Prostitution
There were plenty of prostitutes in
Hellenic society. At the top of the hierarchy were the heters. The Eastern
Roman Empire adopted this Greek practice, but by the Middle Byzantine era, it
had changed. Byzantium was barely educated for an upscale week, but the lower
two classes of meretrixes worked in all cities.
The upper class of Byzantine joy
girls included actresses, flute and musician girls, circus stuntmen, acrobats,
and the famous - not necessarily educated - professional courtesans. They
almost equated actresses (singers, acrobats, etc.) and prostitutes, believing
that theater was a hotbed of seduction because of the actresses ’behavior, face
and hair coloring, naked body, and defiant demeanor. This later became the
official position of the Orthodox Church. The “actresses” mainly satisfied the
visitors of the performances, but they could also be rented for occasions and
banquets. As a garment, they wore a translucent muslin dress in which the naked
body could be seen. The most famous theatrical lover was Theodora, who was a
child prostitute and then rose from there to the rank of Empress as the wife of
Emperor Justinian.
Empress Theodora
wikipedia.org
Prostitution was spread mainly in
the cities. Plenty of men gathered here, away from their wives and families, so
there was a great demand for sexual services in these cities and a huge number
of professional joy girls were available. In the capital, more than ten
thousand sold themselves in the 6th century and thirty thousand in the 10th
century.
"Individual
prostitution"
After the 4th century, more and
more pilgrims arrived in the Holy Land, and this led to the spread of
prostitution in Jerusalem, along the Jordan River, and in the Judean Desert.
The lower strata of individual prostitutes offered their bodies in squares and
baths. Because of deprivation and starvation, they were greedy, sometimes
violent, stealing their clients. Those who received men in their own homes were
in a better position - they were the “middle class” of individual prostitutes.
The girls' apartment was often a single room in the busiest part of the city
and there were 5 to 10 clients a day.
Non-professional “individual”
prostitutes pursued their businesses out of lust or financial need, such as
women working in inns and pubs. They supplemented their earnings with work, or
vice versa: their main activity was prostitution, they “officially” did other
work (also) to cover it up. And women craftsmen and small clerks often
increased the family’s income through sexual services.
"Institutional
prostitution"
The scene of this was a brothel formed in Roman times. Residents of the brothels were considered “official,”
all the other girls were just corner prostitutes. Corner prostitution was
tacitly acknowledged by both the state and the church. In almost every city,
there was a close connection between the brothel and the spa, some baths
focused on prostitution, which is why decent people avoided them. Men went to
these for the sake of the girls. At the entrance to several baths was this
inscription: “Come in and enjoy”. We even know the operating rules of some
brothels. The variable number of meretrixes (prostitutes) operated under the
supervision of the madam (mostly an aging and somewhat enriched prostitute).
She and her servants protected the girls against their rude clients, but the
girls were obliged to follow her instructions. In some brothels, the girl was
allowed to reject one applicant at a time. The Byzantine government soon
recognized the business potential of brothels. It0 taxed them and even
appointed an imperial inspector to inspect them. The rulers at times tried to
contain, to reduce prostitution, with little success. The laws treated
prostitutes with “gloved hands”: they did not consider their activities a
crime, but they wanted to regulate traffic.
"Steppe" (between
hermits) prostitution:
Another significant arena for the
activities of prostitutes is the field of steppe hermits and penance. Monastic
life and prostitution went hand in hand. According to the records, it could be
believed that there was a constant struggle between the slaves and the monks:
the former tried to seduce the hermits, but they wanted to get the prostitutes
on a good path. about adultery thoughts and the prostitutes who tempt them. One
of the other hermits was served by a young “virgin,” and her surroundings
whispered that a sexual relationship had developed between the old man and the
child girl. Some monks have been accused of harassing street girls. Prostitutes
almost constantly haunted desert fathers, young and old alike. Often the hermit
could not resist and enter into a relationship with the prostitute.
But female penitents were not free
from a sexual desire either. A hermit named Sarah was "fiercely attacked
by the spirit of fornication for thirteen years." There is also evidence
that the hermit lady had regular intercourse with other atoners, one or the
other having a child. With the decline of hermitism, steppe prostitution
“disappeared” with the Arab occupation of the affected areas. A VII. After the
16th century, there were few hermits in the mutilated Empire, and prostitution
could no longer be established in the monasteries that had been established at
that time. We are also aware of countless “coeducational” monasteries, but the
relationship between a friend and a nun cannot be considered prostitution. Then
the XI. In the 21st century, women, but even females, were banned from their
territory and this rule was introduced in the 21st century. century.
Male prostitution:
Since Roman times, a list has been
drawn up every year of professional prostitutes of all ranks and ranks, men and
women alike. There were also plenty of male brothels in ancient Rome. Emperor
Theodosius, I banned male prostitution, dismantled their houses in the western
half of the Empire, exiled and executed male ringworms, and abolished male
brothels in Rome. In the Eastern Empire, Constantine I taxed male prostitutes
and thus impunity their brothels, which had operated for more than two
centuries. Finally, Justinian the Great closed them in 533. The man banned
prostitution and punished all kinds of homosexual acts with death. However, it
can be assumed that not only female prostitutes but also men continued to work
in the larger cities, in secret. In part, the testicles came from among young
people, on the other hand, those who slipped to the periphery of society earned
their money.
Justinian the Great
wikipedia.org
Child prostitution
The saddest part of prostitution,
which was not at all a rarity in the Empire. Even among Egyptian hermits,
little girls were spoiled. In Roman times, the price of boys was higher, but in
the Byzantine period, the emphasis shifted to girls. Empress Theodora herself
began her career as a child prostitute. Despite all the prohibitions, the
poorest sections of society often sold their 5-7-year-old daughters for
prostitution. Justinian banned child prostitution in 529 AD, but until the fall
of Byzantium, there was ample supply, as many poor, miserable families lived in
the capital and the countryside. It was also common for pedophile men to buy
little girls and keep them in their houses until they were adults. As soon as
they became a mature woman, they were thrown into the street (brothel), and few
could start a decent bourgeois life, start a family. The majority of child
prostitutes ended their lives between the ages of 18 and 20, living longer,
often becoming infertile due to their childhood injuries, and numerous
abortions, most of whom suffered from chronic trippers and other sexual
distresses.
The "supply" of prostitutes
The number of prostitutes has never
decreased. Some of the abandoned, orphaned, the wandering child ended up in
brothels. Most child prostitutes continued their crafts as adults. There was no
other way to survive before some of the women who had been expelled or fled the
villages. The majority undertook to sell their bodies due to starvation. Before
the turn of the millennium, many “investors” bought beautiful young slave
girls, forcing them into prostitution, gaining considerable profits. The vast
majority of those who lived out of their bodies were unable to change their
destiny, although in Byzantium they accepted former street girls who had
converted to a decent life. Few (about ten to twenty percent of them) managed
to break out, get married, raise enough money to start a civic occupation, or
work in the public silk industry or manufactories. Sometimes, in addition to
their civilian occupation, they continued to work as casual prostitutes. Some
started or continued prostitution with the knowledge and consent of their
husbands. But quite a few of the street girls “converted,” stood as hermits, or
marched into a monastery. The age of prostitutes was barely over 20-30 years,
but there were exceptionally those who understood 60-70 years, and some remained
active in old age, but most died in shelters or monasteries.
Neither prostitutes on the street
nor in brothels were required to undergo a medical examination, and they did
not claim to do so on their own. The infection sometimes spread epidemically,
with the street girls passing the disease to their partners, those to their
wives, and they to their lovers. 10 to 15 percent of the Byzantine population
was barren, largely as a result of sexual distress.
It was typical, that the Church
Fathers equated prostitution with contraception and therefore forbade the
prevention of pregnancy. According to the Orthodox Church, prostitutes and
their clients are punished by God with leprosy. But prostitutes are aware of a
method (s) by which they can get rid of the fetus. We don’t know exactly what
they did, but their activities have often been effective. The power knew about
the illegal miscarriage, but he did little about it. In Byzantium (under
certain circumstances) abortion was allowed, legally precisely regulated, and
subject to conditions. Prostitutes mostly did not take advantage of legal
abortion, although the intervention was free. If neither the prevention of
pregnancy nor the miscarriage was successful, the unwanted newborns were
killed, at best, exposed in front of a church, monastery, orphanage, or simply
on the street.
