Literary notes about COURTESAN (AI summary)
Literature often employs the term “courtesan” to evoke a figure marked by sensual charm, shrewd economic strategy, and ambiguous social standing. In ancient works, she is portrayed as someone who carefully balances the quest for wealth, pleasure, and even religious merit ([1],[2]), while her relationships with prominent men are depicted with a mix of admiration and moral critique ([3],[4],[5]). Later narratives add layers by showing her not only as a seductive companion but also as a cunning negotiator of fortunes, a status further nuanced by discussions of coquetry, artifice, and refined behavior ([6],[7],[8]). In this way, the courtesan emerges as a multifaceted literary figure whose allure and calculated charm contribute significantly to the cultural and social commentary of her time ([9],[10],[11]).
- A courtesan should also consider doubts about gain and doubts about loss with reference both to wealth, religious merit, and pleasure.
— from The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana by Vatsyayana - Now a courtesan should not sacrifice money to her love, because money is the chief thing to be attended to.
— from The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana by Vatsyayana - Also, that he, as well as one of his brothers, was a most profligate man in his morals, and that he used to live with Leontium, the courtesan.
— from The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius - On one occasion he saw the son of a courtesan throwing a stone at a crowd, and said to him, “Take care, lest you hit your father.”
— from The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius - But he lived also with a courtesan, named Nicarete, as Onetor tells us somewhere.
— from The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius - Old authors are of opinion that when a courtesan can get as much money as she wants from her lover, she should not make use of artifice.
— from The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana by Vatsyayana - "A courtesan leading in this manner the life of a wife is not troubled with too many lovers, and yet obtains abundance of wealth."
— from The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana by Vatsyayana - When he was coming she filled the two large blue glass vases with roses, and prepared her room and her person like a courtesan expecting a prince.
— from Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert - When by living with a man a courtesan simply gets money, this is called a gain of wealth not attended by any other gain.
— from The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana by Vatsyayana - You may say that a courtesan is hurtful, and disapprove of such creatures and their practices, and yet for the time they are very pleasant.
— from Phaedrus by Plato - "A courtesan should be agreeable to the man who is attached to her, and despise the man who does not care for her.
— from The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana by Vatsyayana