#phryne

EVERYONE LOOK AT MY BABIES ahhhhhh 😍😍😍 absolutely gorgeous work from Lijn

I can't even het is zo leuk

Vénus d'Arles

presumably holding the Golden Apple of Discord

Venus of Arles, late 1st c. BC. Hymettus marble, H: 1.94 m. Louvre Found in several pieces in 1651 by workmen digging a well at the Roman Theatre of Arles

Aphrodite de Thespies

The head style/technique is a possible link to the Aphrodite of Thespiae by Praxiteles, ordered by the courtesan Phryne, 2nd quarter of 4th c. AD. mentioned by Pausanias.

https://collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl010277986

Phryne before the Areopagus by Jean-Léon Gérôme, c.1861

Phryne of Thespiae

"What we “know” of Phryne consists of a random collection of anecdotes, much of which resists efforts to construct a coherent biography. Most of our information comes from late second-century CE Greek writers living in the Roman Empire writing hundreds of years after her floruit, most notably the rhetorician and grammarian Athenaeus (late second/ early third cent. CE). His lengthy treatise, Dining Sophists, itself lacks an overt narrative structure, consisting rather of thousands of quotations from earlier texts, many now lost.

From these fragments, we learn that Phryne, a word meaning “Toad,” was her professional name, so-called because of her sallow complexion, but that her original name was Mnesarete, a common name for women in Athens and Attica. She was originally from Thespiae in Boeotia, a city about 80 kilometers from Athens, the daughter of a man named Epicles. Athenaeus distinguishes two Phrynes, one with the epithet Klausigelôs (“Laughing through Tears”) and the other, Saperdion (“Little Fish”), although he does not specify which one haled from Thespiae. She is further differentiated from the Phryne known as Sestos (“Swindler”), because she “fleeced” her clients.

Her childhood was spent in poverty, but eventually she amassed enormous wealth by charging a high price for her body. Phryne’s legendary riches facilitated several public benefactions. She offered to fund the rebuilding of the Theban walls after they had been destroyed by Alexander the Great, but only on the condition that the citizens inscribe the words “Alexander tore them down, but Phryne built them up them again.” Phryne made dedications to her native city, including its major tourist attraction, a statue of Eros by the sculptor Praxiteles (c. 390– 322), with whom she was erotically linked. In return, the Thespians dedicated a gilded statue of the hetaera at Delphi, also wrought by Praxiteles, and installed it between images of the king of Sparta and Philip II (Alexander’s father), with the words “Phryne, the daughter of Epicles of Thespiae” inscribed on its base. Its placement and costliness led the Cynic philosopher Crates (365– 285) to denounce it as a monument to Greek depravity. She rejected those lovers who displeased her, even when they had paid lavishly for her services, and indulged the impecunious. Phryne was a contemporary of several other famous hetaeras mentioned in comedy, including Lais, Plangon, Gnathaena, Myrrhine, and Nannion. She was further known for her caustic and coarse rejoinders made at the drinking parties of men.

Much of the discourse about Phryne, however, revolves around her exceptional beauty and public nudity, particularly in religious and legal contexts. She concealed her body when in public by wearing a close-fitted tunic and avoiding the baths, yet revealed it before all of the Greeks at two religious festivals called the Eleusinia and Posidonia. The sight of her naked body after she stripped and entered the sea inspired Apelles’ painting, Aphrodite Rising from the Sea, a prototype for Botticelli’s Birth of Venus. The pervasive association of the hetaera with the goddess informs the story that Praxiteles used Phryne as the model for his Cnidian Aphrodite, the first life-size female nude in the Western artistic tradition.

But the most shocking display of her body occurs in narratives surrounding her impiety trial, an event that made her famous from the fourth century onward according to a contemporary source, Posidippus’ (c. 315– 260 BCE) comic play, Ephesia (“Woman from Ephesis”): “Before our time, Phryne was far and away the best known courtesan there was; because even if you’re younger than that, you’ve heard about her trial.” Indicted by Euthias (dates known), she was successfully defended by the orator Hyperides (390/ 1– 322 BCE). The only thing that saved her from conviction was a clever stratagem. When the orator’s arguments appeared unpersuasive, he dramatically ripped off her upper garments, exposing her naked breasts to the jurors, a sight that induced not lust but piety: “the jurors fearful of this priestess and temple-attendant of Aphrodite, and to incline toward pity rather than the death penalty.” According to another source, she won acquittal for herself, “just barely — with her tears,” by “taking the jurors’ hands, one by one.” This is all that we “know” of Phryne, and yet it is the product of a literary tradition largely constructed hundreds of years after her death."

(Phryne before the jury - Jean-Léon Gérome)

This is one of my favourite artworks, simply because of its background.

The woman in this artwork is Phryne, who was not only a pretty famous Hetaira (educated female companion) but also the lover and model of the sculptor Praxiteles. His most famous work is probably Aphrodite of Knidos, where (as usual) Phryne stood as the model for it.

Here is where it gets dramatic: this was actually the first fully nude statue of Aphrodite in Greek art. Until then, goddesses were typically depicted as clothed or at least partially clothed. Praxiteles broke with that tradition, and the result was, well... mixed.

While the statue gained a lot of positive feedback, with people going so far as to travel to Knidos to see her and tales of men having to be physically removed because they were so captivated by her*, Phryne was met with disapproval.

As the model of the statue and probably other public behaviour, such as bathing nude in the sea during festivals, she was charged with ᾰ̓σέβειᾰ (impiety), a serious accusation in ancient Greece.

So there she stood, on trial in front of the Areopagus, facing possible execution. Her defender and friend, Hypereides (who was also rumored to be her lover), held a flaming speech in her defence, but it didn't seem to help.

And then came the moment that made her legendary. In a last act of desperation, Hypereides tore open her rope. His argument: No mortal woman could be so beautiful unless she was favored by the gods. Thus, condemning Phryne would be an insult to them. And so the charges were dismissed.

*"There is a story that a man once fell in love with it and hiding by night embraced it, and that a stain betrays this lustful act."

Dangerous Women: Phryne (detail) Franz von Stuck, c. 1917-18

It's the last day of Classicstober, can't believe how quickly this month has gone by.