Phryne the ἑταῖρα.
She was born in Thespiae, Boeotia, but lived at Athens as a courtesan, ἑταῖρα, Hetaera.
Due to her beauty and cleverness she became very rich and famous.
She offered to rebuild the walls of Thebes, on condition that the words “destroyed by Alexander, restored by “ Phryne the courtesan” were inscribed upon them.
At a festival of Poseidon and also at the festival at Eleusis she walked into the sea naked with her hair loose, suggesting to the painter Apelles his great picture of “Aphrodite Anadyomene” (“Aphrodite Rising From the Sea”), for which Phryne sat as model.
She was also (according to Athenaeus) the model for the statue of the Cnidian Aphrodite by Praxiteles, whose mistress she was.
Copies of the statue survive in the Vatican and elsewhere.
When accused of blasphemy (a capital charge), she was defended by the orator Hyperides.
When it seemed as if the verdict would be unfavourable, he tore her dress and displayed her bosom, which so moved the jury that they acquitted her.
In another version Phryne tear her own dress and plead with each individual juror.
1889
by Henryk Siemiradzki
Phryne stripping naked at Eleusis
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