hetaera

plural hetaerae · plural hetaeras · alternative hetaira · alternative hetæra

1. historicalAncient GreeceA highly cultivated hired female companion who would entertain upper-class male clients and might perform sex acts for them.

   But of course our friend is only a shallow twentieth-century reproduction of the great hetairae of the past, the type to which she belongs without knowing it, Lais, Charis and the rest...

   1957, Lawrence Durrell, Justine

2. A mistress.

   Woman is dethroned as the primary and supreme sex, debased into inseminable hetaera.

   1971, Gottfried Benn, E. B. Ashton, Primal vision: selected writings

   1 more example

   Christ appeared, only to reveal himself as the naked god Pan. Ballet of hetaerae and houris, choreography by Italo Castaldi.

   1980, Anthony Burgess, Earthly Powers