Bilistiche

Bilistiche (Greek: Βιλιστίχη)^[1] or Belistiche was a Hellenistic courtesan of uncertain origin. According to Pausanias, a Macedonian, according to Athenaeus, an Argive^[2],according to Plutarch, a foreign slave bought from the marketplace^[3]. She won the tethrippon and synoris horse races in Olympic Games in 264 BC^[4] . She became a mistress of Ptolemy II Philadelphus and was deified by him as Aphrodite Bilistiche.

References

^ Belistiche in Pausanias, Belestiche in Plutarch, Blistichis in Clement, Protrepticus 4.42, Philistaikhus in Chronikon of Eusebius, Bilistiche in pCairZen 2.59289
^ Deipnosophists, 13.596e
^ Plutarch, Moralia 753e
^ Pausanias. Description of Greece, 5.8.11. "Later they added a pair of foals and a ridden foal: they say Belistiche, a woman from the coast of Macedonia, won with the pair, and Tlepolemos the Lykian was proclaimed for the ridden foal, Tlepolemos at the hundred and thirty-first Olympics and Belistiche two games before."

Bilistiche article by Chris Bennett
Bilistiche and the Quasi-Institutional Status of Ptolemaic Royal Mistress by Elizabeth Kosmetatou
Women in Hellenistic Egypt: from Alexander to Cleopatra Page 53 By Sarah B. Pomeroy ISBN-10: 0814322301 (1990)
Greek Sport and Social Status By Mark Golden Page 18 ISBN 0292718691 (2009)

[1] Belistiche in Pausanias, Belestiche in Plutarch, Blistichis in Clement, Protrepticus 4.42, Philistaikhus in Chronikon of Eusebius, Bilistiche in pCairZen 2.59289

[2] Deipnosophists, 13.596e

[3] Plutarch, Moralia 753e

[4] Pausanias. Description of Greece, 5.8.11. "Later they added a pair of foals and a ridden foal: they say Belistiche, a woman from the coast of Macedonia, won with the pair, and Tlepolemos the Lykian was proclaimed for the ridden foal, Tlepolemos at the hundred and thirty-first Olympics and Belistiche two games before."

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