eremonials of these two deities assumed at
times a most licentious aspect. In course of time, a distinction arose
in the conception of Aphrodite, expressed by the surname applied to her.
Thus Aphrodite Urania came to be generally regarded as the goddess of
the highest love, especially of wedded love and fruitfulness, in
contrast to Aphrodite Pandemus, the goddess of sensual lust and the
patron deity of courtesans.

We could hardly expect high moral ideas in regard to sexual relations
among the Greeks, whose deities were so lax. Zeus himself was given to
illicit intercourse with mortal maidens and was continually arousing the
jealousy of his prudent wife, the Lady Hera. Aphrodite was not faithful
to her liege lord, Hephaestus, but was given to escapades with the
warlike Ares. Apollo had his mortal loves, and Hades abducted the
beautiful Proserpina. A people who from their childhood were taught such
stories could hardly be expected to be more moral than their deities.

As has been shown in a previous chapter, the Greek conception of the
city-state lay at the basis of laws and customs which repressed the
citizen-woman and prevented proper attention to her education and to
the full and well-rounded cultivation of womanly graces. The State
hedged itself about with the most rigid safeguards to preserve the
purity of the citizen blood. Stringent laws were passed prohibiting any
citizen-man from marrying a stranger-woman, or any stranger-man from
marrying a citizen-woman. To enforce these laws, it was necessary to
keep the wives and daughters of the State within the narrow bounds of
the gynaeceum; and they were forbidden a knowledge of public affairs,
which would make them more interesting to men. Hence the limitations of
their culture made it impossible for them to be in every sense the
companions of their husbands. But it is not natural for men to be
deprived of the sympathy and inspiration that is found in association
with cultivated women; hence there was, especially in Athens, a peculiar
sphere for the cultivated hetaera. The men of the city recognized the
need of feminine society in their recreations, in their political life,
and on military expeditions. The hetaera entered this sphere, from which
the citizen-woman was excluded.

A further reason for the predominance of hetairism is seen in the
artistic impulses of the Greek people. These courtesans made an art of
the life of pleasure. Cultivating every feminine grace,