Phryne was once the most illustrious courtesans of us by far. — Poet Posiddippus (Phryne by Jean-Léon Gérome, image via Wikimedia Commons) Phryne was one of the most notorious courtesans, or "heterai," of Ancient Greece. She'd dated around in Athens and posed for multiple sculptures of Aphrodite, and legend even has it that her frolicking in the ocean inspired Appelle's famous depiction of Venus rising from the waves. As the writer Posidippus recounted in his comic poetry:
A Woman to Know: Phryne
A Woman to Know: Phryne
A Woman to Know: Phryne
Phryne was once the most illustrious courtesans of us by far. — Poet Posiddippus (Phryne by Jean-Léon Gérome, image via Wikimedia Commons) Phryne was one of the most notorious courtesans, or "heterai," of Ancient Greece. She'd dated around in Athens and posed for multiple sculptures of Aphrodite, and legend even has it that her frolicking in the ocean inspired Appelle's famous depiction of Venus rising from the waves. As the writer Posidippus recounted in his comic poetry: