It was six months ago that I came across this alluring, unspoken of and yet salient past of the women of the night, courtesans, while sluggishly surfing for the next thing to binge watch. A movie, ‘Dangerous beauty,’ based on the life of one such popular courtesan of Venice is what got me looking into the lives of numerous such women, ‘who played integral part on the stage that is this world,’ as Shakespeare would have said.

History, however soporific for some, over shadows the lengthy, vibrant and unheard history which courtesans share since the beginning of the civilization. Courtesans have been known popularly for their wit and intellect, more so than their prolific beauty and uncanny skills of seduction.

The term courtesan originated around 1540 which literally meant woman of a court. To my surprise, Courtesans were in way eulogized prostitutes, who served as a paramour to royals and wealthy men of the society. Ancient Greece, ancient Rome and, one shouldn’t be shocked when I say, Ancient India had a rich culture of courtesans. They were a very prominent part of the way the social fabric operated during those times.

The very tradition of courtesans is said to have emerged during the civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt, few of the earliest of the time. Ritual religious concubines were an intrinsic part of the Hellenic society and were even employed in temples of ancient Greece. Athenian orator Apollodoros described this system very succinctly: “We have courtesans for pleasure, concubines for daily service of our bodies, but wives to produce legitimate offspring and guardian of the household property.” Such was the culture of our ancestors.

In Renaissance Italy, courtesans had a lavish and extravagant way of life. They maintained salons where lofty conversations of high intellect and moral were often discussed. The time when sheltered wives of gentlemen and young maidens weren’t allowed to educate themselves neither were they to own a property, or to say even step in a library, courtesans emerged as few of the most learned, cultured and wealthiest women of the time.

One of the most sad findings of this research was the fact that for most part of their lives, courtesans sure did engage in a life full of grandeur and luxury but then there were times like when Black Death swept across Venice where these women were accused of witchcraft and were brought to a sad and unjust end of life.

These fierce women often remind me of a verse written by a harlot, who truly narrates the daunting life of women of the night,

I am She who you honour and distain.
I am the Saint and the prostitute.
I am the Virgin and the wife.
I am knowledge and I am ignorance.
I am strength and fear.
I am Godless and the Glory of God.