Bilistiche (Greek: Βιλιστίχη;[1] born c. 280 BC) or Belistiche was a Hellenistic courtesan of Ptolemy II Philadelphus and winner of the 264 BC Olympic Games in tethrippon and synoris.
Name
It is generally accepted that the name Bilistiche is a Macedonian dialectal form of a Greek name.[2] The first element presumably relates to φιλ-, ‘love’; (the phi turns into beta in the Macedonian dialect, cf. Pherenice -> Berenice). The most probable full etymological account of her name accordingly construes it as the superlative stem φιλιστ- followed by the productive suffix -ίχα, found in a number of other female names, particularly in Boeotia (Doricha, Deinicha, Hippicha, etc.).[2]
Origin
According to Pausanias, Bilistiche was a woman from the coast of Macedonia;[3] according to Athenaeus, she was an Argive (said to descend from the line of Atreus);[4] according to Plutarch, a foreign slave bought from the marketplace.[5] If one were to accept Plutarch's information, one might suppose that, as a (former) slave of such origin she was given Macedonian citizenship for her services, although this is considered unlikely.[2]
Olivier Masson dismissed Plutarch's information as fiction concluding that Plutarch had drawn her from the existing entourage of the Macedonian nobility,[6] as does Daniel Ogden, who notes that Plutarch's information probably originated from Sotades' work On Bilistiche whose contents are unknown, but may have been a polemic against her.[2]
Biography
Bilistiche was born around 280 BC. Her father was named Philon (cf. Athenian architect Philon) and was presumably an admiral of Ptolemy II Philadelphus.[2] She won the tethrippon and synoris horse races in the 264 BC Olympic Games,[3] and subsequently she became a mistress of Ptolemy II. They had a son together named Ptolemy Andromachou.[7]
Death
Her date of death is unknown. After her death, it is known that Ptolemy II deified her as Aphrodite Bilistiche.[8] Fragmentary papyri from Ankyronpolis dated to 239/8 BC indicate that later in life she was a money lender.[9] According to Clement of Alexandria, she was buried under the shrine of Sarapis in Alexandria.[10]
References
Sources
External links
- Chris Bennett - Bilistiche
- Kosmetatou, Elizabeth. "Bilistiche and the Quasi-Institutional Status of Ptolemaic Royal Mistress". Archiv für Papyrusforschung und verwandte Gebiete. Volume 50, Issue 1, Pages 18–36, ISSN (Online) 1867-1551, ISSN (Print) 0066-6459, 2004. doi:10.1515/apf.2004.50.1.18