The Roman Courtesan - Institutum Romanum Finlandiae

The Roman Courtesan
Archaeological Reflections of a Literary Topos
30th May 2014
International Symposium organized by Institutum Romanum Finlandiae in collaboration
with Deutsches Archäologisches Institut Rom
with financial support from the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies
venue: Institutum Romanum Finlandiae, Villa Lante, Passeggiata del Gianicolo 10
contact: Ria Berg ([email protected])
The Roman Courtesan
Archaeological Reflections of a Literary Topos
In the study of ancient prostitution in Classical Greece, the distinction between the cultured hetaira
and the servile pornē, has been a subject of intense scholarly debate. In the Roman world, however,
scholarly interest has concentrated almost exclusively on servile prostitution, located in modest
lupanaria or cellae meretriciae of large domus, under the direct patronage of a leno, leaena, or a
dominus, while the existence of economically independent, property-owning, and learned
courtesans has been overlooked and even denied. In fact, in Latin, a proper term for ‘courtesan’,
comparable to the Greek hetaira, is missing, and more vague and euphemistic definitions such as
meretrix, puella, domina, mima are used.
Yet women that figure as independent courtesans, from Acca Larentia to Hispala Faecenia and
Volumnia Cytheris, play significant roles in Roman historiography. Below the elite, women of a
wide range of different social statuses created survival strategies in complicated networks of gender
and power relations and economic dependencies – ranging from patrons and libertae, mothers and
daughters, to mimae and their sponsors. Literary and material sources show us glimpses of a vast
gray zone, with gift economies and hospitality businesses on the margins of prostitution, out of the
brothels, in cauponae, hospitia and private houses. Are, then, the Roman courtesans - the plautine
meretrix, the elegiac puellae or the sympotiac women in Roman art – mere fantasy products and a
reflection of the Hellenistic culture, or essential elements of the Roman gender system?
The one-day symposium will bring together experts working on legal, onomastic, epigraphic,
iconographic and archaeological sources to examine the legal status, cultural role, representations
and materialities of Roman independent prostitutes and courtesans.
Programme
9.45 – 10.00 Welcome and Introduction (Tuomas Heikkilä, Director IRF; Ortwin Dally, Director DAI;
Ria Berg, Vice-director IRF)
Session I: Status and Cultural Role
10.00 – 10.30 Thomas McGinn (Vanderbilt University): “Legal status of Roman courtesans”
10.30 – 10.50 Mika Kajava (University of Helsinki): “Naming courtesans in antiquity”
10.50 – 11.20 Coffee
11.20 – 11.40 Antonio Varone (Direzione Generale Antichità, Mibact): “Pupa, puella, domina – tracce
di cortigiane nella documentazione pompeiana”
Discussion 11.40 – 12.00
Session II: Reflections in Roman Art
12.00 – 12.20 Luciana Jacobelli (Università del Molise): “Scene di banchetto con presenze femminili
nelle case di Pompei: alcune considerazioni”
12.20 – 12.40 Richard Neudecker (DAI): “The most beautiful girls of Pompeii - hetairai?”
12.40 – 13.00 Discussion
13.00 – 14.00 Lunch break
14.00 – 14.20 Siri Sande (Norwegian Institute of Rome): “Prostitutes and entertainers at Rome – did
they leave memories of themselves?”
14.20 – 14.40 Ville Hakanen (University of Helsinki): “Ganymede in Roman wall paintings –
A visual allusion to male prostitution?”
14.40 – 15.00 Discussion
Session III: Courtesans and Materiality
15.00 – 15.20 Angela Deodato (Museo del Territorio Biellese): “Domina, lupa o saga? Status femminile
attraverso gli elementi erotici e magici da un contesto funerario del Piemonte romano”
15.20 – 15.40 Ria Berg (IRF): “Cercando la casa di una cortigiana a Pompei. I reperti materiali quali
segno di attività di prostituzione?”
15.40 – 16.00 Discussion
16.00 – 16.30 Coffee
Session IV: The Written Courtesan
16.30 – 16.50 Katariina Mustakallio (University of Tampere): ”Acca Larentia's legend. How did the
Roman storytellers explain her role in Roman memory”
16.50 – 17.10 Marja-Leena Hänninen (University of Helsinki): ”The image of a wellborn lady as
prostitute: The cases of Julia and Messalina”
17.10 – 17.40 Sharon L. James (University of North Carolina): “The Life course of the Roman
courtesan”
17.40 – 18.00 Discussion and conclusion
Refreshments

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