Hetaera in the context of "Wedding Painter"

"Against Neaera" was a prosecution speech delivered by Apollodoros of Acharnae against the freedwoman Neaera. It was preserved as part of the Demosthenic corpus, though it is widely considered to be pseudo-Demosthenic, possibly written by Apollodoros himself. The speech was part of the prosecution of Neaera, a hetaera who was accused of unlawfully marrying an Athenian citizen. Though the speech claims that the case was brought for personal reasons, the date of the prosecution has led scholars to believe that it was in fact politically motivated. In common with most legal cases from ancient Athens, the outcome is unknown.

The speech is important to modern scholars as the best extant biography of a woman from the classical period of ancient Greece, the most extensive surviving source on prostitution in ancient Greece, and the source of Athenian laws on adultery and citizenship which do not otherwise survive. However, it only began to receive significant attention from scholars in the 1990s, as before that period the focus of the speech on prostitution was considered to be inappropriate.

Callistratus, Alexandrine grammarian, flourished at the beginning of the 2nd century BC. He was one of the pupils of Aristophanes of Byzantium, who were distinctively called Aristophanei. Callistratus chiefly devoted himself to the elucidation of the Greek poets; a few fragments of his commentaries have been preserved in the various collections of scholia and in Athenaeus. He was also the author of a miscellaneous work called Summikta (Σύμμικτα), used by the later lexicographers, and of a treatise on courtesans (Athenaeus iii.125b, xiii.591d).

"Rhodopis" (Ancient Greek: Ῥοδῶπις, romanized: Rhodôpis, lit. 'rosy-faced'; Ancient Greek pronunciation: [r̥odɔ̂ːpis]) is an ancient tale about a Greek slave girl who marries the king of Egypt. The story was first recorded by the Greek historian Strabo in the late first century BC or early first century AD and is considered the earliest known variant of the "Cinderella" story. The origins of the fairy-tale figure may be traced back to the 6th-century BC hetaera Rhodopis.

Neaira (/niˈaɪrə/; Ancient Greek: Νέαιρα), also Neaera (/niˈɪərə/), was a hetaera who lived in the 4th century BC in ancient Greece. She was brought to trial between 343 and 340 BC, accused of marrying an Athenian citizen illegally and misrepresenting her daughter as an Athenian citizen.

The speech made against Neaira in this trial by Apollodorus is preserved as Demosthenes' fifty-ninth speech, though the speech is often attributed to Pseudo-Demosthenes, who seems to have worked on many of the speeches given by Apollodorus. The speech provides more details than any other about prostitutes of antiquity, and consequently a great deal of information about the sex trade in ancient Greek city-states (polis).

Thaïs is a portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds of the English courtesan Emily Warren in the guise of the hetaera Thaïs, mistress of Alexander the Great. It is in oil on canvas and measures 229 x 145 cm. She holds a burning torch and with the other hand exhorts Alexander and his followers to burn down Persepolis. Reynolds exhibited it at the Royal Academy in London in 1781. It is now at Waddesdon Manor.

The painting was published as a print engraved by Francesco Bartolozzi in 1792.