Although the cultural aspects of prostitution in ancient Greece have been well covered by others, Cohen (Univ. of Pennsylvania) attempts to explore its commercial aspects via bold, fresh scholarship, charting a new direction of study on Athenian society.  Cohen's previous work on the financial aspects of ancient Athens, Athenian Economy and Society (CH, Jun'93, 30-5695), serves him well for this study.  He is adept at handling the traditional reservations on ancient economic sources by a very thorough synthesis of literary and material information.  The business trail can be followed by close examination of legal footprints, and assessing the laws applicable to the sex industry is a major part of Cohen's study.  He brushes by the cultural aspects of the issue by connecting the small business perspective of the sex trade with the issues of gender roles and family structure.  But the strength of the author's approach is his purposeful removal of studying prostitution from gender and queer studies to examine it with the neutral eye of accounting and business records.  Taking a sensitive topic into a new scholarly direction marks Cohen's work as an important addition to the field of antiquity. Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates and above.