave a crown to Glycera. In Rhossus they even went so far as to set up an image of her in bronze beside his own. The like is recorded also by Cleitarchus in his Histories of Alexander. The author of Agen, the little satyric drama, whether it be Python of Catana or King Alexander himself, says: “A. And yet I hear that Harpalus has sent over to them thousands of bushels of grain, as many as Agen sent, and so was made a citizen. B. This grain was Glycera’s but it will doubtless turn out to be their death-warrant, and not merely a whore’s earnest money.”
Book XIII. 588 c – d
Then there was Lais from Hyccara (this is a Sicilian town, from which she was brought as a captive to Corinth, as recorded by Polemon in the sixth book of his Reply to Timaeus; she became the mistress of Aristippus, of the orator Demosthenes, and of Diogenes the Cynic; to her the Aphrodite of Corinth, who is called Melaenis, appeared by night and revealed the coming of wealthy lovers); does not Hypereides mention her in his second Speech against Aristagora? The painter Apelles caught sight of her when she was still a maid carrying water from the fountain of Peirene, and, struck by her beauty, he took her with him once to a symposium of his friends. And when they jeered at him for having brought to the symposium not a professional courtesan, but a maid, he replied, “Don’t be surprised; for I want to show you that her beauty is a promise of enjoyment to come in less, altogether, than three years.”
Book XIII. 590 a
Thereupon Ulpian, as though pouncing upon a lucky find, asked, while Myrtilus was still speaking, whether we have the word tigris (tiger) used as a masculine. For I know that Philemon has the following in Neaera: “A. Just as Seleucus sent hither the tigress, which we ourselves have seen, so we in turn ought to send to Seleucus some beast of ours. B. Ha, a wild trygeranus! For that monster isn’t found there.”
Book XIII. 591 d
Now Phryne was very rich, and used to promise that she would build a wall about Thebes if the Thebans would write an inscription upon it, that “Whereas Alexander demolished it, Phryne the courtesan restored it”; so records Callistratus in his book On Courtesans.
Book XIII. 592 e – f
That the orator Demosthenes had children by a courtesan is common report. He himself, at any rate, in the course of his speech On the Bribe of Gold,* brought the children out before the court to excite compassion through them, unaccompanied by their mother, although it was customary for defendants in a trial, if they had wives, to produce them; but this he did from shame, to avoid the scandal. The orator was unbridled in sexual matters, according to Idomeneus.