Alexis, the Clepsydra of Eubulus-and the woman who bore this name, had it because she used to distribute her company by the hour-glass, and to dismiss her visitors when it had run down; as Asclepiades, the son of Areas, relates in his History of Demetrius Phalereus; and he says that her proper name was Meticha.

who is a positive

Calamity and ruin to her keeper;

And yet he's glad at nourishing such a pest.

On which account, in the Neæra of Timocles, a man is represented as lamenting his fate, and saying

But I, unhappy man, who first loved Phryne
When she was but a gatherer of capers,
And was not quite as rich as now she is,—
I who such sums of money spent upon her,
Am now excluded from her doors.

And in the play entitled Orestantoclides, the same Timocles

says

And round the wretched man old women sleep,
Nannium and Plangon, Lyca, Phryne too,

Gnathæna, Pythionica, Myrrhina,

Chrysis, Conallis, Hieroclea, and
Lapadium also.

And these courtesans are mentioned by Amphis, in his Curis,

where he says

Wealth truly seems to me to be quite blind,

Since he ne'er ventures near this woman's doors,
But haunts Sinope, Nannium, and Lyca,

And others like them, traps of men's existence,
And in their houses sits like one amazed,

And ne'er departs.

23. And Alexis, in the drama entitled Isostasium, thus describes the equipment of a courtesan, and the artifices which some women use to make themselves up

For, first of all, to earn themselves much gain,
And better to plunder all the neighbouring men,
They use a heap of adventitious aids,-
They plot to take in every one. And when,
By subtle artifice, they've made some money,

They enlist fresh girls, and add recruits, who ne'er
Have tried the trade, unto their cunning troop,
And drill them so that they are very soon

Different in manners, and in look, and semblance
From all they were before. Suppose one's short-
They put cork soles within the heels of her shoes:
Is any one too tall-she wears a slipper

Of thinnest substance, and, with head depress'd
Between the shoulders, walks the public streets,
And so takes off from her superfluous height.
Is any one too lean about the flank-
They hoop her with a bustle, so that all
Who see her marvel at her fair proportions.
Has any one too prominent a stomach-

They crown it with false breasts, such as perchance
At times you may in comic actors see;
And what is still too prominent, they force
Back, ramming it as if with scaffolding.

Has any one red eyebrows-those they smear
With soot. Has any one a dark complexion-

White-lead will that correct. This girl's too fair—
They rub her well with rich vermilion.

Is she a splendid figure-then her charms
Are shown in naked beauty to the purchaser.
Has she good teeth-then she is forced to laugh,
That all the bystanders may see her mouth,
How beautiful it is; and if she be

But ill-inclined to laugh, then she is kept

Close within doors whole days, and all the things

Which cooks keep by them when they sell goats' heads,

Such as a stick of myrrh, she's forced to keep

Between her lips, till they have learnt the shape

Of the required grin. And by such arts

They make their charms and persons up for market.

24. And therefore I advise you, my Thessalian friend with the handsome chairs, to be content to embrace the women in the brothels, and not to spend the inheritance of your children on vanities. For, truly, the lame man gets on best at this sort of work; since your father, the boot-maker, did not lecture you and teach you any great deal, and did not confine you to looking at leather. Or do you not know those women, as we

find them called in the Pannuchis of Eubulus

Thrifty decoys, who gather in the money,-
Fillies well-train'd of Venus, standing naked
In long array, clad in transparent robes
Of thinnest web, like the fair damsels whom
Eridanus waters with his holy stream;
From whom, with safety and frugality,
You may buy pleasure at a moderate cost.

And in his Nannium, (the play under this name is the work of
Eubulus, and not of Philippides)-

For he who secretly goes hunting for
Illicit love, must surely of all men
Most miserable be; and yet he may
See in the light of the sun a willing row
Of naked damsels, standing all array'd
In robes transparent, like the damsels whom
Eridanus waters with his holy stream,
And buy some pleasure at a trifling rate,
Without pursuing joys he 's bound to hide,
(There is no heavier calamity,)

Just out of wantonness and not for love.
I do bewail the fate of hapless Greece,

Which sent forth such an admiral as Cydias.

Xenarchus also, in his Pentathlum, reproaches those men. who live as you do, and who fix their hearts on extravagant courtesans, and on freeborn women; in the following linesIt is a terrible, yes a terrible and Intolerable evil, what the young

Men do throughout this city. For although
There are most beauteous damsels in the brothels,
Which any man may see standing all willing
In the full light of day, with open bosoms,
Showing their naked charms, all of a row,

Marshall'd in order; and though they may choose
Without the slightest trouble, as they fancy,

Thin, stout, or round, tall, wrinkled, or smooth-faced,
Young, old, or middle-aged, or elderly,

So that they need not clamber up a ladder,

Nor steal through windows out of free men's houses,
Nor smuggle themselves in in bags of chaff;
For these gay girls will ravish you by force,
And drag you in to them; if old, they'll call you
Their dear papa; if young, their darling baby:
And these a man may fearlessly and cheaply
Amuse himself with, morning, noon, or night,
And any way he pleases; but the others
He dares not gaze on openly nor look at,
But, fearing, trembling, shivering, with his heart,
As men say, in his mouth, he creeps towards them.
And how can they, O sea-born mistress mine,
Immortal Venus! act as well they ought,

E'en when they have the opportunity,

If any thought of Draco's laws comes o'er them?

25. And Philemon, in his Brothers, relates that Solon at first, on account of the unbridled passions of the young, made a law that women might be brought to be prostituted at brothels; as Nicander of Colophon also states, in the third book of his History of the Affairs of Colophon,-saying that

he first erected a temple to the Public Venus with the money which was earned by the women who were prostituted at these brothels.

But Philemon speaks on this subject as follows:

But you did well for every man, O Solon;
For they do say you were the first to see
The justice of a public-spirited measure,
The saviour of the state-(and it is fit
For me to utter this avowal, Solon);—
You, seeing that the state was full of men,

Young, and possess'd of all the natural appetites,
And wandering in their lusts where they'd no business,
Bought women, and in certain spots did place them,
Common to be, and ready for all comers.

They naked stand: look well at them, my youth,—
Do not deceive yourself; a'nt you well off?
You're ready, so are they: the door is open-
The price an obol: enter straight-there is
No nonsense here, no cheat or trickery;

But do just what you like, and how you like.

You're off: wish her good-bye; she 's no more claim on you." And Aspasia, the friend of Socrates, imported great numbers of beautiful women, and Greece was entirely filled with her courtesans; as that witty writer Aristophanes (in his Acharnenses1) relates,-saying, that the Peloponnesian war was excited by Pericles, on account of his love for Aspasia, and on account of the girls who had been carried away from her by the Megarians.

For some young men, drunk with the cottabus

Going to Megara, carry off by stealth

A harlot named Simætha. Then the citizens

Of Megara, full of grief and indignation,
Stole in return two of Aspasia's girls;

And this was the beginning of the war

Which devastated Greece, for three lewd women.

26. I therefore, my most learned grammarian, warn you to beware of the courtesans who want a high price, because You may see other damsels play the flute, All playing th' air of Phoebus, or of Jove;

But these play no air save the air of the hawk,

as Epicrates says in his Anti-Lais; in which play he also uses the following expressions concerning the celebrated Lais:But this fair Lais is both drunk and lazy,

And cares for nothing, save what she may eat

1 Ach. 524.

And drink all day. And she, as I do think,
Has the same fate the eagles have; for they,

When they are young, down from the mountains stoop,
Ravage the flocks and eat the timid hares,
Bearing their prey aloft with fearful might.
But when they're old, on temple tops they perch,
Hungry and helpless; and the soothsayers
Turn such a sight into a prodigy.

And so might Lais well be thought an omen;
For when she was a maiden, young and fresh,
She was quite savage with her wondrous riches;
And you might easier get access to

The satrap Pharnabazus. But at present,
Now that she 's more advanced in years, and age
Has meddled with her body's round proportions,
'Tis easy both to see her and to scorn her.
Now she runs everywhere to get some drink;
She'll take a stater-aye, or a triobolus;
She will admit you, young or old; and is
Become so tame, so utterly subdued,

That she will take the money from your hand.

Anaxandrides also, in his Old Man's Madness, mentions Lais, and includes her with many other courtesans in a list which he gives in the following lines:—

A. You know Corinthian Lais?

My countrywoman.

By name Anthea.

B. To be sure;

A. Well, she had a friend,

B. Yes; I knew her well.

A. Well, in those days Lagisca was in beauty;
Theolyta, too, was wondrous fair to see,
And seemed likely to be fairer still;

And Ocimon was beautiful as any.

27. This, then, is the advice I want to give you, my friend Myrtilus; and, as we read in the Cynegis of Philetarus,Now you are old, reform those ways of yours; Know you not that 'tis hardly well to die

In the embraces of a prostitute,

As men do say Phormisius perished?

Or do you think that delightful which Timocles speaks of in his Marathonian Women ?—

How great the difference whether you pass the night
With a lawful wife or with a prostitute !

Bah! Where's the firmness of the flesh, the freshness
Of breath and of complexion? Oh, ye gods!

What appetite it gives one not to find
Everything waiting, but to be constrain'd