Phryne
historical figure · 3 works · 4 mentions · 4 anchored passages
Phryne the Thespian · Phryne the Thespian courtesan
in the texts
Apologeticum
Famous Greek courtesan invoked as an ironic comparison.
But when you adore Larentina, a public harlot — would it were at least Lais or Phryne — among the Junos and Cereses and Dianas;
I know of Phryne too, the harlot, yielding to the ardour of Diogenes as he reclined above her;
Protrepticus
Thespian courtesan whose beauty painters used as the model for images of Aphrodite.
And when Phryne the Thespian courtesan was in her bloom, all the painters reproduced the images of Aphrodite to the beauty of Phryne, just as again the stone-cutters at Athens likened the Hermae to Alcibiades.
Orations
Courtesan of Thespiae whose statue stood on a column, comparable to that of Gorgias.
When one may see even Phryne the Thespian, she too upon a column, like Gorgias.