Mercanti e cortigiane : la fortuna di un topos da Saffo a Eliodoro

The new Sappho papyrus containing the ‘brothers poem’ must be connected to the other poems that recount the story of Charaxos and Rhodopis, known from later sources. Doubt arises as to whether it is inspired by Sappho’s biography or draws on conventional topoi. A long and continuous tradition from the Archaic to the Imperial age reports stories of rich merchants who waste their fortunes on greedy courtesans. The topos will be analyzed in terms of the economic transactions within Mediterranean societies, including Greece.