Neaira's Life In Ancient Greek

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A prostitute is defined as a person, man or woman who involves themselves in sexual activity in exchange for payment, usually currency. Trying Neaira informs us about the life of a Courtesan’s scandalous life in ancient Greece. Neaira was born in a brothel in Corinth, which was prominent for prostitution. Neaira was sold as a sex slave to a pair of friends, additionally Neaira eventually purchased her freedom from these men. Subsequently, she migrated to Athens, Greece. In Athens she would then meet a man by the name of Stephanos. Neaira would live with Stephanos, the problem occurs due to the fact that she was not Stephanos’ wife, I would label her as his significant other. In Ancient Greece prostitution was not viewed as morally incorrect …show more content…

Neaira was brought upon the court due to the fact that she, a woman who is not a citizen of Athens married Stephanos, a citizen of Athens. Which indeed is illegal, this leads to the question: Are Stephanos and Nearia married? It is established that Neaira isn’t a citizen of Athens. The audience can easily depict this from the material read in the beginning chapters. From what I read and interpreted from the text, I would go out on a limb and say yes, they are married. Nevertheless, during the Apollodorus’ case against Stephanos and Neaira he fails to pursue the jurors. Since his case against them was irrelevant and constructed very poorly. The law is firmly quoted on page 156 and the law states “If a foreigner lives in marriage with a citizen woman by any manner or means, anyone of the Athenians who wishes for whom it is legally possible may bring an indictment before the thesmothetai”. By definition of the very law listed above, Neaira and Stephanos are guilty as charged of being married in some type of manner. The only reason that in my belief are not founded guilty is largely to the fact of Apollodorus’ shaky and unpersuasive argument he proposes to the jurors. In Apollodorus’ lengthy speech against Neaira he finally arrives at the subject of Stephanos’ so called marriage with Neaira. When addressing the subject the proof he offers is not convincing from my own perspective. If Apollodorus was to blame anyone for the result of Neaira being not guilty, it must be his own

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