Concubine

The word might not have been courtesan after all. Is is possible I was looking for 'concubine'?

Nope, I read the all-knowing Wiki (pedia) only to discover that concubines are like wives, only poorer. [link] Interesting that concubines are actually held in very high esteem, on the same social and religious level with wives. Wives, you see, had dowries whereas concubines did not. So marriage (at least in its Biblical iteration) was not about love, but something else.

This is interesting too:

Since it was regarded as the highest blessing to have many children, while the greatest curse was childlessness, legitimate wives often gave their maids to their husbands to atone, at least in part, for their own barrenness... The children of the concubine had equal rights with those of the legitimate wife...

Barrenness. Now there's a word we don't use much any more.

The painting above is called "Interior Scene with Sultan and Concubine" by an American named Thomas Buchanan Read. [link] How in the heck did a guy from Chester County, Pennsylvania end up painting such a piece? [link] And why does it move me so?

Mysteries.