Why did the trade disappear for a while?
The gradual
development of the technology and the increasingly central role of religion in
society meant the end of escort trade for a while. (We will later see how these
processes have a drastic impact on the profession as well as on prostitution.)
The flourishing
prostitution and the glory of the ancient escorts began to fade away with the
end of the Greek culture. This began approx. in 800 BC when the most important
civilizations (Greek, Egyptian) started to fall. A new social structure began
to develop whose main reasons are the invasion of sea people with advanced
weapons, the Persian conquests, and then, after the death of Alexander the
Great, the collapse of the Hellenistic society, leaving way for the new great
religious movement, Christianity. Continuous wars eradicated Greek literacy, destroyed
most of the temples, and along with Greek culture, prostitution, brothels and
escorts were pushed to the edge of society. It is true that however hard the
new system tried to wipe out prostitution, it could not, though it made significant
harm to escort trade. It is to be understood that escorts disappeared from the sex
market completely for a while.
Over time,
Christianity was gaining strength and it took over the whole world. It does not
need to be stressed that at this time it was a major sin to be an escort or to
offer any kind of sexual service or accept it. At this time escorts disappeared
completely from the streets. Brothels and street prostitutes were able to
survive until the inquisition, but they could operate only in the edge of
cities. According to the records of the era, prostitution was one of the most immoral
things to do. There was demand for it as wanderers, merchants, perverted
priests, and young, virgin men often went to brothels, but it is fact that the
social perception of both prostitutes and sex-buying clients became worse. That
is why it was unthinkable that escort girls could exist (like in the Greek times)
in this age.
In the course of
time prostitutes were having harder and harder times: they had to wear
distinctive dresses, because, according to the church, prostitutes had to be
separated from fair and honourable women. During this hard time prostitution
could not give women the opportunity to break out of poverty through sex work,
and the nobles did not need intellectual escort girls.
In accordance
with the spirit of the age it was believed that a prostitute would not only
damage the client's wealth and body but also in his soul and faith. Kings,
princes, and nobles no longer visited escort girls, but simply kept concubines
living in palaces or castles. Being a concubine did not give much chance of
having a happy life for women, their lives were practically restricted to
satisfy superior men's sexual desires. Of course, in return, they were kept
women and allowed to live within the walls of a noble estate.
Another reason
to explain the disappearance of escort trade is that prostitution and the first
public brothels got into the hands of the underworld, and then pimps turned up
who completely took the sex industry under their control. Escorts simply had no
opportunity to work at all. This can understood from both business and public
morality approach (it was unthinkable that a client would turn up with an
escort outside the tolerance zones).
And there was
also the Inquisition that worked on religious and moral clarity. Those who were
prostitutes were heretics as well, and those who were heretics had to be
punished for their sins. Heretics were subjected to torture, forced confession,
and then judgment was made, which in most cases was death penalty. From the
spread of sexually transmitted diseases as well as health records of the age we
can conclude that prostitution did not disappear entirely from the streets,
even at the time of the Inquisition.