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The legendary ancient Greek courtesan Lais of Corinth was famous for her beauty, charms, extravagant demands, and sharp tongue, leaving no man resistant to her.
Pausanias in Description of Greece writes that she was a native of Hyccara in Sicily, Nicias and the Athenians took her captive when still a girl, and she was sold and brought to Corinth. Once there, her beauty surpassed all the courtesans (hetairai) of the city, and soon her reputation spread across Greece.
“As one goes up to Corinth, there are tombs, and by the gate is buried Diogenes of Sinope, whom the Greeks surname the Dog (Diogenes the Cynic). Before the city is a grove of cypresses called Craneum. Here is a precinct of Bellerophontes, a temple of Aphrodite Melaenis, and the grave of Lais, upon which is set a lioness holding a ram in her fore-paws.” (Pausanias 2.2.4-5)
The ancient Greek geographer also writes that in Thessaly there was another tomb which claims to be that of Lais, “for she went there also when she fell in love with Hippostratus”.
The ancient Greek courtesan Lais was celebrated as the most beautiful woman of her time. Her figure was especially admired and desirable. She was notorious for her avarice and caprice. The Corinthians admired her so much that they claimed her as a native.
Amongst her numerous lovers were Diogenes the Cynic, the statesman Demosthenes, and the philosopher Aristippus of Cyrene, two of whose works were entitled For Lais and Lais and Her Mirror, rhetorician Athenaeus writes.
The beautiful hetaira’s reputation had crossed borders, and her name became known outside Greece, too.
There is a poem about an aging Lais that is controversially attributed to Plato, while other scholars place it in the Hellenistic period:
ἡ σοβαρὸν γελάσασα καθ᾽ Ἑλλάδος, ἥ ποτ᾽ ἐραστῶν
ἑσμὸν ἐπὶ προθύροις Λαῒς ἔχουσα νέων,
τῇ Παφίῃ τὸ κάτοπτρον: ἐπεὶ τοίη μὲν ὁρᾶσθαι
οὐκ ἐθέλω, οἵη δ᾽ ἦν πάρος οὐ δύναμαι.
“I, Laïs who laughed scornfully at Hellas,
who kept a swarm of young lovers at my door,
I lay my mirror before the Paphian (Aphrodite),
for I will not see myself as I am now,
and cannot see myself as once I was.”
― Plato
The amount of money or favors Lais asked for her services was often extravagant, and not all men could afford.
In his book Attic Nights, Roman author and grammarian Aulus Gellius wrote an anecdote on statesman Demosthenes and the ancient Greek courtesan, which he took from the writings of the Greek philosopher Sotion.
Sotion belonged to the Peripatetic school of philosophers. He wrote an anecdote about Demosthenes and Lais the hetaira. “Lais”, he says, “the Corinthian, used to earn a lot of money through the elegance and beauty of her body. Often, some of the most well-known wealthy men from all of Greece came to see her, but not a one was admitted unless he gave what she asked: and she used to ask for no small amount.”
He says that this is where the common saying among Greeks that “It is not possible for everyman to sail to Corinth” was born, since a man went to Corinth to Lais in vain if he could not give what she asked.
“And the famous Demosthenes went to her in secret and asked for her services. But she asked for 10,000 drachmas. Struck by the woman’s daring and by the great heap of money, Demosthenes turned away pale and said, “I cannot buy regret for such a price”. But the Greek which he is said to have spoken is more charming: “ Ούκ ὠνοῦμαι μυρίων δραχμῶν μεταμέλειαν.” (Aulus Gellius Attic Nights 1.8)
In his book Deipnosophistae, Athenaeus of Naucratis tells the story of the Ancient Greek courtesan Lais and the argument between two of her lovers, Diogenes the Cynic and Aristippus. Aristippus, as a philosopher of hedonism
The argument of Diogenes was how a man like Aristippus could cohabit with a common prostitute who had countless lovers. Aristippus, as a philosopher of hedonism, believed it was not unnatural:
Diogenes said, “Since you, O Aristippus, cohabit with a common prostitute, either, therefore, become a Cynic yourself, as I am, or else abandon her;” Aristippus answered him- “Does it appear to you, O Diogenes, an absurd thing to live in a house where other men have lived before you ?” “Not at all,” said he. “Well, then, does it appear to you absurd to sail in a ship in which other men have sailed before you?” “By no means,” said he. “Well, then,” replied Aristippus, “it is not a bit more absurd to be in love with a woman with whom many men have been in love already.”
In the time of the ancient Greek courtesan Lais, Corinth was one of the wealthiest city-states in Ancient Greece thanks to the Isthmus canal, which connected the Peloponnese with mainland Greece and also the Aegean and Ionian Seas, the East (Asia), and the West (Italy and North Africa).
Goods coming to the Peloponnese from the mainland and others exported to the mainland generated great revenues for the city. At the same time, it was a busy trade hub that facilitated lucrative commerce between lands that were very far apart.
More profitable enterprises were added in such a rich environment, such as the Isthmian games that drew crowds from Greece and other Mediterranean and Asia Minor cities. But the city-state was also famous for the Temple of Aphrodite, which was said to have one thousand hetairai, or sacred prostitutes.
Geographer Strabo describes it best: “And the temple of Aphrodite was so rich that it owned more than a thousand temple slaves, courtesans, whom both men and women had dedicated to the goddess. And therefore it was also on account of these women that the city was crowded with people and grew rich; for instance, the ship captains freely squandered their money, and hence the proverb, ‘Not for every man is the voyage to Corinth.’” ( Οὐ παντὸς ἀνδρὸς ἐς Κόρινθον ἔσθ᾿ ὁ πλοῦς) Strabo, Geography, 8.6.20
Athenaeus writes in his book that a jealous woman murdered the ancient Greek courtesan Lais in Thessaly because a Thessalian named Pausanias fell in love with her. Her rivals beat her to death with wooden footstools in the temple of Aphrodite, and since then, that temple is called the temple of the impious Aphrodite. Her tomb is shown on the banks of the Peneus, having on it an emblem of a stone water-ewer, and this inscription—
This is the tomb of Lais, to whose beauty,
Equal to that of heavenly goddesses,
The glorious and unconquer’d Greece did bow;
Love was her father, Corinth was her home,
Now in the rich Thessalian plain she lies.
According to the Suda encyclopedia, other than Lais, ancient Greek courtesans in Corinth were Cyrene, Leaina, Sinope, Pyrrhine, and Rhodopis.
