Rhodopis (Hetaera)

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Dancing hetaera, around 490 BC Chr.

Rhodopis ( Greek  Ῥοδῶπις translated "from rosy appearance"; Alternative names: Rhadopis, Rodope, Rhodope, Doricha, Dorija, DORICA) is the name of at Herodotus mentioned courtesan in Egypt for the first half of the 6th century BC.. Its legendary beauty made it a myth even in antiquity. An ancient fable is associated with her name , the motif of which is reminiscent of the fairy tale of Cinderella . Written down by the Greek historian Strabo in the 1st century BC. BC, it can be considered the oldest variant of the Cinderella motif.

The Hetaera Rhodopis with Herodotus

The hetaera Rhodopis, attested to by Herodotus († around 425 BC), was probably a Thracian and initially a slave of Iadmon of Samos, to whom the storyteller Aesop is said to have also belonged. The Samian Xanthos brought them to Egypt during the reign of Amasis , where they ransomed Charaxos ( Greek  Χάραξος ), the brother of Sappho , who was there on a trade trip. Rhodopis stayed in Egypt and her beauty made her own fortune, the tenth part of which she donated to the temple in Delphi in the form of iron ox roast skewers .

According to Herodotus, every Greek knew the history of Rhodopis. Some falsely ascribed the Mykerinos pyramid in Giza to her, and legends began to emerge here in his day. Her identity with Doricha, the fatal lover of Charaxus, as Strabo assumed 400 years later, is uncertain. Since Rhodopis means "of rosy appearance", it is conceivable that it was the job title of a light-skinned hetaera, but whether her real name was Doricha cannot be determined. It is more likely that two women were confused here, as the ancient writer Athenaios assumed.

The legend of Rhodopis near Strabo

With Strabo (after † 23 AD) Rhodopis finally becomes a fairy tale figure. He tells the legend as follows:

“The pyramid is called“ the tomb of the hetaera ”- which is said to have been erected by her lovers - the hetaera whom Sappho, the song poet, calls Doricha and who was the lover of her brother Charaxos, who was a merchant who brought lesbian wine to Naukratis used; Others call it Rhodopis. It is said that while she was bathing, an eagle snatched one of her shoes from her servant and brought it to Memphis, and when he was at the head of the king who was sitting in the open air, dropped the shoe into his lap; the latter, encouraged by the shape of the shoe as well as by the wonderful thing about the incident, had sent around the country to look for the woman who wore this shoe, and when she was found in the city of the Naukratites she had to be closed brought to him and she became the king's wife; when she died, she got said grave. "

The Roman author Claudius Aelianus († after 222 AD) also briefly describes the miraculous fate of the Rhodopis in his "Colorful History". He names one of the Psammetichs as the king .

Aftermath

The motif of the lost shoe and the search for a bride using shoes reappeared in numerous folk tales in later centuries. So after the Greeks and Romans, for example, in Persia, in China and most recently in the fairy tale of Cinderella .

swell

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Herodotus, Historien , Book 2, 134–135
  2. ↑ Herodotus, Historien , Book 2, 135, 5
  3. ^ Strabo, Geography , Book 17, 33
  4. ^ Athenaios 13, 596 b – d
  5. ^ Strabo, Geography , Book 17, 33
  6. ↑ Stefan Radt (Ed., Transl.): Strabons Geographika. Volume 4: Book XIV – XVII: Text and Translation. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-525-25953-0 , p. 465 (punctuation adapted to the translation).
  7. ↑ Älian, Varia historia 13,33.
personal data
SURNAME Rhodopis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek hetaera
DATE OF BIRTH 6th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 6th century BC Chr.