* 1868 – Carolina Otero, a. k. a. La Belle Otero, Spanish actress, singer and courtesan ( d. 1965 )

* La Belle Otero ( 1868 – 1965 ), Spanish-born dancer, actress and courtesan

* The Lady of the Camellias was a novel about a courtesan by French author Alexandre Dumas, fils that was turned into the opera La Traviata by Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi.

The Parisian courtesan Marie Duplessis, who died young in 1847 inspired Dumas ' La Dame aux camélias and Verdi's La Traviata.

There, he met Marie Duplessis, a young courtesan who would be the inspiration for his romantic novel The Lady of the Camellias ( La Dame aux camélias ), wherein Duplessis was named Marguerite Gauthier.

She is clearly moved by the opera ( which is La traviata, whose plot deals with a rich man tragically falling in love with a courtesan ).

Herz was married to ( Pauline ) Thérèse Lachmann, a French courtesan known as La Paiva.

Other operas in her repertoire included La bohème, La traviata, Faust, Manon, Andrea Chénier, Thaïs, Les contes d ' Hoffmann ( as the courtesan Giulietta ), Rigoletto, Mefistofele ( as both Margarita and Elena ), Adriana Lecouvreur, Tosca, Hérodiade ( as Salomé ), Carmen ( the title role ), Siberia, and Zazà.

* Odette Swann from Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time is a courtesan of the French Belle Epoque, she gains a notorious reputation from cavorting with Aristocrats, artists, Bourgeois, and both sexes.

From 1584, the name of Louise Labé became associated with a courtesan called " la Belle Cordière " ( first described by Philibert de Vienne in 1547 ; the association with Labé was solidified by Antoine Du Verdier in 1585 ).

he usually draws some kind of comparison with the jazz tradition and the poem he is reading -- for instance, he draws the parallel between a poem he reads about an Oriental courtesan waiting for the man she loves, and who never comes, and the old blues chants of Ma Rainy and other Negro singers -- but usually the comparison is specious.

* Mary Nesbitt, eighteenth-century courtesan who began her career as Reynolds ' model.

Around 525 he married in Constantinople his mistress Theodora, who was by profession a courtesan about 20 years his junior.

A young woman who is unwed due to social status is usually referred to as meretrix or “ courtesan .” A lena, or adoptive mother, may be a woman who owns these girls.

* Justinian, later Byzantine emperor, marries in Constantinople his mistress Theodora, who is by profession a courtesan ( approximate date ).

A courtesan was originally a female courtier, which means a person who attends the court of a monarch or other powerful person.

Today, the term courtesan has become a euphemism to designate an escort or a prostitute, especially one who attracts wealthy clients.

In one category was a type of courtesan known ( in Italy ) as the cortigiana onesta, or the honest courtesan, who was cast as an intellectual.

However, this was a delicate process, and if a courtesan of " lower status " attempted to replace a courtesan who wielded a substantial amount of power within the court, it would often result in the lower courtesan being exiled from the royal court, or married off to a lesser noble in an arranged marriage, or even murdered.

When referring to those who made their service as a courtesan as their main source of income, success was based solely on financial management and longevity.

* Veronica Franco ( 1546 – 1591 ): a Venetian courtesan who was once lover to King Henry III of France

* Satine played by Nicole Kidman, an actress / courtesan who falls in love with a penniless poet / writer played by Ewan McGregor, in the movie Moulin Rouge !.

* In the book A Great and Terrible Beauty, Pippa accuses Felicity of having a mother who is a courtesan and a consort, and who ran away to France not only to run a salon but to be with her lover, a Frenchman.

* The Broadway plays, musicals, and movies based upon the book Gigi are about a young Parisian girl who is being trained to be a courtesan by her great-aunt, a retired career courtesan herself.

* Bianca, who appears in Anne Rice's The Vampire Armand, is a courtesan.

* Kanhopatra — an Indian courtesan, who is venerated as a saint

The highly erotic way Offenbach's operettas were originally played, with stars like Hortense Schneider — or the legendary courtesan Cora Pearl, who appeared in a revival of Offenbach's Orphée aux Enfers in 1867 completely covered in diamonds and little else — created a scandalized reaction from certain parts of the general public.

The plot focuses on a young Parisian girl being groomed for a career as a courtesan and her relationship with the wealthy cultured man named Gaston who falls in love with her and eventually marries her.

Margaretha Geertruida " Margreet " Zelle ( 7 August 1876 – 15 October 1917 ), better known by the stage name Mata Hari, was a Dutch exotic dancer, courtesan, and accused spy who was executed by firing squad in France under charges of espionage for Germany during World War I.

Athenaeus, another 200 years later, calls the courtesan Doricha and maintains that Herodotus had her confused with Rhodopis, another woman altogether.

Often, in instances of this sort, if the courtesan had satisfactorily served a benefactor, that benefactor would, when ending the affair, pass them on to another benefactor of wealth as a favor to the courtesan, or set them up in an arranged marriage to a semi-wealthy benefactor.

In the event that the courtesan had angered or dissatisfied a benefactor, they would often find themselves cast out of wealthy circles, returning more often than not to street prostitution.

In one tale, " The Seven Viziers " ( also known as " Craft and Malice of Women or The Tale of the King, His Son, His Concubine and the Seven Wazirs "), a courtesan accuses a king's son of having assaulted her, when in reality she had failed to seduce him ( inspired by the Qur ' anic / Biblical story of Yusuf / Joseph ).

He had a special penchant for royal ladies, and noted that his favourite amours ( apart from his wife ) were Lakshmibai, Ci Xi and Lola Montez: " a Queen, an Empress, and the foremost courtesan of her time: I dare say I'm just a snob.

In 1784 or 1785, Fox met and fell in love with Elizabeth Armistead, a former courtesan and mistress of the Prince of Wales who had little interest in politics or Parliament.

Nemesis ( like the Cynthia of Propertius ) was probably a courtesan of the higher class ; and she had other admirers besides Tibullus.

Some said that Marie Antoinette refused the necklace because she did not want to wear any jewel which had been designed for another woman, especially if that woman was a courtesan disliked by the Queen.

When the girl was old enough and had completed her training, she would become a courtesan herself and work her way up the ranks.

However, one has to remember that Gojong was not chosen to become King because of his acumen ( which he lacked because he was never formally educated ) or because of his bloodline ( which was mixed with courtesan and common blood ), but because the Pungyang Jo clan had falsely assumed they could control the boy through his father.

Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland, Countess of Castlemaine, also known as Lady Castlemaine ( – 9 October 1709 ) was an English courtesan and perhaps the most notorious of the many mistresses of King Charles II of England, by whom she had five children, all of which were acknowledged and subsequently ennobled.

According to Athenaeus, she acquired so much wealth by her extraordinary beauty that she offered to fund the rebuilding of the walls of Thebes, which had been destroyed by Alexander the Great ( 336 BC ), on the condition that the words, " Destroyed by Alexander, restored by Phryne the courtesan ," be inscribed upon them.

Gingold played Mayor Shinn's ( Paul Ford ) snooty wife Eulalie Mackechnie Shinn in The Music Man ( 1962 ) ( in which her son Roy Dean ( Leslie Joseph ) also had a small role ), starring Robert Preston and Shirley Jones, and was part of the original 1973 Broadway cast of A Little Night Music in the role of the elderly Madame Armfeldt, a former courtesan, this time Swedish, which she reprised in London ( 1975 ) and in the unsuccessful film version of the musical ( 1977 ).

In later years, rumour had it that she became courtesan to Napoleon Bonaparte, but had rejected his offer of marriage.

In 1874, scandal erupted when it was discovered that Konstantin's eldest son, Grand Duke Nikolay Konstantinovich, who had lived a dissipated life and had revolutionary ideas, had stolen three valuable diamonds from an icon in the bedroom of Alexandra Iosifovna in complicity with his mistress, an American courtesan.

In 1874, fresh scandal erupted when it was discovered that Alexandra and Konstantin's eldest son, Grand Duke Nikolay Konstantinovich, who had lived a dissipated life and had revolutionary ideas, had stolen three valuable diamonds from an icon in Alexandra's private bedroom, aided by his mistress, an American courtesan.

She was a ravishingly beautiful courtesan who had an intimate relationship with Kunju Thampi, the rival of Marthanda Varma of Travancore.

Here, he opened a home for neglected and abused boys who had talent, fell in love with the Venetian courtesan Bianca Solderini, found the mortal Armand.