s. As has been intimated,
Corinth possessed the most voluptuous, Athens the most highly cultivated
hetaerae. The excessive charges of "the Corinthian maiden" gave occasion
for the proverb: "Not every man can journey to Corinth." Not only the
celebrated beauties made such exorbitant demands, but even the ordinary
courtesans asked prices which forbade to men of moderate means
intercourse with them.

Beauty and wealth were the factors which determined the social status of
the hetaerae, and with the fading of beauty and the squandering of their
gains many celebrated hetaerae fell from the highest to the lowest
station.

The principal classification of the queens of the demi-monde, however,
was into "domestic" and "learned" hetaerae. The former attracted chiefly
by their beauty and their social grace; the latter, by their native wit,
their vivacity, and their intellectual endowments. These gifted women
entered into intimate relations with the philosophers and rhetoricians
of the day; they visited the lecture halls, devoted themselves to
earnest study, and carried on their prostitution under the protection of
philosophy. They allied themselves with the various philosophical
schools, and by their manner of bestowing their favors sought to advance
the interests of the sect they espoused.

They found, too, in the pursuit of philosophy the justification of their
calling. The hetaerae of the Academy claimed that they were merely putting
into practice Plato's doctrine of the community of women. The followers
of the Cyrenaic school, with its doctrine of moderation in the pursuit
of pleasure, maintained that they carried out the maxims of Aristippus
in their pursuit of the joys of love. The female adherents of the
Cynics, or "the Bitches," as they were called, sought to surpass one
another in taking the beasts as models of imitation. The Dialecticians
found in their system the widest range for feminine cleverness of
speech, and defended hetairism with the greatest subtlety and the most
ingenious sophism. The feminine Epicureans saw in the teachings of their
school, with its doctrine of friendship and of the broadest cultivation
of the sensibilities, the fullest justification for the pursuit of
sexual enjoyment, and they sought to illustrate the greatest
voluptuousness and refinement in their methods of gratifying animal
passion.

The hetaerae of the various schools surpassed the men in their imitation
of the jargon and the manne