Born Mnesarete, she was from Thespiae in Boeotia , but seems to have lived most of her life in Athens. Though she apparently grew up poor, she became one of the wealthiest women in Greece. Phryne is best known for her trial for impiety , in which she was defended by the orator Hypereides. According to legend, she was acquitted after baring her breasts to the jury, though the historical accuracy of this episode is doubtful.
She also modeled for the artists Apelles and Praxiteles : the Aphrodite of Knidos was said to be based on her. Phryne was largely ignored during the Renaissance , but artistic interest in her began to grow from the end of the eighteenth century.
The most substantial contemporary source about Phryne's life was Hypereides ' defence speech from her trial. In the ancient world this was a major influence on Phryne's biographical tradition, but it is now lost, except for a few fragments. His Deipnosophistae "The Scholars at Dinner" is the source of the vast majority of extant ancient writings about Phryne. Athenaeus' main source was fourth-century comedy. In Timocles ' Orestautokleides and Anaxilas ' Neottis she is named in lists of hetairai , Timocles' Neaira makes a joke about her early life, and Posidippus ' The Ephesian Girl describes her trial.
What we "know" of Phryne consists of a random collection of anecdotes, much of which resists efforts to construct a coherent biography. Phryne was from Thespiae in Boeotia. Phryne seems to have spent most of her life in Athens. Hetairai had a reputation in ancient literature for their wit and learning. Very little is known about Phryne's life for certain, and much of her biography transmitted in ancient sources may be invented: Helen Morales writes that separating fact from fiction in accounts of Phryne's life is impossible.
The most famous event in Phryne's life was the prosecution brought against her by Euthias. Six of the speeches attributed to him relate to hetairai, and in a surviving fragment of his defense of Phryne, he admits to being her lover. Phryne was charged with asebeia , a kind of blasphemy. An anonymous treatise on rhetoric, which summarises the case against Phryne, lists three specific accusations against her β that she held a "shameless komos " or ritual procession, that she introduced a new god, and that she organised unlawful thiasoi or debauched meetings.
