Editing Concubinage (section)

=== Ancient Greece ===
{{main|Pallake}}
{{see also|Hetaira}}

[[File:Antakya Archaeological Museum Menander plays Perikeiromene in 2019 01.jpg|thumb|Mosaic (3rd century AD) depicting Glykera (left), the ''pallake'' of Polemon (center), and a household slave named Sosias (right) in a scene from the play ''[[Perikeiromene]]'' by [[Menander]], first performed around 313 BC]]

In [[Ancient Greece]], the practice of keeping a concubine ({{langx|grc|παλλακίς}} ''pallakís'') was common among the upper classes, and they were for the most part women who were slaves or foreigners, but occasional free born based on family arrangements (typically from poor families).<ref name="BlundellBlundell1995">{{cite book |first1=Sue |last1=Blundell |first2=Susan |last2=Blundell |title=Women in Ancient Greece |url=https://archive.org/details/womeninancientgr0000blun|url-access=registration|year=1995 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-95473-1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/womeninancientgr0000blun/page/124 124]–}}</ref> Children produced by slaves remained slaves and those by non-slave concubines varied over time; sometimes they had the possibility of citizenship.<ref name="Wilson2006">{{cite book |first1=Nigel Guy |last1=Wilson |title=Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-aFtPdh6-2QC&pg=PA158|year=2006 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-415-97334-2 |pages=158–}}</ref> The law prescribed that a man could kill another man caught attempting a relationship with his concubine.<ref name="Davidson">{{cite book | first1=James |last1=Davidson | title=Courtesans and Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions of Classical Athens | url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780312185596 | url-access=registration |page= [https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780312185596/page/98 98] | isbn=0-312-18559-6 | year=1998 |publisher=Macmillan }}</ref>

By the mid fourth century, concubines could inherit property, but, like wives, they were treated as sexual property.<ref name="MacLachlan2012">{{cite book |first1=Bonnie |last1=MacLachlan |title=Women in Ancient Greece: A Sourcebook |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vlsJBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT74 |date=31 May 2012 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-4411-0964-4 |pages=74–}}</ref> While references to the sexual exploitation of maidservants appear in literature, it was considered disgraceful for a man to keep such women under the same roof as his wife.<ref>{{cite book |first1=James |last1=Davidson | title=Courtesans and Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions of Classical Athens | url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780312185596 | url-access=registration | pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780312185596/page/98 98–99] | isbn=0-312-18559-6 | year=1998 |publisher=Macmillan }}</ref> [[Apollodorus of Acharnae]] said that ''[[Hetaira|hetaera]]'' were concubines when they had a permanent relationship with a single man, but nonetheless used the two terms interchangeably.<ref>{{cite book | first1=James |last1=Davidson | title=Courtesans and Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions of Classical Athens | url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780312185596 | url-access=registration | page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780312185596/page/101 101] | isbn=0-312-18559-6 | year=1998 |publisher=Macmillan }}</ref>