List of prostitutes and courtesans

This is a list of famous persons who have engaged in prostitution, as well as pimping and courtesan work.

Historical

Nell Gwyn, ca 1675

Madame du Barry

Ancient world

• Aspasia, Greek hetaera, companion of Pericles
• Phryne, Greek hetaera
• Rahab, biblical prostitute who assisted the Hebrews in capturing Jericho (Joshua 2:1-7)
• Su Xiaoxiao, Chinese courtesan of the 5th century
• Thaïs, Greek hetaera who lived during the time of Alexander the Great
• Theodora, Empress of Byzantium
• Gomer, a prostitute whom God commanded Hosea to marry in the biblical Book of Hosea.
• Mary Magdalene was supposed to have been a prostitute by those who identified her with the sinful woman in Luke 7:36–50, an identification now generally abandoned.^[1]

Modern era

• Lizzie Lape, mid-Ohio madam, owner of the White Pigeon saloon and house in Warren G. Harding’s Marion, Ohio, and operator of multiple bordellos, 1880s-1900s
• Polly Adler, New York madam, 1920s - 1940s
• Josie Arlington, madam in Storyville, New Orleans
• Laura Bell, the "Queen of London whoredom"
• Cassandra, the "Golden Heels Madamme" <La Tacón Dorado> Tijuana, B.C. México 1940's - 1980's many American tourist included some politicians used to cross the border between California and Tijuana to have a special love night with Cassandra, specially during the 1950s
• Theresa Berkeley, 19th-century dominatrix
• Mary Boleyn, lover of King Francis as well as King Henry VIII, the French king referred to her as "The English Mare"
• Calamity Jane, American frontierswoman
• Pearl Callahan, prostitute from Northern California, in the film American Courtesans, sex worker advocate^[2]
• Eny Cezarino, (1916-1997) Brazilian courtesean, Sex profesional
• Alice Chambers, 19th century Dodge City prostitute
• Sheridan Ethen, "Whore of the Nord", famous for live-sex shows in Amsterdam
• Annie Chapman, one of the "canonical five" victims of Jack the Ripper
• Gina DePalma, porn star, prostitute and dominatrix, in the film American Courtesans^[3]
• Kristen DiAngelo, brought back the term "courtesans", in order to re-brand prostitution in America, producer of the film American Courtesans^[4]
• Madame du Barry, mistress to Louis XV of France
• Veronica Franco, Venetian courtesan and poetess
• Nell Gwyn, courtesan to Charles II of England
• Mary Jane Kelly, one of the "canonical five" victims of Jack the Ripper
• Nicole Leguay d'Oliva, French prostitute involved in the Affair of the Diamond Necklace who impersonated Marie Antoinette
• Carol Leigh, a.k.a. Scarlot Harlot, coined the term "sex worker"^[5]
• Amanda Brooks is an Internet escort who has written business books for Internet escorts.^[6]
• Mata Hari (born Margaretha Geertruida Zelle), Dutch spy
• Mary Ann Nichols, one of the "canonical five" victims of Jack the Ripper
• Barbara Payton, American actress turned prostitute^[7]
• Shady Sadie (Josephine Marcus) Courtesan who had an affair with Wyatt Earp
• Annie Sprinkle, American sex worker, porn star, and sex educator and writer]]
• Chica da Silva, famous eighteenth-century slave courtesan in Brazil, subject of the movie Xica.
• Elizabeth Stride, one of the "canonical five" victims of Jack the Ripper
• Martha Tabram, a possible victim of Jack the Ripper
• Valérie Tasso, French author
• Libby Thompson, "Squirrel Tooth Alice," madam of a brothel in Sweetwater, Texas
• Clara Ward, Princesse de Caraman-Chimay, daughter of a Michigan lumberman who spent most of her life in Europe
• Lulu White, madam in Storyville, New Orleans
• Mistress Matisse, Seattle-based professional dominatrix and columnist who is prominent in sex workers' rights circles.
• Brooke Magnanti, blogger and scientist who wrote as Belle de Jour and was the inspiration for Billie Piper's character in Secret Diary of a Call Girl.
• Suzy Favor-Hamilton, 3 time Olympian for Track and Field, and the subject of intense publicity when her activities as an escort became public.^[8]
• Air Force Amy,a legal prostitute in Nevada, pornographic actress, and adult model, who starred in of the HBO television documentary series Cathouse: The Series. MSNBC has called her "a living legend in the world of sex."
• Sheila Vogel-Coupe, at 85+ the oldest prostitute in the United Kingdom and, possibly, the world.

In literature

• Bella Cohen, Florry, & Zoe, in Ulysses by James Joyce
• Belle, Ah, Wilderness! by Eugene O'Neill
• Belle Watling, Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
• Candy, in Candy: A Novel of Love and Addiction by Luke Davies
• Candy, in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
• Chandramukhi, in Devdas
• Eccentrica Gallumbits, "The Triple-Breasted Whore of Eroticon Six" in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.
• Elisabeth Rouset, in Boule de Suif by Guy de Maupassant
• Fanny Hill, in Fanny Hill, by John Cleland
• Fantine, in Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo
• Lady Sally, a.k.a. Callahan's Lady

Vasantasena from the Sanskrit play Mṛcchakatika

• Marguerite Gautier, from Alexandre Dumas, fils' work La Dame aux camélias, inspired by real life Marie Duplessis, 19th century courtesan
  • Violetta, main character from the opera La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi, is also inspired by Alexandre Dumas' La Dame aux camélias. "La Traviata" means "the reprobate".
• Jenny Smith, in Kurt Weill's Mahagonny and Threepenny Opera
• Juliette, in the Marquis de Sade's Juliette
• Kamala, in Siddhartha
• Lozana, Portrait of Lozana by Francisco Delicado
• Lulu, in Frank Wedekind's plays and Alban Berg's opera of the same name
• Moll Flanders, The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
• Molly Malone, Irish urban legend
• Mother Goose, in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress
• Nana, Nana, by Émile Zola
• Nancy, Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
• Odette, in Marcel Proust's Un amour de Swann
• Phedre no Delauny of Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel novels
• Pie 'Oh' Pah, from Imajica by Clive Barker
• Romulus, central character in The Romanian: Story of an Obsession by Bruce Benderson
• Mrs. Rosie Palm, brothel owner and president of the Guild of "Seamstresses" in various Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett
• Satine, in Moulin Rouge! by Baz Luhrmann, a story based on the Paris nightclub of the same name.
• Séverine Serizy, in the 1928 novel Belle de Jour and the 1967 film based on it
• Sonya Marmeladova, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• Suzie Wong, from The World of Suzie Wong
• Talanta, La Talanta by Pietro Aretino
• Thúy Kiều, The Tale of Kieu by Nguyễn Du
• Tra La La, Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby
• Tristessa, Tristessa by Jack Kerouac
• Vasantsenaa, a Nagarvadhu, or wealthy courtesan, in Śudraka's Sanskrit play, Mṛcchakatika.
• Yumi Komagata, in Rurouni Kenshin, by Nobuhiro Watsuki
• Zaza, in Zaza by Pierre Berton and Charles Simon

In film, television, and musical theater

• Belle de jour, Belle de jour by Luis Buñuel
• Irma la Douce, central character in film and musical of the same name
• Inara Serra, Firefly by Joss Whedon
• Mrs. Miller, in McCabe and Mrs. Miller, by Robert Altman
• Vivian Ward, central character in Pretty Woman
• Belle the Sleeping Car, train in "Starlight Express" by Andrew Lloyd Webber
• Donna, in Tricks, by DeAara Lewis
• Iris, central character in the 1976 film "Taxi Driver"

Maggie Thorpe, Dorothy Bennett and Blanche Simmons in Tenko are all to some degree prostitutes.

Symbolic or allegorical prostitutes

• The Whore of Babylon
• Oholah and Oholibah
• Moll Hackabout, the prostitute in The Harlot's Progress by William Hogarth

Prostitutes in myth and legend

• Agatha - English prostitute, mother of Mother Shipton
• Basileia (Ancient Greece) - in Pandemos, this goddess was mainly a goddess for prostitutes or courtesans
• Bebhinn (Celts of the British Isles) - the goddess of pleasure
• Belili (Sumer, Babylon, Assyria, Philistines, & Canaanites) - her worship required sacred prostitution
• The daughters in the Saint Nicholas legend (Asia Minor) - they were sold to a brothel keeper by their father
• Naamah (Hebrews) - an angel of prostitution, one of the succubus mates of the demon Samael in Zoharistic Qabalah
• Shamhat (Sumer/Babylon)
• Xochiquetzal (Aztecs) - the goddess of prostitutes, pregnant women, & dancing
• Alexandra Dé Broussehan (Irish Celts) - a woman turned spirit of prostitution, caused a war between the Callahan and Lawlor Clans. Often associated with Korrigan whose worship involved sacred prostitution^[9]

References

1. Filteau, Jerry "Scholars seek to correct Christian tradition on Mary Magdalene," Catholic News Service May 1, 2006.
2. "American Courtesans". American Courtesans. Retrieved 2013-06-07.
3. "Adult Sex Toys, Porn Star Video, New York Escort, Chatline Online". Gina DePalma XXX. Retrieved 2013-06-07.
4. Re-started the civil rights movement in 2012 with the American Courtesans project in order to legalize prostitution in the US
5. Welcome to the World of Scarlot Harlot, her own web site, accessed 28 August 2006; Carol Leigh, Unrepentant Whore: Collected Works Of Scarlot Harlot, Last Gasp, 2004.
6. TheInternetEscortsHandbook.com, the book's website, accessed 30 September 2013; Amanda Brooks, The Internet Escort's Handbook Book 1 (2006), and Book 2 (2009), Golden Girl Press.
7. O'Dowd, John. "Hollywood Bad Girl Barbara Payton".
8. Suzy Favor Hamilton
9. Charles Squire Celtic Myth and Legend

Bibliography

• Quan, Tracy. Opera, in Melissa Ditmore (ed.), Encyclopedia of Prostitution and Sex Work 2006