Hetaira

Hetairai (/hɪˈtaɪraɪ/; sing. hetaira /hɪˈtaɪrə/; also hetaera /hɪˈtɪrə/, pl. hetaerae /hɪˈtɪriː/; Ancient Greek: ἑταίρα, "companion," pl. ἑταῖραι) were a type of prostitute in ancient Greece.

Traditionally, historians of ancient Greece have distinguished between hetairai and pornai, another class of Greek prostitute. In contrast to pornai, who provided sex for a large number of clients in brothels or on the street, hetairai were thought to have had only a few men as clients at any one time, to have had long-term relationships with them, and to have provided companionship and intellectual stimulation as well as sex. More recently, however, historians have questioned the extent to which there was really a distinction between hetaira and porne. The second edition of the Oxford Classical Dictionary, for instance, held that "hetaira" was a euphemism for any kind of prostitute. This position is supported by Konstantinos Kapparis, who holds that Apollodorus' famous tripartite division of the types of women in the speech Against Neaera ("We have courtesans for pleasure, concubines for the daily tending of the body, and wives in order to beget legitimate children and have a trustworthy guardian of what is at home.") classes all prostitutes together, under the term "hetairai".