Dame Emma Hamilton was a courtesan, dancer and model in Georgian London. She married the Ambassador to Naples (uncle of a client), and became immensely influential at the Neapolitan court-and all that was before her celebrated affair with Admiral Nelson, the great hero of the age

Grace Elliot was a Scottish courtesan in Paris during the Reign of Terror. She spied for the British, hid fleeing aristocrats, and was imprisoned but escaped the guillotine. Her memoir, Journal of My Life During the French Revolution, is the leading English account of the Terror.

Sirens have been interpreted both as "meretrices" (sex workers) (Isidore 11.30) and as goddesses "charming in poetry and prose" (Pausanias 1.21) Elements of both can, perhaps, be seen in this painting - and in the Goethe poem that inspired it

Fisherman and the Syren, F. Leighton

"Without realizing it, you give me praise
for qualities based upon goodness and virtue.
And though you call me 'prostitute'...
As much goodness prostitutes may have
as much grace and nobility of soul
the sound of your word assigns to me."

Veronica Franco, courtesan & poet (1575)

While the popular image of Mary Magdalene as a prostitute lacks biblical foundation, it has greatly affected her portrayal in art. Medieval paintings often depicted her reading, as courtesans were among the few literate women in that era.

Maria Magdalena, Piero di Cosimo (1510)