A Drop of History 124

Prostitution (1)
When the state lived on brothel taxes

The first state brothels to be found in world history were established here in Greece, under the famous legislation of Solon the Athenian. In his legislative reformation, in the 6th century BCE, the father of democracy makes a distinction between hetairai (sophisticated courtesans) and common prostitutes, and forces the latter to ply their trade in houses under state regulation, which would provide the state with income through taxation.

Of course, prostitution itself, in all its forms, is much older; only nobody had thought of putting it under state regulation before. Serious scholars discredit the famous saying that considers prostitution the oldest profession. Elias Petropoulos, for instance, claims that theft and banditry are definitely older trades, since they originate in the first formation of human societies, while systematic prostitution appeared much later, at the time of permanent settlements and the establishment of the family as an institution. As long as humans were hunting nomads, sexual relationships were unrestricted and guilt-free.

The first form of prostitution was sacred. The union of a priestess with a man, in the presence of the faithful and in an environment of group spiritual elevation, was a symbolic act of fertility in Ishtar’s temples in Babylon. The even older tradition of a virgin’s defloration by a priest in the ancient Persian temples had the same meaning. In Ishtar’s temples, according to Herodotus, all the women of the country were required to prostitute themselves once in their life, as a sacrifice to the goddess. They would go to the temple, wait until a stranger dropped a silver coin at their feet, and have sex with him. According to the great Greek historian, beautiful and noble women were soon done with their obligation, but there were some unfortunate ones, ugly or disfigured, who waited in the temple for three or four years until someone would deign to choose them.

In ancient Egypt, female prisoners of war were sent to prostitute themselves in Ammon’s temples. The Old Testament, in the Book of Hosea, mentions that strangers in Canaan lodged in the houses of common women. In ancient Corinth, the brothels dedicated to the goddess Aphrodite were famous. In classical Athens and Rome, as well, prostitution was quite widespread. Wealthy Hellenes had their hetairai, women of superior education and sophistication, who included sexual satisfaction in their companionship, while affluent Romans had their respective refined meretrices. Additionally, in both states, slave women engaged in legitimate prostitution in their masters’ households. But for the poor, the strangers, the soldiers and sailors, there were houses of ill repute and common women.

The one thing that was unthinkable in classical times, both in Greece and Rome, is what we take for granted today: the fact that a man marries in order to be sexually satisfied by his wife. For the poor, that was the case de facto, since with marriage they had a woman for free, but for the upper classes such a notion was borderline immoral. Marriage was a legal bond that provided heirs to the family property, and married women had the obligation to bear children and manage the household where those children would be raised. The exclusion of married women from society and the restrictions imposed on their lives had to do primarily with ensuring the legitimacy of their children and only secondarily with morals.

For sexual satisfaction, Romans would turn to prostitutes, not their wives. The words of Cato the Elder, who was an extreme conservative Roman, opposing any change and reformation and supporting extreme adherence to ancestral tradition, are famous. He is credited with saying to a friend whom he met coming out of a brothel, “Well done, young man. This is where a man should satisfy his urges, not soliciting married women.”

However, during the times of Rome’s absolute dominion, the situation grew out of all control and several emperors started establishing laws to restrict the phenomenon. Domitian prohibited the buying and selling of young boys, while later Constantine and Theodosius imposed crushing taxes on brothels, in an effort to limit them. Justinian too was a dedicated enemy of prostitution and persecuted procurers relentlessly. It is not known what opinion was held on the subject by his wife Theodora, who, before becoming empress, had been one of the most notorious common prostitutes in the empire.

© Dimitris Kambourakis 2003, All Rights Reserved
Translation from the Greek © M.A.K. 2008, All Rights Reserved

A Drop of History 122

Fags, booze and weed
Prohibitions and the breaking thereof in Islam

The consumption of any alcoholic beverage is taboo in the Islamic religion. However, like in all regimes and all religions, ways are found to bypass such prohibitions. The populace does it crudely, the rulers with more refinement. Prince Cem, the son of Mehmed II the Conqueror, had developed a theory all his own, according to which, if spices are added to wine, then that is no longer the kind of wine forbidden by the Qur’an, but something else altogether. Therefore, it can be drunk without violating religious law. Who would say no to the sultan’s son?

Following the same reasoning, in several rich Ottoman households boiled wine was served because it was believed (or at least wished so) that boiling reduced the level of alcohol and made it acceptable. Like the Catholic monks of Emmanuel Roides’ works, who renamed meat as fish on Good Friday and ate it without sinning.

In general, the proper middle class of the Ottoman Empire kept the prohibition, while the upper and lower classes did not. Turkish traveller and historian Evliya Çelebi (mid-17th century) mentions that he was present at a feast held in a Christian monastery, where all Christians drank copious amounts of Chian wine. The Muslims of the area, though, did not drink at all and had armed themselves as a precaution, because many revolts started after such feasts, when drunken Christians were not aware of what they were doing.

Alcohol was also copiously consumed by mercenaries, janissaries, and sailors, who usually indulged in piracy as well. All those were indifferent to the Qur’an’s imperatives, and that is why they were reviled by proper Ottoman society. In a document written by a Turkish pasha, commenting on his son’s decision to join a pirate crew, the father characteristically says that “such was the logical end of a young man who loved drink”. There were also religious movements that rejected the particular prohibition. The famous Mevlevi dervishes maintained a vineyard and winepress at their equally famous monastery in Istanbul, a fact confirmed by an official catalogue drafted in 1826.

Another great problem cropped up when tobacco from newly-discovered America reached the Ottoman Empire through Europe. The prophet Muhammad knew nothing of tobacco when he wrote the Qur’an, so the use of that new product divided both theologians and sultans. As is common in such cases, society was split into conservatives and liberals. Sultan Murad IV adopted an extreme conservative stance and forbade smoking on pain of death. As long as Murad lived, tobacco was under merciless persecution, but even such prohibition had no effect. The habit of smoking spread; users just smoked in secret. Demand always boosts supply as well, so tobacco started to be cultivated in isolated areas of Greece and Asia Minor.

A document of the Ottoman administration mentions a remote village in the Beyşehir district, whose inhabitants cultivated tobacco and had to be punished. Historian Katip Çelebi described the brutality of Murad’s persecution of smokers and tobacco farmers, and reported that such persecution abated only after the sultan’s death, leading eventually to the lifting of the prohibition and the hookah becoming an integral part of daily life in the Ottoman Empire.

Contrary to tobacco, the use of opium was not forbidden, although it was approached with scepticism. In 1854, before Özdemiroğlu Osman Pasha was appointed Grand Vizier (that is, prime minister), there were rumours of him being addicted to opium, but that did not stop him getting the position. Opium was not smoked, but mixed into a sort of cream and eaten. The preparation and selling of that cream was taxed, so that the state could fill its coffers into the bargain. The damned state, in all times and places, always finds ways to profit from its citizens’ good and bad habits…

Opium was cultivated mainly in the Afyonkarahisar province, where the Greek forces stopped during the Asia Minor campaign. Evliya mentions that not only the men but also the women of the area were addicted to opium, and those even more so. He characteristically says that the men preferred to while away hours in the coffee house instead of putting up with their doped women at home.

Just like today…

© Dimitris Kambourakis 2003, All Rights Reserved
Translation from the Greek © M.A.K. 2008, All Rights Reserved

A Drop of History 117

Small crimes, great punishments in Byzantium
Adulteresses with cut noses and blinded grave-robbers

The issue of citizen safety is not thorny today alone. A cursory look in the corrective systems and penal law of any society in history is enough to verify that the problem has existed for a very long time. Citizens have always felt insecure and the state has always attempted to protect them, through agents of order and the punishment of criminals. The further back we go, the more cruel and direct such punishments were.

In Byzantine times, the position of night governor, that is, chief of police, was one of the most important ones in the empire. Arrested thieves were flogged and their heads shaved before they were imprisoned. If the thief relapsed, he had his hand cut off. Rustlers also got their hands cut off, even on their first arrest. If the thief was armed while committing the crime, they were sentenced to death. In ultra-religious Byzantium, if someone was caught robbing a church, they was summarily blinded. Grave-robbing was also considered a particularly heinous crime. The Byzantines were buried together with precious artifacts and ornaments, and consequently, grave-robbing flourished. Punishment was simple: both the grave-robber’s hands were cut off at the wrists.

Enchanters and diviners were a plague on the illiterate and superstitious Byzantine society. Naturally, the church persecuted them relentlessly. Historian Will Durant cites an incredible list of such charlatans, who deceived the gullible in return for hefty payments. They divined the future using virtually everything. There were aleuromancers, arithmomancers, astragalomancers, astromancers, coscinomancers, lecanomancers, libanomancers, necromancers, nephelomancers, oneiromancers, pharmacomancers, cartomancers, etc. On arrest, they were imprisoned; if they relapsed, they were exiled, blinded or executed. Occasionally, enchanters were burned publicly at the Hippodrome, while anyone caught using sorcery to get rid of their enemies was thrown to the beasts.

Adultery was a serious crime as well. Adulterers were whipped and imprisoned, while adulteresses were banished after having their noses cut off, so that their crime would be obvious to all until their death. If a lady committed adultery with a slave, she would lose her nose and he would be beheaded. The husband who discovered his wife’s adultery and did not turn her in was exiled; if he were in the military, he was dishonourably discharged and imprisoned. Banishment was also the punishment of “adultery enablers”, that is, those who facilitated adultery, mainly by offering their homes.

Imprisonment was the lot of those who played games of chance as well. The Byzantines were incurable gamblers and several historiographers mention the social scourge that was the people’s love for dice, backgammon and other such games.

Priests and monks, of whom there were thousands in the empire, were judged by the Synod. Blasphemy was a heavy sin for clergy, punished by xerophagy, abstinence from communion and three hundred genuflections a day for several months. Another common punishable practice was the custom of “interns”, maidens from rural areas that priests and monks took into their houses, ostensibly to protect them. The girls were forced into convents and the naughty clergymen were put on trial.

As for Byzantine prisons, they were like any other prison of the time: dehumanising. The accounts of contemporary historiographers are full of awful images. Darkness, filth, lice, hunger, thirst, and torture were the lot of the prisoners. Additionally, at first, men and women shared cells, but Constantine at least imposed segregation.

However, despite the cruelty of punishment, historians consider Byzantine society a very highly delinquent one. Damn those corrective systems. The stricter they become, the less effective they prove in putting down crime and deceit. As if the two sides were not enemies but secret collaborators.

© Dimitris Kambourakis 2003, All Rights Reserved
Translation from the Greek © M.A.K. 2008, All Rights Reserved