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Books > Law > Jurisprudence & general issues > Legal history
Oratory is a valuable source for reconstructing the practices,
legalities, and attitudes surrounding sexual labor in classical
Athens. It provides evidence of male and female sex laborers, sex
slaves, brothels, sex traffickers, the cost of sex, contracts for
sexual labor, and manumission practices for sex slaves. Yet the
witty, wealthy, and independent hetaira, well-known from other
genres, does not feature. Its detailed narratives and character
portrayals provide a unique discourse on sexual labor and reveal
the complex relationship between such labor and Athenian society.
Through a holistic examination of five key speeches, Sexual Labor
in the Athenian Courts considers how portrayals of sex laborers
intersected with gender, the body, sexuality, the family, urban
spaces, and the polis in the context of the Athenian courts.
Drawing on gender theory and exploring questions of space, place,
and mobility, Allison Glazebrook shows how sex laborers represented
a diverse set of anxieties concerning social legitimacy and how the
public discourse about them is in fact a discourse on Athenian
society, values, and institutions.
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