HETÆRÆ.
To struggle a little, and from tender hands
To bear soft blows and bullets; that, indeed,
Is really pleasure.
And as Cynulcus had still a good deal which he wished to say, and as Magnus was preparing to attack him for the sake of Myrtilus,—Myrtilus, being beforehand with him (for he hated the Syrian), said—
But our hopes were not so clean worn out,
As to need aid from bitter enemies;
as Callimachus says. For are not we, O Cynulcus, able to defend ourselves?
How rude you are, and boorish with your jokes!
Your tongue is all on the left side of your mouth;
as Ephippus says in his Philyra. For you seem to me to be one of those men
Who of the Muses learnt but ill-shaped letters,
as some one of the parody writers has it.
28. I therefore, my friends and messmates, have not, as is said in the Auræ of Metagenes, or in the Mammacythus of Aristagoras,
Told you of female dancers, courtesans
Who once were fair; and now I do not tell you
Of flute-playing girls, just reaching womanhood,
Who not unwillingly, for adequate pay,
Have borne the love of vulgar men;
but I have been speaking of regular professional Hetæræ—that is to say, of those who are able to preserve a friendship free from trickery; whom Cynulcus does not venture to speak ill of, and who of all women are the only ones who have derived their name from friendship, or from that goddess who is named by the Athenians Venus Hetæra: concerning whom Apollodorus the Athenian speaks, in his treatise on the Gods, in the following manner:—"And they worship Venus Hetæra, who brings together male and female companions ([Greek: hetairous kai hetairas])—that is to say, mistresses." Accordingly, even to this day, freeborn women and maidens call their associates and friends their [Greek: hetairai]; as Sappho does, where she says—
And now with tuneful voice I'll sing
These pleasing songs to my companions ([Greek: hetairais]).
And in another place she says—
Niobe and Latona were of old
Affectionate companions ([Greek: hetairai]) to each other.
