Rhodopis (hetaera)

Rhodopis ( _el. ροδωπις, real name possibly Doricha) was a celebrated 6th-century BCE Greek hetaera, of Thracian origin. William Smith, ed. " [http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/2985.html Rhodopis] " in the "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology" (1870), vol. 1, p. 268.] She is one of only two hetaerae mentioned by name in Herodotus's discussion of the profession (the other is the somewhat later Archidike). [Laura McClure. "Courtesans at Table: Gender and Greek Literary Culture in Athenaus". London, 2003. Page 12]

According to Herodotus, she was a fellow-slave with the poet Aesop, both of them belonging to the Samian Iadmon. She afterwards became the property of Xanthes, another Samian, who took her to Naucratis in Egypt, during the reign of Amasis II, where she continued to work as an hetaera for the benefit of her master. This led to her meeting Charaxus, the brother of the poetess Sappho, who had come to Naucratis as a merchant. Charaxus fell in love with her, and ransomed her from slavery for a large sum of money. Sappho later wrote a poem accusing Rhodopis of robbing Charaxus of his property.

Rhodopis continued to live at Naucratis after her liberation from slavery, and tithed a tenth part of her income to the temple at Delphi, where ten iron spits were dedicated in her name; these spits were seen by Herodotus.

400 years after Herodotus, Strabo stated that Sappho called Rhodopis "Doricha". 200 years after Strabo, Athenaeus maintained that Herodotus had confused two separate women. [Campbell, D. A. (ed.), "Greek Lyric 1: Sappho and Alcaeus", Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., (1982) ISBN 0-674-99157-5; p. 15.] As "rhodopis" means "rosy cheeks", it was probably a professional pseudonym, [Robert Garland. "Celebrity in Antiquity". London: Duckworth, 2006, ISBN 0715634488 p. 164 (note 4).] but it is unclear whether "Doricha" was her real name.

There was a tale current in Greece that Rhodopis built the third pyramid. Herodotus takes great pains to show the absurdity of the story, but the story kept its ground, and is related by Pliny the Elder as an unquestioned fact. [Smith, referencing Pliny the Elder's "Naturalis Historia", xxxvi. 12. § 17] The origin of this tale, which is unquestionably false, has been explained with great probability by Georg Zoega and Christian Charles Josias Bunsen. In consequence of the name Rhodopis, she was confounded with Nitocris, the Egyptian queen, and the heroine of many an Egyptian legend, who is said by Julius Africanus and Eusebius to have built the third pyramid.

Another tale about Rhodopis related by Strabo and Aelian makes her a queen of Egypt, and thus renders the supposition of her being the same as Nitocris still more probable. It is said that as Rhodopis was one day bathing at Naucratis, an eagle took up one of her sandals, flew away with it, and dropt it in the lap of the Egyptian king, as he was administering justice at Memphis. Struck by the strange occurrence and the beauty of the sandal, he did not rest till he had found out the fair owner of the beautiful sandal, and as soon as he had discovered her made her his queen. This is the Rhodopis story, famed for being the earliest Cinderella story.

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