twice described by Apollodorus as having sex for money before she came of age, though possibly due to her age he implies that she was not yet a hetaera. During this time, the orator Lysias was a prominent guest in Nikarete's brothel and a regular customer of Metaneira, another of Nikarete's girls. In order to reward her for her services, he arranged for her to be initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries, and funded the journey. Neaira was at this time about twelve or thirteen, and Nikarete accompanied them. Neaira visited Athens again for the Great Panathenaea of 378, this time accompanying Simus of Thessaly, a young aristocrat. Leaving Nikarete and Corinth Around 376 BC, Timanoridas of Corinth and Eukrates of Lefkada paid thirty minae to purchase Neaira from Nikarete, at the high end of prices for hetaerae. When the men married, they agreed to let Neaira buy her freedom for twenty minae, which, with the aid of gifts and loans from her former customers, she did. As part of this deal, Neaira agreed to no longer work as a prostitute in Corinth, and so left the city for Athens with Phrynion, who had helped her buy her freedom. Neaira was certainly living with Phrynion in Athens by 373 BC, when he took her to a feast given by the general Chabrias to celebrate his victory in the Pythian Games. During this celebration, Apollodorus says, Neaira was sexually assaulted by the guests and slaves of Chabrias while she was drunk and asleep. Due to this and other mistreatment by Phrynion, in 372 BC Neaira left his household and went to Megara, taking with her her clothing and jewellery, two maids, and other possessions belonging to Phrynion. Life with Stephanus In Megara, Neaira continued to work as a hetaera, and in 371 met Stephanus. Stephanus offered to act as her patron if she returned with him to Athens. Apollodorus claims that with her she brought two sons and a daughter to Athens, but modern commentators have largely concluded that the sons in question were in fact those of Stephanus, by an Athenian woman. Indeed, Christopher Carey points out that one of the sons, at least, was probably a legitimate son of Stephanus, being named after his father, and John Buckler notes that Apollodorus contradicts himself on whether Neaira's alleged sons were hers by another man, or hers by Stephanus. Phrynion learnt that