(), one of the most celebrated Athenian hetairae, was
the daughter of Epicles, and a native of Thespiae in Boeotia. She was of very humble origin,
and originally gained her livelihood by gathering capers; but her beauty procured for her
afterwards so much wealth that she is said to have offered to rebuild the walls of Thebes,
after they had been destroyed by Alexander, if
she might be allowed to put up this inscription on the walls :--"Alexander destroyed them, but Phryne, the hetaira,
rebuilt them." She had among her admirers many of the most celebrated men of the age of Philip
and Alexander, and the beauty of her form gave
rise to some of the greatest works of art. The orator Hyperides was one of her lovers, and he
defended her when she was accused by Euthias on one occasion of some capital charge; but when
the eloquence of her advocate failed to move the judges, he bade her uncover her breast, and
thus ensured her acquittal. The most celebrated picture of Apelles, his "Venus Anadyomene"
[APELLES, p. 222b.], is said to have been a representation of
Phryne, who, at a public festival at Eleusis, entered the sea with dishevelled hair. The
celebrated Cnidian Venus of Praxiteles, who was one of her lovers, was taken from her [PRAXITELES], and he expressed his love for her in an epigram which he
inscribed on the base of a statue of Cupid, which he gave to her, and which she dedicated at
Thespiae. Such admiration did she excite, that her neighbours dedicated at Delphi a statue of
her, made of gold, and resting on a base of Pentelican marble. According to Apollodorus (ap.
Ibid.) there were also two, one the Thespian, and the other surnamed Sestus.
The Thespian Phryne, however, is the only one of whom we have any account. (Athen. xiii. pp.
590, 591, 558, 100.567, e, 583, b. 100.585, e. f.; Aelian, Ep. 1.31; Att. Alus. vol. iii.
pp. 18, &100.36, &c.)