Definition of "hetaera" []

• An ancient Greek courtesan or concubine, especially one of a special class of cultivated female companions. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Roman hetaera, relief, around 2nd century — head is missing."
• "Pericles' celebrated hetaera, Aspasia, came from Miletos."
• "The godlike Xenocrates showed this by the firmness of his reason, who was declared by the famous hetaera Phryne to be a statue and not a man, when all her blandishments could not shake his resolve, as Valerius Maximus relates at length."