A defining characteristic of classical Greek civilization is its tendency to understand and to organize phenomena not (as we do) through definitional focus on a specific subject in isolation, but through contrast, preferably through complementary antithesis. In no context, perhaps, is this trait more striking than in the area of commerce and commercial law. Although Anglo-American law easily contrasts “real property” and “personal property” but still allows for items sharing certain characteristics of both (“fixtures”), the Greek antithetical universe recognized only two contrasting divisions - “visible property” (phanera ousia) or “invisible property” (aphanēs ousia) - and even the differentiation between realty and personalty tended to be expressed through this distinction. Even the sale of sex was practiced through polarity: pragmatic business and conceptual legal distinctions flow from the binary contrast of the pornē (“whore”) and the hetaira (“courtesan”).