Trupēmatōn

Οὔκουν δεινόν; πρὸς μὲν τοὺς ἀστυγείτονας καὶ ὁμολογουμένως ἀρίστους τῶν Ἑλλήνων εἰς τὴν πόλιν γεγενημένους οὕτω καλῶς καὶ ἀκριβῶς διωρίσασθε περὶ ἑκάστου, ἐφ’ οἷς δεῖ ἔχειν τὴν δωρεάν, τὴν δὲ περιφανῶς ἐν ἁπάσῃ τῇ Ἑλλάδι πεπορνευμένην οὕτως αἰσχρῶς καὶ ὀλιγώρως ἐάσετε ὑβρίζουσαν εἰς τὴν πόλιν καὶ ἀσεβοῦσαν εἰς τοὺς θεοὺς ἀτιμώρητον, ἣν οὔτε οἱ πρόγονοι ἀστὴν κατέλιπον οὔθ᾽ ὁ δῆμος πολῖτιν ἐποιήσατο; ποῦ γὰρ αὕτη οὐκ εἴργασται τῷ σώματι, ἢ ποῖ οὐκ ἐλήλυθεν ἐπὶ τῷ καθ’ ἡμέραν μισθῷ; οὐκ ἐν Πελοποννήσῳ μὲν πάσῃ, ἐν Θετταλίᾳ δὲ καὶ Μαγνησίᾳ μετὰ Σίμου τοῦ Λαρισαίου καὶ Εὐρυδάμαντος τοῦ Μηδείου, ἐν Χίῳ δὲ καὶ ἐν Ἰωνίᾳ τῇ πλείστῃ μετὰ Σωτάδου τοῦ Κρητὸς ἀκολουθοῦσα, μισθωθεῖσα ὑπὸ τῆς Νικαρέτης, ὅτε ἔτι ἐκείνης ἦν; τὴν δὴ ὑφ’ ἑτέροις οὖσαν καὶ ἀκολουθοῦσαν τῷ διδόντι τί οἴεσθε ποιεῖν; ἆρ’ οὐχ ὑπηρετεῖν τοῖς χρωμένοις εἰς ἁπάσας ἡδονάς; εἶτα τὴν τοιαύτην καὶ περιφανῶς ἐγνωσμένην ὑπὸ πάντων [ἀπὸ τριῶν τρυπημάτων] γῆς περίοδον εἰργασμένην ψηφιεῖσθε ἀστὴν εἶναι;
(Demosthens, Or. 59.107-108)

Isn’t it shocking? On the one hand, when it comes to our neighbors, men acknowledged to be the best of all the Greeks in their dealings with our city, you have legislated with such precise care the conditions under which each individual may enjoy the gift of citizenship; while on the other, you will allow this woman, a whore known to all Greece, to treat our city with disgrace and contempt and get away with profaning the gods, this woman who is not Athenian by her birth and not a citizen by act of the dēmos. Is there a place she has not sold her body? Is there a place she has not gone to earn her daily living? She’s been all over the Peloponnese, in Thessaly, and in Magnesia with Simus from Larissa and Eurydamas the son of Medeius; in Chios and in most of Ionia she followed Sotades from Crete around, rented out by Nicarete, who still owned her. What do you suppose a woman will do when under the thumb of different men, traipsing after any man who pays her? Isn’t she going to serve up every sort of pleasure to the men who use her? And then, will you vote citizenship for a woman of this character, notorious to all for making her living from three holes,* street-walking the world?

* Hermogenes, a second-century ad writer on rhetoric, reports that the words “making her living from three (drilled) holes” appeared in some texts of this speech. They are not to be found in any surviving manuscript, and most scholars believe that the expression is too crude for Attic oratory. But since the entire passage passes the normal limits of decorum, Apollodorus probably did venture this gibe.

(tr. Victor Bers, with one of his notes)