From ptrourke@mediaone.net Sun Mar 12 18:24:39 2000 Received: from mxu3.u.washington.edu (mxu3.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.7]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW99.09/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id SAA47094 for ; Sun, 12 Mar 2000 18:24:38 -0800 Received: from chmls06.mediaone.net (chmls06.mediaone.net [24.128.1.71]) by mxu3.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW00.02/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id SAA00681 for ; Sun, 12 Mar 2000 18:24:37 -0800 Received: from patricktrourke (h00500480cb85.ne.mediaone.net [24.147.80.93]) by chmls06.mediaone.net (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id VAA18615 for ; Sun, 12 Mar 2000 21:24:33 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <001001bf8c93$1ed32b20$5d509318@ne.mediaone.net> From: "P. T. Rourke" To: "Classics List" Subject: Geishas and Hetairai Date: Sun, 12 Mar 2000 21:23:28 -0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2919.6600 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2919.6600 One difference I'll suggest (and I'm open to sensible contradiction on this; I imagine SJW will have something to say on the matter as someone who lives in Japan), I'm under the impression that geishas do not have a "public" personality, that they are very discreet not only in matters de coeur but in all their business dealings, and have no effective personal life, while it seems to me that hetairai were quite public figures at times (Aspasia, e.g., and Theodote). Perhaps this is because the companionship of a man and his wife was not a public matter in Athenian society (not to draw BT out; I'm not claiming they were in a harem or anything ;-); there were no hostesses with the mostest in the Socratic or Periclean circles. Are there geishas whose names are known to history and associated with famous men in the same way as which Aspasia's name, e.g., is associated with Pericles? PTR P. T. Rourke ptrourke@mediaone.net .