Bilistiche

Bilistiche (Greek: Βιλιστίχη^[1]) or Belistiche was a Hellenistic courtesan of uncertain origin. According to Pausanias, she was a Macedonian;^[2] according to Athenaeus, an Argive (which was an ancient Greek royal house and the ruling dynasty of Macedon);^[3] according to Plutarch, a foreign slave bought from the marketplace.^[4] She won the tethrippon and synoris horse races in the 264 BC Olympic Games.^[2] She became a mistress of Ptolemy II Philadelphus and was deified by him as Aphrodite Bilistiche.^[5] According to Clement of Alexandria, she was buried under the shrine of Sarapis in Alexandria.^[6]

References

1. Belistiche in Pausanias; Belestiche in Plutarch; Blistichis in Clement (Protrepticus 4.42); Philistaikhus in Eusebius (Chronikon); Bilistiche in pCairZen 2.59289.
2. Pausanias. Description of Greece, 5.8.11. "Later they added a pair of foals and a ridden foal: they say Belistiche, a woman from the coast of Macedonia, won with the pair, and Tlepolemos the Lykian was proclaimed for the ridden foal, Tlepolemos at the hundred and thirty-first Olympics and Belistiche two games before."
3. Athenaeus. Deipnosophists, 13.596e.
4. Plutarch. Moralia, 753e.
5. Pomeroy 1990, pp. 53–55; Golden 2008, pp. 18–19.
6. Clement of Alexandria. Protrepticus, 4.48.2-3.

Sources

• Golden, Mark (2008). Greek Sport and Social Status. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-71869-1.
• Pomeroy, Sarah B. (1990). Women in Hellenistic Egypt: From Alexander to Cleopatra. Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0-8143-2230-1.

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