Allison Glazebrook’s new addition to the study of sex work in antiquity focuses on its portrayal by Attic orators. By drawing out the characterization of individuals engaged in sex work, Glazebrook successfully demonstrates on which Athenian social anxieties the narratives play. Her arguments develop beyond the hetaira/pornē dichotomy of existing scholarship (upper-class ‘courtesans’ versus lower-class sex labourers), making this book a valuable contribution to the field. Particularly refreshing is her decision to use the term ‘sexual labour’, a deliberate attempt to move away from outdated terms such as ‘prostitute’ and even ‘whore’, while acknowledging the activism inherent in the phrase ‘sex work’ which she sees as disconnected from the reality of the mostly enslaved sex labourers in ancient Athens.
Chapter One, ‘Under the Influence’, examines how the portrayal of sex labourers is used to reflect on and exaggerate the characterization of the speakers and their opponents. Glazebrook argues that in Lysias 4 (Concerning an Intentional Wounding), which concerns a violent argument over a shared sex labourer, the unnamed disputants are depicted both as having dangerous, unmasculine desires and as being unduly influenced by sex labourers. Chapter Two, ‘In the Oikos’, highlights how topography is employed in Isaios 6 (On the Estate of Philoctemon) to play on the anxieties around the mobility of enslaved people, non-Athenians and women. The movement of alleged sex labourer Alce makes her a threatening presence, and Glazebrook convincingly argues that this threat is emphasized by the language used.
Chapter Three, ‘Part of the Family’, focuses on [Demosthenes] 59 (Against Neiaira), and considers how sex labourers are portrayed as having the potential to destabilize social institutions and rituals that are vital to the polis, namely marriage and religion. Here, the anxieties around stereotypical sex labourers discussed in the previous two chapters are drawn together in a broader argument: that the enslaved, non-Athenians and women are depicted as potential threats not just to individual oikoi but to the polis as a whole. Chapter Four, ‘Same-Sex Desire’, analyzes Lysias 3 (Against Simon) and illustrates how sexual labour is gendered, exposing anxiety around male desire. Glazebrook here demonstrates that excessive desire was deliberately linked to hubris and a lack of self-control, which were dangerous attributes for an Athenian citizen, again both within and outside the oikos.
Chapter Five, ‘Citizen Sex Slaves’ is perhaps the least clear chapter in the book. While Glazebrook claims to examine how the physical body is presented in Aeschines 1 (Against Timarchus), the chapter focuses on topography and uses similar arguments to Chapter Two. If the book had been structured thematically rather than focusing on one speech per chapter, the strands of Glazebrook’s argument could have been brought together throughout the monograph rather than leaving this analysis to the book’s conclusion.
Generally, Glazebrook’s textual approach to oratory, examining the speeches as literary texts rather than simply as evidence of ‘Athenian mentalité’ (3), is refreshing. She makes an excellent case for the use of stereotypes within the speeches being influenced by characterizations of sex labourers in comedy, and persuasively sustains this comparison throughout. The language is consistently clear and accessible, and the decision to transliterate all Greek terms and quotations does not hinder the important linguistic analysis, for example, of duserōs (‘love-mad’) in Chapter One. The result is a book which will be valuable for new students of sexuality and gender in antiquity and for experienced scholars alike.
Overall, the potentially confusing aspects of the law court speeches are laid out well, for example, in the family trees illustrating the relationships that are so important to understanding Isaios’ On the Estate of Philoctemon (45–47). Further diagrams also add weight to Glazebrook’s arguments, for example, mapping the frequency of various localities mentioned in Aeschines’ Against Timarchus. However, the use of diagrams is uneven, with three in Chapter Five and none in Chapter Four, and the discussions which lack them would have benefited just as much from their use.
Ultimately, Glazebrook provides a worthwhile discussion of how the portrayal of sex labourers is used by the orators to expose and test the tensions within Athenian social norms and institutions. Throughout the book, the significance of key Athenian values such as sōphrosunē (‘self-control’) and kosmia (‘order’) is foregrounded and linked, enabling the reader’s understanding of sex labour within its social context. Yet the book’s streamlined focus constrains discussions to the Attic orators, resulting in a tight, focused and thorough exploration of sexual labour within the genre.
