Here is Professor Wilson’s reply to my inquiry (I’ll just share it without comment):
Thank you for your interesting query about Epicurus and his girlfriends. I am not myself a classical scholar (I work only the later reception of Epicurus and Lucretius) but I found some useful articles (which have references to other useful articles...)
Catherine J. Castner, in "Epicurean Hetairai As Dedicants to Healing Divinities?." Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 23.1 (1982): 51-57, says: In addition, the literary sources list as living with Epicurus and members of his School the following women: Demetria (Phld., P.Hercul. 1005.v.16-17), Erotion (Timokrates in Diog.Laert. 10.7), and Leontion 00.4, and also, because of her intellectual prowess, in other writers).
(I pulled this as a PDF off the web).
Then there is Pamela Gordon in "Remembering the garden: The trouble with women in the school of Epicurus." Philodemus and the New Testament world. Brill, 2004. 221-243. She thinks the sexual freedom of the school might have been exaggerated by later Christian authors who wanted to portray it as utterly depraved.
In any case, the place of the hetairai ( educated, attractive, unmarried or unmarriageable women, usually foreigners, who were preferred company for educated men but needed financial support) is one of the most interesting topics in Greek social history.
With best wishes,
Catherine Wilson
