Sexuality And Gender In The Classical World - Readings And Sources / quote 8 of 8
No right was superior to the city's
Greek society was a slave-owning society, and a female slave was not in a position to refuse the sexual demands of her owner .. Large cities..also had a big population of resident aliens, and these included women who made a living as prostitutes, on short-term relations with a succession of clients, or as hetairai , who endeavoured to establish long-term relations with wealthy and agreeable men. ...gluttony, drunkenness and purchased sexual relations were classified together as "shameful pleasures".. ..a character in Menander says "No one is so parsimonious as not to make some sacrifice of his property to Eros".. The idea that one has a right to spend one's own money as one wishes (or a right to do anything which detracts from one's health and physical fitness) is not Greek, and would have seemed absurd to a Greek. He had only the rights which the law of his city explicitly gave him; no right was inalienable, and no claim superior to the city's. pp. 23-24