"Rhodopis" (Ancient Greek:Ῥοδῶπις,romanized: Rhodôpis,lit. 'rosy-faced';Ancient Greek pronunciation:[r̥odɔ̂ːpis]) is an ancient tale about aGreek slave girl who marries theking ofEgypt. The story was first recorded by the Greek historianStrabo in the late first century BC or early first century AD and is considered the earliest known variant of the "Cinderella" story.[1] The origins of the fairy-tale figure may be traced back to the 6th-century BChetaeraRhodopis.[2]
The story is first recorded by theGreek geographerStrabo (64 or 63 BC –c. 24 AD) in hisGeographica (book 17, 33), written sometime betweenc. 7 BC andc. 24 AD:
They tell the fabulous story that, when she was bathing, an eagle snatched one of her sandals from her maid and carried it toMemphis; and while the king was administering justice in the open air, the eagle, when it arrived above his head, flung the sandal into his lap; and the king, stirred both by the beautiful shape of the sandal and by the strangeness of the occurrence, sent men in all directions into the country in quest of the woman who wore the sandal; and when she was found in the city ofNaucratis, she was brought up to Memphis, became the wife of the king.[3]
The Greek geographerStrabo (diedc. 24 AD) first recorded the tale of the Greek girl Rhodopis in hisGeographica.[4] This passage is considered to be the earliest variant of the Cinderella story.[1] The same story is also later reported by the Roman oratorAelian (c. 175 –c. 235) in hisMiscellaneous History, which was written entirely in Greek. Aelian's story closely resembles the story told by Strabo, but adds that the name of the pharaoh in question wasPsammetichus (Psamtik).[5][6] Aelian's account indicates that the story of Rhodopis remained popular throughoutantiquity.
Herodotus, some five centuries before Strabo, records a popular legend about a possibly-related courtesan namedRhodopis in hisHistories, claiming that Rhodopis came fromThrace, and was the slave of Iadmon (Ἰάδμων) ofSamos, and a fellow-slave of the story-tellerAesop and that she was taken to Egypt in the time ofPharaohAmasis (570–536 BC), and freed there for a large sum by Charaxus (Χάραξος) ofMytilene, brother ofSappho, the lyric poet.[7][2]
