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Date: Sun, 12 Mar 2000 18:54:32 -0800
To: classics@u.washington.edu
From: David Lupher <dlupher@ups.edu>
Subject: Re: Geishas and Hetairai

P.T. Rourke writes:

>it seems to me that hetairai were quite public figures at times (Aspasia,
>e.g., and Theodote).

This might be taking historical skepticism a bit too far, but perhaps it
is not entirely certain that Aspasia was in fact an hetaira.  Peter
Bicknell has suggested that her father back in Miletus, Axiochus, was
a man of substance, and Aspasia came to Athens ca. 450 as the younger
sister of the bride of the elder Alcibiades.  ("Axiochus Alkibiadou,
Aspasia, and Aspasios," Antiquite' Classique 51, 1982, 240-9, but I
am relying on Podlecki's account of this article in his book "Perikles
and His Circle," Routledge, 1998, 109-110.  See also Podlecki pp. 115-6
on the charge that Aspasia "was a prostitute, and that she kept a
brothel"---and I am assuming here that Podlecki is folding her
identification as an hetaira into the starker charge that she was
a porne. He is skeptical of the whole ball of wax.)

>							  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?

As you say, we can expect an answer when Steve Willett logs on in a
couple of hours.  In the meantime, I'll just pass on this footnote
from Ivan Morris' "The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in
Ancient Japan": "Professional courtesans (asobi-onna) were also
available in Murasaki's time, and we know that Michinaga was fond of
one such girl, who had the name of Kokannon ('Little Goddess of Mercy')"
(p. 237, n. 47).  Michinaga was Fujiwara No Michinaga (966-1027), glossed
by Morris as "the most powerful leader in the history of the Fujiwara
family....,the undisputed ruler of Japan during most of Murasaki's lifetime."
Michinaga's friend had an engaging name, but none can compare with the
sex-worker of whom Davidson memorably writes on p. 115 of "Courtesans and
Fishcakes": a porne who went by the name of "Clepsydra," "Water-Clock."
When your time was up, sorry Charlie, your time was up---even if you
were only half-way through enjoying the position referred to as "lion
on the cheese-grater" (for which see p. 118, but don't expect details,
alas).

I dearly wish I could pass on a message I have received off-list from
someone who has some first-hand experience of geisha-like women in
another Asian country.  One learns a lot on this list---and off it, too.

David Lupher
Classics Dept.
Univ. of Puget Sound


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