Thargelia () was a renowned

hetaera A (; , ; . , ), Romanization of Greek, Latinized as ( ), was a type of highly educated female companion in ancient Greece who served as an artist, entertainer, and conversationalist. Historians have often classed them as courtesans, but th ...

ancient Greece Ancient Greece () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically r ...

who is said to have been married fourteen times. According to

Plutarch Plutarch (; , ''Ploútarchos'', ; – 120s) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo (Delphi), Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''Parallel Lives'', ...

, she was born in

Ionia Ionia ( ) was an ancient region encompassing the central part of the western coast of Anatolia. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Greek settlements. Never a unified state, it was named after the Ionians who ...

and "made her onslaughts upon the most influential men" of her times.Plutarch, ''Pericles''
XXIV
/ref> Thargelia was noted for her physical beauty and was endowed with grace of manners as well as clever wits. Plutarch asserts that Thargelia "attached all her consorts to the

King of Persia The monarchs of Iran ruled for over two and a half millennia, beginning as early as the 7th century BC and enduring until the 20th century AD. The earliest Iranian king is generally considered to have been either Deioces of the Median dynasty () ...

" and sought for the spreading of

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

sympathy in the cities of

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

by means of her clients, "who were men of the greatest power and influence". She is said to have lived for a long time in

Thessaly Thessaly ( ; ; ancient Aeolic Greek#Thessalian, Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic regions of Greece, geographic and modern administrative regions of Greece, administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient Thessaly, a ...

, where she successfully propagandized the Persian policy.

Citations

Hetairai Ancient Thessalian women Ancient Anatolian Greeks Greek female prostitutes Medism Ancient Greeks in Thessaly Ancient Anatolian Greek women {{AncientGreece-bio-stub