Phryne

Phryne (Greek Φρύνη - Phryne ) was a famous Greek courtesan from Thespiai ( altgr. Θέσπεια - Thespeia; Latin Thespiae ) and lived in the 4th century BC

Life and work

Her name was originally Mnesarete ' ( altgr. Μνησαρετή ), which is about " mindful of virtue " means, and later received the name of Phryne ( " Toad " ) because of their slightly olive-colored skin. She was initially a poor capers dealer, but arrived after it had gotten about 371 BC to Athens, because of their beauty to extraordinary wealth. This allowed her, reluctant to act, to attend public baths not to use make-up and long to wear closed robes. She offered, the walls of Thebes after its destruction by Alexander the Great to build on his own expense, if the Thebans translated the inscription on it: " Alexander has destroyed it, the courtesan Phryne rebuilt ", but what they never did.

It was considered in its heyday as the representative of the goddess of love Aphrodite and served as a model for Apelles his Anadyomene and Praxiteles Aphrodite of Knidos for his. In a temple to Thespiai next to a statue of Aphrodite of Praxiteles was also a statue of Phryne by the same artist.

Supposedly one could resist her charms no man. Because of their arrogance, their beauty could compete with that of the goddess Aphrodite, Phryne the asebeia ( godlessness ) was indicted. This accusation proved immediately to a huge scandal in all of Athens. According to legend, Phryne is before a court (formed from the Areopagus ) let down their hair, shed their clothes and have the congregation her naked body, evidence ' put forward as; they should have been acquitted. Another version says that Phryne by her lover and lawyer, the politician Hypereides ( 389-322 BC), stripped, and was acquitted. This scene, the French painter Jean -Léon Gérôme in 1861 in his image Phryne before the Areopagus ( " Phryné devant l' areopagi " ) dar.

Afterlife

1906 burlesque operetta Phryne was performed with the music of Eysler from the text by Fritz Grünbaum and Robert Bodanzky the Vienna theater hell.

In 1922, the Attorney Erich Frey took the Phryne tactics to gain acquittal of the accused because of public indecency nude dancer Lola Bach.