Phryne

(pronounced Frin-nee)

Beauty in Greek eyes was good - morally good: it had an element of the divine, they thought.

From a poor family in Thepaie, Phryne picked capers to earn money as a kid. Soon aware that she had more budding assets than capable caper picking, she headed for Athens to become an artists' model and part-time paid playgirl. Her silky olive skin, her dreamy-eyed face and her figure, richly feminine yet almost innocent, made her the Marilyn Monroe of antiquity. Appelles, the city's most famous painter, could hardly wait to portray her as Aphrodite Rising From The Waves.

 Sculptors loved her even more. Praxiteles, the best sculptor of his day, carved an in-the-buff Phryne as Aphrodite ---the first [completely nude] female statue ever shown.... One time Praxiteles told her to pick one of his works as a gift, but he wouldn't say which one he thought was the best. Just then a servant ran up, yelling that his studio had caught fire and almost everything had been destroyed. The sculptor ran for the door, groaning that he'd die if his Satyr and Love had perished. Phryne told him the whole thing was a charade, and walked away with it as her gift.

 Her beauty, divine or not, aroused jealousy. Once Phryne was taken to Court, accused of corrupting women by organizing a club to worship a Thracian god. Luckily, she numbered an orator among her lovers, who agreed to take her case. Things weren't going that well in front of the judges, so the orator decided to play his ace by putting Phryne on the stand--topless. One sight of her breasts, and he didn't need eloquence. She was acquitted, and a good thing, too--corruption, a capital offense, carried the death penalty.

 Interestingly, one of the statues of Phryne that has survived now reposes demurely in the Vatican.

Story and some text from "Uppity Women Of Ancient Times" by Vicki Leon