Hetaira and Client
An hetaira (literally a 'companion') was a call-girl, who was paid to accompany men to social gatherings like a symposium. These women, who were usually better educated than Athenian women, provided both social and sexual intercourse.
A good example of an hetaira was Aspasia. She was not a native Athenian. She was born in Miletus, an important member of the Athenian Empire on the coast of Ionia. She came to Athens and served as an hetaira (literally a 'companion'), a call-girl, who was paid to accompany men to social gatherings like a symposium. These women, who were usually better educated than Athenian women, provided both social and sexual intercourse. They also often had musical training. Aspasia also eventually became the leader of a group of hetairai (like a modern 'madam') and is said to have taught them rhetoric (to make them more skilled in conversation with their male clients)
She moved in the highest circles of Athenian society
and fell in with Pericles, the great Athenian leader, who not only was
attracted by her sexual charms, but also found her intelligent and politically
wise. She is said to have held her own in political discussions with
leading politicians and even to have impressed Socrates. After Pericles’
divorce, she lived with him, but it is uncertain whether she was his concubine
or wife. She had a son named after his father from this relationship.
The birth of this son put Pericles in a rather difficult situation.
He had earlier proposed laws that only the sons of a mother and father
who were both Athenian could be considered legitimate and have citizen
rights. The Assembly had passed this law and thus Aspasia’s foreign
birth prevented his son from being registered as an Athenian citizen and
becoming his father’s heir (his sons by an earlier marriage were dead by
this time). Pericles had to beg the Athenian Assembly to exempt
his son from this rule. His request was granted.