Phryne
Phryne was an ancient Greek hetaira. Born Mnesarete, she was from Thespiae in Boeotia, but seems to have lived most of her life in Athens. She apparently grew up poor, but became one of the richest women in Greece.
Phryne is best known for her trial for impiety, in which she was defended by the orator Hypereides. According to legend, she was acquitted after baring her breasts to the jury, though the historical accuracy of this episode is doubtful. She also modeled for the artists Apelles and Praxiteles: the Aphrodite of Knidos was said to have been based on her. Phryne was largely ignored during the Renaissance, but artistic interest in her began to grow from the end of the eighteenth century. Her trial was depicted by Jean-Léon Gérôme in the 1861 painting Phryne Before the Areopagus, which influenced many subsequent depictions of her, and according to Laura McClure made her an "international cultural icon". As well as her depiction in visual arts, since the nineteenth century she has also appeared in literature, theatre, and on film.
Life
Very little is known about Phryne's life for certain. Ancient sources about her largely tell disjointed anecdotes which are difficult to piece together into a full biography, and many of those stories may be invented. Helen Morales writes that separating fact from fiction in accounts of Phryne's life is impossible.Phryne was from Thespiae in Boeotia. She was probably born in the 370s BC, and was the daughter of Epicles. Both Plutarch and Athenaeus say that her real name was Mnesarete. According to Plutarch she was called Phryne because she had a pale complexion like a toad. She may also have been nicknamed Saperdion, Clausigelos, and Sestus.
Phryne seems to have spent most of her life in Athens. She might have come there with her family following the conquest of Thespiae by Thebes in 373 BC, been born in Athens to Thespian refugees following the Theban conquest, or been brought there as a girl to take part in the sex trade, as was Neaira, another fourth-century hetaira. She apparently grew up poor – comic playwrights portray her picking capers – and became one of the wealthiest women in the Greek world. According to Callistratus, after Alexander razed Thebes in 335, Phryne offered to pay to rebuild the walls. She was also said to have dedicated a statue of herself at Delphi, and a statue of Eros to Thespiae. Phryne probably lived beyond 316 BC, when Thebes was rebuilt; according to Plutarch her fame meant that she could continue to charge high fees to her clients in her old age.
Hetairai had a reputation in ancient literature for their wit and learning. The trope of the witty hetaira derives from the Memoirs of Lynceus of Samos, a comic author of the late fourth century BC, which contained several anecdotes about the wit of the hetaira Gnathaina. Several anecdotes from the Deipnosophistae relate Phryne's witticisms, though the meaning of many of them is unclear.
Though ancient authors writing about Phryne were deeply concerned with her beauty, they rarely describe specifics of her appearance. The only physical description of her in ancient sources is from Plutarch, who mentions her pale complexion. Other sources contrast the naturalness of her beauty with the artificiality of that of other courtesans. In one anecdote, during a dinner party game, Phryne had all the women present wipe their faces. When their makeup was removed Phryne was revealed to be the only one who is naturally beautiful rather than relying on cosmetics. Another story connected to Phryne's beauty concerns her inability to seduce the philosopher Xenocrates, emphasising his self-restraint.
Trial
The most famous event in Phryne's life was the prosecution brought against her by Euthias. Little is known of Euthias, except that he was supposedly a former lover of Phryne, and was accused of being a sycophant – a person who habitually brought prosecutions for personal gain. The prosecution speech delivered by Euthias – which, according to Athenaeus, was composed by Anaximenes of Lampsacus on his behalf – did not survive. Phryne was defended by Hypereides, a well-known and wealthy orator who had a reputation for licentiousness due to his association with hetairai. Six of the speeches attributed to him relate to hetairai, and in a surviving fragment of his defense of Phryne, he admits to being her lover. Hypereides's defence speech survives only in fragments, though it was greatly admired in antiquity. The date of the trial is uncertain. If Anaximenes did compose the speech for the prosecution, it must have been before he moved to Macedon, and therefore was perhaps between 350 BC and 340 BC. Alternatively, Craig Cooper argues that the trial was likely after the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC, while Eleanora Cavallini suggests that it was after 335 BC.Phryne was charged with, a kind of blasphemy. An anonymous treatise on rhetoric, which summarises the case against Phryne, lists three specific accusations against her – that she held a "shameless " or ritual procession, that she introduced a new god, and that she organised unlawful or debauched meetings. The charge of introducing a new god had previously been used in the trial of Socrates; that of organising is also known from the trial of Ninos. According to Harpocration, the new god introduced by Phryne was called Isodaites; though Harpocration describes him as being "foreign", the name is Greek and other sources consider it an epithet of Dionysus, Helios, or Pluto.
According to Athenaeus, Euthias's case against Phryne was motivated by a personal quarrel rather than Phryne's alleged impiety. Craig Cooper suggests that the trial of Phryne was politically motivated. He observes that Aristogeiton, to whom Athenaeus attributes a speech against Phryne, was a political enemy of Hypereides and prosecuted him for illegally introducing a decree after the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC. Phryne's own provocative behaviour – for instance her offer to restore the walls of Thebes, on the condition that an inscription attributing the rebuilding to "Phryne the hetaira" be displayed – may also have partially motivated the prosecution. Konstantinos Kapparis suggests that the trial might have been seen as a response to "the uppity alien woman who did not know her place".
Phryne was said to have been acquitted after the jury saw her bare breasts – Quintilian says that she was saved "not by Hypereides' pleading, but by the sight of her body". Three different versions of this story survive. In Quintilian's account, along with those of Sextus Empiricus and Philodemus, Phryne makes the decision to expose her own breasts; while in Athenaeus's version Hypereides exposes Phryne as the climax of his speech, and in Plutarch's version Hypereides exposes her because he saw that his speech had failed to persuade the jury. Christine Mitchell Havelock notes that there is separate evidence for women being brought into the courtroom to arouse the sympathy of the jury, and that in ancient Greece baring the breasts was a gesture intended to arouse compassion, so Phryne's supposed behaviour in the court is not without parallel in Greek practice. Ioannis Ziogas observes that it particularly recalls Clytemnestra's plea to Orestes in Aeschylus's play The Libation Bearers, and the story of Helen appealing to Menelaus for mercy after the fall of Troy.
File:Jean-Léon Gérôme, Phryne revealed before the Areopagus - 01.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1.5|alt=Painting showing a man dressed in a blue robe taking away the robe of a woman, leaving her standing nude. A jury of men watch.|Phryne Before the Areopagus by Jean-Léon Gérôme,
However, this episode probably never happened. It was not mentioned in Posidippus's version of the trial in his comedy Ephesian Woman, quoted by Athenaeus. Ephesian Woman was produced, and the story of Phryne baring her breasts therefore probably postdates this. In Posidippus's version, Phryne personally pleaded with each of the jurors at her trial for them to save her life, and it was this which secured her acquittal. The story of Phryne baring her breasts may have been invented by the Hellenistic biographer Idomeneus of Lampsacus, who wrote a treatise on Athenian demagogues. Though all of the ancient accounts assume that Phryne was on trial for her life, was not necessarily punished by death; it was an, in which the jury would decide on the punishment if the accused was convicted.
Phryne's trial is, along with those of Ninos and Theoris of Lemnos, one of three known from the fourth century in which a metic woman was accused of a religious crime. Due to her wealth and connections, hers was the only one in which the accused was acquitted. A Hellenistic biographer, Hermippus of Smyrna, reports that after Phryne's acquittal, Euthias was so furious that he never spoke publicly again. Kapparis suggests that in fact he was disenfranchised, possibly because he failed to gain one fifth of the jurors' votes and was unable to pay the subsequent fine. The trial of Phryne also supposedly led to two new laws being passed governing courtroom behaviour: one forbade the accused being present while the jury considered their verdict; the other forbade lament in the courtroom.
Model
In ancient literature, hetairai were often said to have modelled for famous artists: for instance Aristides of Thebes was said to have painted Leontion. Phryne was particularly associated with the sculptor Praxiteles, and reputedly the model for both him and the painter Apelles.Phryne is most famously associated with Praxiteles' Aphrodite of Knidos, the first three-dimensional and monumentally sized female nude in ancient Greek art. However, the historicity of this association is doubtful. The only source for the connection is Athenaeus. The sixth-century rhetorician Choricius of Gaza also says that Praxiteles used her as a model for a statue of Aphrodite, though according to him it was one commissioned by the Spartans. It is not mentioned by other ancient authors who discuss both Phryne and the Aphrodite of Knidos, such as the first-century AD Roman author Pliny the Elder; nor is the association mentioned in Pseudo-Lucian's extensive description of the Aphrodite of Knidos, or the eleven surviving ancient epigrams about the sculpture. In the second century, the theologian and philosopher Clement of Alexandria named the model not as Phryne but Cratina.
Praxiteles also produced a golden or gilt statue of Phryne which was displayed – according to Pausanias dedicated by Phryne; according to Athenaeus by the Thespians – in the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi. This may have been the first female portrait ever dedicated at Delphi; it is the only known statue of a woman alone to be dedicated before the Roman period. One of Praxiteles' sculptures of Eros was said to have been inspired by his desire for Phryne; this was displayed in Thespiae alongside two other sculptures by Praxiteles, one of Aphrodite and one of Phryne herself. According to Pliny, Phryne was also the model for Praxiteles' sculpture of a smiling courtesan, which may have originally been displayed in Athens.
Like Praxiteles, Apelles used Phryne as a model for Aphrodite. According to Athenaeus, he was inspired by the sight of Phryne walking naked into the sea at Eleusis to use her as a model for his painting of Aphrodite Anadyomene. This was displayed at the sanctuary of Asclepius on the Greek island of Kos before being taken to Rome by the emperor Augustus; by the first century AD it appears to have been one of Apelles' best-known works.