Meretrix

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In ancient Rome, registered prostitutes were called meretrices while the unregistered ones fell under the broad category prostibulae.

A meretrix, in Medieval Europe, was understood as any woman held in common, who “turned no one away.” It was generally understood that money would be involved in this transaction, but it didn’t have to be. A prostitute was reckoned differently in Medieval Europe than it is today, and accepting money for sex acts was not the single most common indicator for the legal status of being a meretrix, being a woman who engaged in sex with more than one man was. It has been argued that Meretrix in the medieval mindset is closer to our modern understanding of a sexual orientation.

While we commonly conceptualize the Meretrix as a member of a marginalized class, it is important to remember that in some situations a meretrix was a vital member of the community. Whorehouses were often hotels, the best restaurants in town, and places for good music and conversation, in which the women were taught how to entertain. In the banquets of nobility, these women would come in as entertainers in many instances. In Paris the prostitutes had a guild.

There were recognized types of meretrix in medieval Europe. A city or church owned, possibly also managed, brothels providing women in several cities, while a private assignation could be arranged by a procurer with a widow or other woman, sometimes for money, sometimes not. Street walkers drifted in and out of the trade in unorganized, laconic fashion, sometimes walking on a part-time, occasional basis to supplement their meager incomes from more acceptable sources.