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Phryne (Ancient Greek:Φρύνη,[a] before 370 – after 316 BC) was an ancient Greekhetaira (courtesan). Born Mnesarete, she was fromThespiae inBoeotia, 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 forimpiety, in which she was defended by the oratorHypereides. According to legend, she wasacquitted after baring her breasts to the jury, though the historical accuracy of this episode is doubtful. She also modeled for the artistsApelles andPraxiteles: theAphrodite of Knidos was said to have been based on her. Phryne was largely ignored during theRenaissance, but artistic interest in her began to grow from the end of the eighteenth century. Her trial was depicted byJean-Léon Gérôme in the 1861 paintingPhryne Before the Areopagus, which influenced many subsequent depictions of her, and according to Laura McClure made her an "international cultural icon".[1] As well as her depiction in visual arts, since the nineteenth century she has also appeared in literature, theatre, and on film.
As with other ancient Greek women, scholarship about Phryne is hindered by the fragmentary nature of the surviving sources. Many of the surviving sources were written centuries after Phryne's own time, and they were written entirely by men.[2] The most substantial contemporary source about Phryne's life wasHypereides' defence speech from her trial. In the ancient world this was a major influence on Phryne's biographical tradition, but it is now lost, except for a few fragments.[3] The surviving ancient sources about Phryne are mostly from theRoman Empire, based on earlier Greek literature.[4] The most important of these isAthenaeus, who was from Roman Egypt in the second century AD. HisDeipnosophistae ("The Scholars at Dinner") is the source of the vast majority of extant ancient writings about Phryne.[5] Other authors of the first, second and third centuries AD, includingPlutarch,Pausanias, andDiogenes Laertius, also tell anecdotes about Phryne.[6]
Athenaeus' main source was fourth-century comic drama.[5] By the mid-fourth century BC, Athenian comic playwrights had moved away from the mythological subjects popular in earlier periods, and more often satirised real people.[7] Phryne featured in several of these plays. InTimocles'Orestautokleides andAnaxilas'Neottis she is named in lists ofhetairai, Timocles'Neaira makes a joke about her early life, andPosidippus'The Ephesian Girl describes her trial. Two other plays,Antiphanes'The Birth of Aphrodite andAlexis'The Woman from Knidos, might have alluded to her association with the artistsApelles andPraxiteles.[8]
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,[9] and many of those stories may be invented.[10] Helen Morales writes that separating fact from fiction in accounts of Phryne's life is impossible.[10]
Phryne was fromThespiae inBoeotia.[11] She was probably born in the 370s BC,[b] and was the daughter of Epicles.[15] BothPlutarch andAthenaeus say that her real name was Mnesarete.[16][17] According to Plutarch she was called Phryne because she had a pale complexion like a toad (phryne in Greek).[16] She may also have been nicknamed Saperdion, Clausigelos, and Sestus.[c][15]
Phryne seems to have spent most of her life in Athens.[19] She might have come there with her family following the conquest of Thespiae byThebes 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 wasNeaira, another fourth-century hetaira.[20][19] She apparently grew up poor – comic playwrights portray her pickingcapers[d] – and became one of the wealthiest women in the Greek world.[15] According toCallistratus, after Alexander razed Thebes in 335, Phryne offered to pay to rebuild the walls.[22] She was also said to have dedicated a statue of herself atDelphi, and a statue ofEros to Thespiae.[23] Phryne probably lived beyond 316 BC, when Thebes was rebuilt;[15] according to Plutarch her fame meant that she could continue to charge high fees to her clients in her old age.[24]
Hetairai had a reputation in ancient literature for their wit and learning.[25] The trope of the witty hetaira derives from theMemoirs ofLynceus of Samos, a comic author of the late fourth century BC, which contained several anecdotes about the wit of the hetairaGnathaina.[26] Several anecdotes from theDeipnosophistae relate Phryne's witticisms,[25] though the meaning of many of them is unclear.[27]
The most famous event in Phryne's life was the prosecution brought against her by Euthias.[15] Little is known of Euthias, except that he was supposedly a former lover of Phryne, and was accused of being asycophant – a person who habitually brought prosecutions for personal gain.[29][30] The prosecution speech delivered by Euthias – which, according to Athenaeus, was composed byAnaximenes of Lampsacus on his behalf – did not survive.[31] Phryne was defended byHypereides, 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.[32][31] Hypereides's defence speech survives only in fragments, though it was greatly admired in antiquity.[33] The date of the trial is uncertain.[34] 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.[35] Alternatively, Craig Cooper argues that the trial was likely after theBattle of Chaeronea in 338 BC, while Eleanora Cavallini suggests that it was after 335 BC.[36]
Phryne was charged withasebeia, 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 "shamelesskomos" or ritual procession, that she introduced a new god, and that she organised unlawful thiasoi or debauched meetings.[37] The charge of introducing a new god had previously been used in thetrial of Socrates; that of organising thiasoi is also known from the trial ofNinos.[38] According toHarpocration, the new god introduced by Phryne was called Isodaites; though Harpocration describes him as being "foreign", the name is Greek[39] and other sources consider it an epithet ofDionysus,Helios, orPluto.[40]
According to an ancient tradition, Euthias's case against Phryne was motivated by a personal quarrel rather than Phryne's alleged impiety.[41] Craig Cooper suggests that the trial of Phryne was politically motivated. He observes thatAristogeiton, to whom Athenaeus attributes a speech against Phryne, was a political enemy of Hypereides and prosecuted him for illegally introducing a decree after theBattle of Chaeronea in 338 BC.[42] 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".[43]
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".[44] Three different versions of this story survive. In Quintilian's account, along with those ofSextus Empiricus andPhilodemus,[e] 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.[45] 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.[46] Ioannis Ziogas observes that it particularly recallsClytemnestra's plea toOrestes inAeschylus's playThe Libation Bearers, and the story ofHelen appealing toMenelaus for mercy after the fall of Troy.[47]
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However, this episode probably never happened. It was not mentioned in Posidippus's version of the trial in his comedyEphesian Woman, quoted by Athenaeus.Ephesian Woman was producedc. 290 BC, and the story of Phryne baring her breasts therefore probably postdates this.[48] 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.[49] The story of Phryne baring her breasts may have been invented by the Hellenistic biographerIdomeneus of Lampsacus,[f][50] who wrote a treatise on Athenian demagogues.[51] Though all of the ancient accounts assume that Phryne was on trial for her life,asebeia was not necessarily punished by death; it was anagōn timētos, in which the jury would decide on the punishment if the accused was convicted.[52][g]
Phryne's trial is, along with those of Ninos andTheoris of Lemnos, one of three known from the fourth century in which ametic woman was accused of a religious crime. Due to her wealth and connections, hers was the only one in which the accused was acquitted.[53] A Hellenistic biographer,Hermippus of Smyrna, reports that after Phryne's acquittal, Euthias was so furious that he never spoke publicly again.[54] Kapparis suggests that in fact he wasdisenfranchised, possibly because he failed to gain one fifth of the jurors' votes and was unable to pay the subsequent fine.[55] 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.[56]
In ancient literature, hetairai were often said to have modelled for famous artists: for instanceAristides of Thebes was said to have paintedLeontion.[57] Phryne was particularly associated with the sculptorPraxiteles,[58] and reputedly the model for both him and the painterApelles.[59]
Phryne is most famously associated with Praxiteles'Aphrodite of Knidos,[60] the first three-dimensional and monumentally sized female nude in ancient Greek art.[61] However, the historicity of this association is doubtful.[62] The only source for the connection is Athenaeus. The sixth-century rhetoricianChoricius 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.[63] It is not mentioned by other ancient authors who discuss both Phryne and the Aphrodite of Knidos, such as the first-century AD Roman authorPliny the Elder;[64] nor is the association mentioned inPseudo-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 philosopherClement of Alexandria named the model not as Phryne but Cratina.[64]
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[65] – in the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi.[66] 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.[67] One of Praxiteles' sculptures of Eros was said to have been inspired by his desire for Phryne;[68] this was displayed in Thespiae alongside two other sculptures by Praxiteles, one of Aphrodite and one of Phryne herself.[69] According to Pliny, Phryne was also the model for Praxiteles' sculpture of a smiling courtesan,[70] which may have originally been displayed in Athens.[71]
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 ofAphrodite Anadyomene (Aphrodite rising from the sea).[h] This was displayed at the sanctuary of Asclepius on the Greek island of Kos before being taken to Rome by the emperorAugustus; by the first century AD it appears to have been one of Apelles' best-known works.[73][72]
Phryne was largely ignored during the Renaissance, in favour of women such asLucretia andCleopatra, who were seen as heroic,[75] but interest in depicting her increased in the eighteenth century with the advent ofNeoclassicism.[76] Early depictions of her byAngelica Kauffmann andJ. M. W. Turner avoid eroticising her.[74] From the eighteenth century French artists focused on portraying Phryne as a courtesan, particularly depicting her public nudity at religious festivals or during her trial.[77] By the mid-nineteenth century artists such asGustave Boulanger, rejecting the neoclassical aesthetic ofHellenism, painted Phryne without any reference to the ancient context as an eroticised andOrientalised nude.[78]
The most famous nineteenth century depiction of Phryne wasJean-Léon Gérôme'sPhryne Before the Areopagus. This painting was controversial for showing Phryne covering her face in shame, in the same pose that Gérôme used in several paintings of slaves in Eastern slave-markets. Critics argued that Phryne should be proud rather than ashamed of her beauty, and that Gérôme's portrayal of Phryne was anachronistic.[79] Driven by this controversy, Gérôme's painting was widely reproduced and caricatured, with engravings byLéopold Flameng, a sculpture byAlexandre Falguière, and a drawing byPaul Cézanne all modelled after Gérôme's Phryne.[80] By the end of the century, Gérôme's painting of Phryne and the various works inspired by it had made her an "international cultural icon".[1]
The story of Phryne bathing at Eleusis, which according to Athenaeus inspired Apelles to paint the Aphrodite Anadyomene, was also a subject for nineteenth century painters. In Britain,Frederic Leighton andEdward Burne-Jones both painted works on this theme in the 1880s, but the most famous nineteenth century painting of the subject wasHenryk Siemiradzki'sPhryne at the Poseidonia in Eleusis.[81]
In nineteenth century literature, Phryne appears in the poetry ofCharles Baudelaire andRainer Maria Rilke. In Baudelaire's "Lesbos", fromLes Fleurs du Mal, she is used metonymically to represent courtesans in general. In Rilke's "Die Flamingos", the flamingos are compared to Phryne, as they seduce themselves – by folding their wings over their own heads – more effectively than even she could ("they seem to think / themselves seductive; that their charms surpass / a Phryne’s").[82][83] Late nineteenth-century depictions of Phryne in other media included a waltz byAntonin d'Argenton, a shadow-theatre production byMaurice Donnay – where the scene of Phryne's trial was modelled on Gérôme's painting – and a comic opera byCamille Saint-Saëns.[84]
In the twentieth century, Phryne made the transition to cinema. In 1952Alessandro Blasetti's "Il processo di Frine" ("The Trial of Phryne") adapted the story of Phryne's trial with a contemporary setting, based on a short story byEdoardo Scarfoglio. The following year, thepeplum filmFrine, cortigiana d'Oriente ("Phryne, the Oriental Courtesan") was released. Both films depict Phryne's disrobing at her trial with an iconography influenced by Gérôme's painting.[85] A third Italian film,La Venere di Cheronea ("The Venus of Chaeronea"), focused on the story of the relationship between Phryne and Praxiteles.[86]
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