ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the anathematic epigrams with hetaeras, recognizable by references to their names and to their profession. It describes epigram of Nossis that depicts the hetaera Polyarchis as dedicating a gilded statue of Aphrodite to the goddess from the profits of her work. The increasing freedom of women in the post-classical period, combined with the quasi-deification of the Hellenistic monarchs, changed the nature and function not only of commemorative temples and shrines, but also of honorific portraits. Arguments for temple prostitution at Corinth have largely relied on Athenaeu's misreading of classical sources, particularly Pindar. The grammarian deduces the practice of sacred prostitution at Corinth first from the story of supplicating courtesans commemorated on a pinax in the temple of Aphrodite. Mytrilus identifies the hetaera with her patron deity, but attempts at first to cleanse the epithet of its negative implications by defining it as a form of non-erotic fellowship.
