ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses the representation of courtesans or hetaeras, in the Greek literary tradition, from the perspective of the late second century writer Athenaeus. It is both a diachronic and a synchronic study of the figures and their deployment across genres and periods. Then it begins and ends with book of the Deipnosophistae, it draws on the external literary tradition to elucidate as fully as possible significant aspects of Athenaeu's discourse. Entitled Peri Gynaikn, the Book contains an extensive collection of quotations relating to ancient conceptions of women, gender, and sexuality. The hetaera's mutable and fluid identity made it easy for the literary tradition to transform her into a cultural sign that could embody a broad range of literary, social, political, and discursive issues from the archaic period to the late second century.
