Born: 371 BC (circa), Greece
Died: 310 BC (circa)
Country most active: Greece
Also known as: Mnesarete, Phrine
From Famous Women: An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women. Written by Joseph Adelman, published 1926 by Ellis M Lonow Company:
Phryne, an Athenian hetaira or courtesan, who flourished in the latter part of the fourth century B.C. She was of very humble birth, but her transcendent beauty attracting rich admirers, she acquired so much wealth that, after Alexander the Great destroyed the walls of Thebes, she offered to rebuild them, if she could be permitted to put up the following inscription: “Alexander destroyed them, but Phryne rebuilt them.” Among her lovers were some of the most distinguished men of the age. Being accused of profaning the mysteries of Eleusis, she was brought before the judges, where the orator Hypereides, perceiving that his eloquence would fail, secured her triumphant acquittal by unveiling her bosom. Praxiteles modelled from her the Cnidian Venus, and Apelles’ picture of “Venus rising from the Sea” is said to have been taken from Phryne.