Phryne

Phryne before the Areopagus by Jean-Léon Gérôme, c. 1861

Phryne at the Poseidonia in Eleusis by Henryk Siemiradzki, c. 1889. Phryne is shown naked, preparing to step into the sea.

Phryne by José Frappa. Phryne is shown displaying her breasts to the judges.

Phryne ( /ˈfraɪni/; Ancient Greek: Φρύνη) was a famous hetaera (courtesan) of Ancient Greece (4th century BC).

Early life

Phryne's real name was Mnēsarétē (Μνησαρέτη, "commemorating virtue"), but owing to her yellowish, or "golden", complexion she was called Phrýnē, "toad", a name given to other courtesans as well. She was born at Thespiae in Boeotia, but seems to have lived at Athens. She acquired so much wealth by her extraordinary beauty that she offered to fund the rebuilding of the walls of Thebes, which had been destroyed by Alexander the Great (336 BC), on the condition that the words: "Destroyed by Alexander, restored by Phryne the courtesan" be inscribed upon them (Athenaeus^[1][2]). The authorities turned down her offer. Her yellowish complexion was probably due to what is known in modern medicine as a benign hyperbilirubinemia, most probably Gilbert's syndrome.

Fame

A copy of the Aphrodite of Knidos. Phryne is said to be the model of the original.

Phryne was famously beautiful. On the occasion of a festival of Poseidon at Eleusis, she laid aside her garments, let down her hair, and stepped naked into the sea in the sight of the people, thus suggesting to the painter Apelles his great picture of Ἀφροδίτη Ἀναδυομένη Aphrodite Anadyomene (also portrayed at times as this Venus Anadyomene), for which Phryne herself sat as model. Other works of art from the period are alleged to be modeled after Phryne. She was also (according to some) the model for the statue of the Aphrodite of Knidos by Praxiteles. A statue of Phryne, the work of Praxiteles, was placed in a temple at Thespiae by the side of a statue of Aphrodite by the same artist. Diogenes Laertius narrates a failed attempt Phryne made on the virtue of the philosopher Xenocrates.^[3]

Trial

When accused of profaning the Eleusinian Mysteries, she was defended by the orator Hypereides, one of her lovers.^[1] The speech for the prosecution was written by Anaximenes of Lampsacus according to Diodorus Periegetes. ^[4] When it seemed as if the verdict would be unfavourable, Hypereides tore open her robe and displayed her body, most notably her breasts, which so moved them that they acquitted her. According to others, Phryne herself removed her own clothing. The judges' change of heart was not simply because they were overcome by the beauty of her naked body, but because such unusual physical beauty was often seen as a facet of divinity or a mark of divine favor during those times.

Most works of art depicting the trial show Phryne fully nude, not just bare-breasted.

Doubts on authenticity of disrobing scene

An 1884 cartoon in Puck magazine ridicules James G. Blaine as the tattooed-man, with many indelible scandals. The cartoon is based on Phryne before the Areopagus, a painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme.

It is argued by Craig Cooper that Phryne never bared her breasts before the court during her trial.^[5] Our knowledge of Phryne's trial is based on Athenaeus ^[6] and more briefly Pseudo-Plutarch. ^[7] Both versions ultimately derive from the work of the biographer Hermippus of Smyrna (ca 200 B.C.) who adapted the story from Idomeneus of Lampsacus (ca 300 B.C.).

The earliest known description of the trial is found in the Ephesia of Poseidippus of Cassandreia. He simply describes Phryne as clasping the hand of each juror and with tears pleading for her life. It is a scene of supplication without disrobing being mentioned. If the disrobing did happen, Poseidippus would most likely have mentioned it because he was a comic poet. Therefore the only conclusion can be that the disrobing of Phryne must have been a later invention, sometime after 290 B.C., when Poseidippus was active as a poet. Idomeneus was writing around that time.

The evidence suggests that Idomeneus invented the more salacious version of the story, possibly in his desire to parody and ridicule the courtroom displays of Athenian demagogues. Considering his preference for attributing sexual excess to these demagogues the provocative act of disrobing Phryne fits the character Hyperides had acquired in Idomeneus' work. As is not uncommon in the biographical tradition, later biographers failed to notice that earlier biographers did not give an accurate representation of events. The later biographer Hermippus incorporated the account of Idomeneus in his own biography. An extract from Hermippus' biography, not Idomeneus, is preserved in the work of Athenaeus and Pseudo-Plutarch.

In modern and contemporary culture

Due to her beauty, she also inspired the much later painting by artist Jean-Léon Gérôme, Phryné devant l'Areopage (Phryne before the Areopagus, 1861) as well as other works of art throughout history, though none of our sources mentions the court to have been Areopagus (both Athenaeus and Pseudo-Plutarch tell us only about "dicasts", i.e. judges or jurors, so the court could have been a regular dikasterion). Charles Baudelaire in his poems Lesbos and La beauté and Rainer Maria Rilke in his poem Die Flamingos were inspired by her beauty and fame. Phryné was also the subject of an opera by Camille Saint-Saëns: Phryné (1893). Dimitris Varos, modern Greek poet and writer, wrote a book called Phryne. Witold Jabłoński, Polish fantasy writer, also wrote a book called Phryne the Hetaera.

See Also

• List of female adventurers

References

Attribution

•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Phryne". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
• Athenaeus: The Deipnosophists, Book 13, Pages 589-599

Further reading

• Lardinois, André & McClure, Laura (Eds.). (2001). Making Silence Speak: Wiomen’s Voices in Greek Literature and Society. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-00466-2.
• Nalden, F.S. (2006). Ancient Supplication. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-538598-4.
• Cavallini, Eleonora. Phryne in Modern Art, Cinema and Cartoon.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Phryne

• Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae [1]
• Claudius Aelianus, Varia Historia (Ποικιλη Ιστορια) ix. 32.
• Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia xxxiv. 71.
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.