February 14, 2003

'Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece'

By NINA C. AYOUB

In ancient Greece, Corinth was a city with a rep. It was so well known for prostitution, writes Debra Hamel, that the Greeks made its name into a verb, korinthiazein: to fornicate.

It was there, in the early fourth century BC, that a young girl named Neaira became one of the courtesan-slaves in a brothel run by a woman named Nikarete. Several of Nikarete's "daughters," as she called them, including Neaira, were immortalized in Greek plays and comic poetry. But Neaira figures elsewhere

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