Hookers and lookers: prostitution and soliciting in late Archaic Thasos

Abstract

While accepting A. J. Graham's interpretation of the ‘stèle du port de Thasos’ (SEG42. 785) as presenting regulations aimed at checking prostitution and associated soliciting in late Archaic Thasos, this article seeks to clarify some specific issues in the text. It urges (i) that the correct reading at l. 31 is κατοικιῶν, with the meaning ‘dwelling’; (ii) that θῆς ἓνεκεν (l. 32) should bear apassivesense, ‘for the sake ofbeing seen’, and, likewise, θήσθω (l. 33), which necessarily picks up θῆς ἓνεκεν, should be regarded as conveying not only the idea oflooking outbut also ofbeing seenby prospective clients; thus ll. 30–3 are to be rendered ‘no one shall go up onto the roof ofmaisons publiquesin order to be seen, nor shall any woman either show herself from the windows’; and (iii) that προïστάσθω (l. 45) is not to be taken in conjunction with ἐσβαλλέτω (ll. 44–5) as governing the object κόπρον, nor as intransitive in the sense ‘solicit as a prostitute’, but rather as transitive middle, with the subject ὁ ἐνοικέων (l. 34), in the sense ‘exhibit women for sale’.

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