Relating to hetaerism or hetaerists; characteristic of the social practice of keeping hetaerae as companions in ancient Greece.
From 'hetaerist' plus the suffix '-ic,' forming an adjective. This scholarly term appears in historical and sociological discussions of ancient Greek social practices.
The hetaeristic system functioned almost like an alternative to marriage for unmarried men and widowers—you couldn't legally marry a hetaera, yet she might bear your children and share your life for decades, revealing how ancient Greece had multiple categories of partnership that history textbooks ignore.
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