The Mimes of the Courtesans

The Mimes of the Courtesans
by Translated by A.L.H.

"Living at the height of the Roman Empire, the audience Lucian wrote for was hardly shocked by these short dialogues of the Greek hetaerae. However, two millenia of ensuing prudery made it impossible to acknowledge this part of the Lucian corpus, a set of humorous vignettes set in the context of the oldest profession, let alone translate it into a vernacular language. These comedic sketches are timeless: working girls competing for clients, dishing gossip and candid tips of the trade, men trying to keep their girls attention with expensive gifts. It also portrays the dark side of the hetaeras life: out-of-control parties, blowhard men, and putting up with rough treatment by clients.

Notably lacking is one modern reality. The hetaerae of Lucian are not constantly wondering whether their next client is going flash a badge and haul them off to jail. Sex workers in antiquity were another just legal occupation, like the butcher, the baker and the sandal maker. At that time, pagan temples throughout the eastern Mediterranean had sacred prostitutes, and patronizing them was considered a sanctified act. The hetearae actually had a lot more freedom than other women in Greek society, particularly the sequestered wives.

With the dawn of the 20th century, it finally became feasible to publish English translations of the naughty bits of Lucian. This one was published during the roaring 1920s in a deluxe art-deco illustrated version. The identity of the author is only known by the initials A.L.H. on the Translators Foreword page.

This translation includes three chapters not included in the Fowler and Fowler translation, The Education of Corinna, The Lesbians, and The Philosopher. There are three gaps in the numbering of Fowler: V, VI and X, so these are probably the missing dialogues. The table on the left shows the correspondences between Fowler and this version. At issue here is the obviously the subject matter of these pieces: the first has a mother turning out her daughter, the other two depict female and male homosexual characters respectively. However, they are far from explicit. It is an interesting to note that these were considered untranslatable in an academic edition in 1905, but could be published in a popular edition in 1928."

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