Pindar Fr. 122 and ‘sacred?’ prostitution
Abstract
Pindar Fr. 122 (Maelher), kept by Athenaeus in Deipnosophistae (XII), is a song dedicated to Xenophon of Corinth, who, as a form of gratitude for his victory in Olympia, takes to Aphrodite’s sanctuary a group of young women, referred to as hetairai by the old grammarian, but not by the poet, who uses other terms. Pindar’s song allows us to discuss sacred prostitution in Antiquity, which despite being mentioned by Athenaeus and other sources, has been disregarded in the majority of recent studies. The aims of our article are to present the main arguments that scholars use to dismiss the existence of sacred prostitution in Ancient Greece and to analyze the main images of the fragment.
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