Phryne

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Venus Colonna , antique replica of "Aphrodite of Knidos" by Praxiteles; Phryne was supposedly the model
Jean-Léon Gérôme: “Phryne before Areopagus” (1861); Hamburger Kunsthalle

Phryne ( Greek Φρύνη Phrýnē ) was a famous Greek hetaera from Thespiai and lived in the 4th century BC. Chr.

Live and act

Phryne was originally called Mnēsaretḗ (ancient Greek Μνησαρετή ), which means “mindful of virtue”, and was later given the name Phrýnē (“toad”) because of its yellowish complexion, which was compared to the color of a toad. This name was also given to other hetaerae.

She was born as the daughter of Epicles in Thespiai. At first she earned her living as a poor caper trader , but arrived around 371 BC. BC to Athens, where she earned money with lovers because of her beauty and soon became a rich hetaera. Her wealth enabled her to be more reserved, not to visit public baths, not to use make-up and to wear long, closed robes.

She offered to rebuild the walls of Thebes after the destruction by Alexander the Great at her own expense, if the Thebans put the inscription on it: "Alexander destroyed them, the Hetaera Phryne rebuilt" , but this was rejected.

An anecdote in Athenaios tells that Phryne took off her clothes in front of the assembled Greeks during a ceremony in Eleusis and then bathed in the sea. Apelles inspired this report for his famous work of art Venus Anadyomene . Also Praxiteles used Phryne probably as a model for his statue of Aphrodite of Knidos , the first large-scale sculpture, which shows naked woman. The permissive modeling of Phryne enabled a new development in art: In the period that followed, hetaerae were also portrayed freely in vase painting.

Praxiteles made Phryne choose between the statues of Eros and Satyros. She decided on Eros and set it up in a temple at Thespiai. Furthermore, Praxiteles placed a statue of Phryne made of gold in the temple of Delphi . The cynic Krates commented on this by saying that the statue is typical of Greece's extravagance.

Court hearing

Phryne was reported by Euthias, who accused her in his speech, among other things, of shameless behavior in the Lyceum and the introduction of a new deity. However, it makes sense to view the trial as politically motivated. The fact that the trial is extensively documented and described in many sources suggests that the trial was not only important for Phryne and her defense lawyer, Hypereides .

There are numerous myths about the trial. Legend has it that when the trial got to the point of conviction, Phryne tore her clothes and threw her bare breasts to the ground in front of the judges, as her beauty was more convincing than her defense counsel's speech.

Another version says that when a conviction loomed, Phryne was brought to the center of the court by her lover and lawyer, the politician Hypereides (389–322 BC), and her bosom was bared. The judges acquitted them because they believed they were seeing Aphrodite in person. After the acquittal, an ordinance was drawn up that no judgment should be passed while the accused is present so that no speaker tries to arouse pity.

In his work "Hyperides and the Trial of Phryne", Craig Cooper tries to refute that Phrynes' undressing ever took place. Since there was no evidence of any contemporary account informing biographers of what had happened at the trial, the information could only have been derived from Hypereides' speech. The alleged undressing of Phrynes in court must be based on a false conclusion by Idomeneus von Lampsakos , which was then adopted by other biographers.

Afterlife

The French painter Jean-Léon Gérôme depicted this scene in 1861 in his painting “Phryne before Areopagus” (“Phryné devant l'Aréopage”).

In 1906 the burlesque operetta Phryne with music by Edmund Eysler based on the text by Fritz Grünbaum and Robert Bodanzky was performed at Cabaret Hölle in Vienna .

In 1907/08 Ferdinand Lepcke created a Phryne that stands in the small rose garden in Coburg .

In 1922 the lawyer Erich Frey used the Phryne tactic to obtain acquittal for the nude dancer Lola Bach, who was accused of causing public nuisance .

In 2009 the artist Andrew Lendzion created a portrait statue of Phryne. She shows Phryne as a strong and confident person.

The asteroid (1291) Phryne was named after her.

literature

  • Craig Cooper: Hyperides and the Trial of Phryne . In: Phoenix 49 (1995), pp. 303-318.
  • Jacobs: Vermischte Schriften , Vol. 4. Leipzig 1830.
  • Laura McClure: Courtesans at Table. Gender and Greek Literary Culture in Athenaeus. Routledge, New York 2003.
  • Anthony E. Raubitschek : Phryne. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XX, 1, Stuttgart 1941, Col. 893-907.

Web links

Commons : Phryne  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Plutarch (1871): Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by William W. Goodwin. With an introduction by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Volume 3. Boston: Little Brown and Company.
  2. ^ Athenaeus (1854): The Deipnosophists or banquet of the learned of Athenaeus. With an appendix of poetical fragments, rendered into English verse by various authors and a general index; in three volumes. Volume 3. London: Bohn.
  3. ↑ Plutarch (1871): Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by William W. Goodwin. With an introduction by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Volume 3. Boston: Little Brown and Company.
  4. ↑ Christine Mitchell Havelock: The Aphrodite of Knidos and Her Successors. A Historical Review of the Female Nude in Greek Art. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor 1995.
  5. ↑ Bernhard Kytzler : Women of antiquity. From Aspasia to Zenobia . Artemis, Munich & Zurich 2000, ISBN 3-7608-1224-4 , p. 133.
  6. ^ Athenaeus (1854): The Deipnosophists or banquet of the learned of Athenaeus. With an appendix of poetical fragments, rendered into English verse by various authors and a general index; in three volumes. Volume 3. London: Bohn.
  7. ↑ Reported by the grammarian Kallistratos , quoted in Athenaios ' Scholarly Banquet , Book XIII, 60.
  8. ↑ Theodor Birt: Women of antiquity. Severus, Hamburg 2013.
  9. ↑ Athenaios, Deipnosophistai 13, 59f .: "ὁ δὲὙπερείδης συναγορεύων τῇ Φρύνῃ, ὡς οὐδὲν ἤνυε λέγων ἐπίδοξοί τε ἦσαν οἱδικασταὶ καταψηφιούμενοι , παραγαγὼν αὐτὴν εἰς τοὐμφανὲς καὶ περιρήξας τοὺς χιτωνίσκουςγυμνά τε τὰ στέρνα ποιήσας τοὺς ἐπιλογικοὺς οἴκτους ἐκ τῆς ὄψεως αὐτῆς ἐπερρητόρευσεν δεισιδαιμονῆσαί τε ἐποίησεν τοὺς δικαστὰς τὴν ὑποφῆτιν καὶ ζάκορον Ἀφροδίτης ἐλέῳχαρισαμένους μὴ ἀποκτεῖναι. "
  10. ^ Athenaeus (1854): The Deipnosophists or banquet of the learned of Athenaeus. With an appendix of poetical fragments, rendered into English verse by various authors and a general index; in three volumes. Volume 3. London: Bohn.
  11. ↑ Theodor Birt: Women of antiquity. Severus, Hamburg 2013.
  12. ^ Athenaeus (1854): The Deipnosophists or banquet of the learned of Athenaeus. With an appendix of poetical fragments, rendered into English verse by various authors and a general index; in three volumes. Volume 3. London: Bohn.
  13. ^ Athenaeus (1854): The Deipnosophists or banquet of the learned of Athenaeus. With an appendix of poetical fragments, rendered into English verse by various authors and a general index; in three volumes. Volume 3. London: Bohn.
  14. ^ Martha Feldman, Bonnie Gordon: The Courtesan's Arts: Cross-Cultural Perspectives. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2006.
  15. ↑ Craig Cooper: Hyperides and the Trial of Phryne. In: Phoenix. Vol. 49, no. 4. Classical Association of Canada 1995.
  16. ↑ Laura McClure: Courtesans at Table. Gender and Greek Literary Culture in Athenaeus. Routledge, New York 2003.
  17. ^ Athenaeus (1854): The Deipnosophists or banquet of the learned of Athenaeus. With an appendix of poetical fragments, rendered into English verse by various authors and a general index; in three volumes. Volume 3. London: Bohn.
  18. ↑ Craig Cooper: Hyperides and the Trial of Phryne. In: Phoenix. Vol. 49, no. 4. Classical Association of Canada 1995.
  19. ^ Martha Feldman, Bonnie Gordon: The Courtesan's Arts. Cross-cultural perspectives. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2006.
  20. ↑ Marie-Theres Arnbom : Have you ever been in love with me? Film stars, operetta favorites and cabaret greats in Vienna and Berlin. Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2006.
  21. ↑ Erich Frey: I request acquittal. From the memories of defense attorney Prof. Dr. Dr. Erich Frey. Blüchert Verlag, Hamburg 1959.
  22. ^ Andy Lendzion Sculptor. Phryne the courtesan. As of September 12, 2014.
personal data
SURNAME Phryne
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mnesarete
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek hetaera
DATE OF BIRTH 5th century BC BC or 4th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 4th century BC BC or 3rd century BC Chr.