work of Thargelia in moulding Persian sentiment before
the invasions of Darius and Xerxes, and to the influence of Aspasia
during the Periclean Age. Many later hetaerae played prominent roles in
the courts of princes and kings, and not infrequently enjoyed royal
honors, Leaena, Myrrhine, and Lamia were favorites of Demetrius the
Besieger, and the latter shared with him all except the throne. Thais,
for a time beloved of Alexander the Great, and at whose nod he set fire
to the palace of the Persian kings, later bore two sons and a daughter
to Ptolemy Soter, the first Macedonian king of Egypt. Pythionice and
Glycera were in high favor at the court of Harpalus. Hieronymus of
Syracuse elevated a beautiful prostitute named Pytho from the bawdy
house to his palace and throne. Ptolemy Philadelphus was celebrated for
the number of his mistresses, among them being a Didyma, a Blistyche, a
Stratonice, a Myrtion. Ptolemy Philopator was under the degrading
influence of an Agathoclea, daughter of the procuress Oenanthe, both of
whom, in the trenchant phrase of Plutarch, trod diadems under their feet
and were finally murdered by the Alexandrian mob.

Some hetaerae inspired such regard that they were honored with public
monuments. The first instance of this in Athens was in the case of
Leaena, who, after the murder of the tyrant Hipparchus, bit out her
tongue rather than reveal the accomplices of her lover, Aristogiton. The
Athenians at this early date felt a reluctance to erect a statue
representing a hetaera, but they placed on the Acropolis a bronze lioness
to commemorate perpetually the name of Leaena, and to preserve the memory
of her noble deed. In honor of Phryne there was a marble statue at
Thespian sculptured by Praxiteles, as well as another of gold at Delphi.
In Sparta, in her degenerate days, there was a monument to the
celebrated hetaera Cottine. There were also famous statues of Lais,
Glycera, Pythionice, Neaera, Clino, Blistyche, Stratonice, and other
women of pleasure. To Lamia, the renowned flute player, and to her
rival, Leaena of Corinth, favorites of Demetrius the Besieger, the
servile Athenians erected temples, in which they were revered as
goddesses. There was also in Athens a most beautiful and costly tomb in
honor of Pythionice, erected by the Macedonian governor Harpalus,
described by Pausanias as "the best worth seeing of all ancient tombs."
Such are instances of the tributes offered by the beauty-loving Gree