Phryne en · PROPN
Etymology
From Ancient Greek Φρύνη (Phrúnē), from φρύνη (phrúnē, “toad”), a nickname often given to prostitutes of the time.
Meanings
-
(historical) An Ancient Greek courtesan of the 4th century BC, reputedly the model for Praxiteles' Aphrodite of Cnidus and famously tried for the capital charge of impiety, during which trial she allegedly bared her breasts before the judges.
The suffrages were recently divided between Mademoiselle Lange and Madame Tallien — the Helen and Phryne of the nation.
1797, "Anthony Pasquin" (John Williams), The Pin-Basket to the Children of Thespis: With Notes Historical, Critical and Biographical, page 91:The Roman-period stories that circulated about Phryne have to do with her beauty, her nudity, and her forwardness.[…]Alciphron also crafts a letter that Phryne writes to Praxiteles; in it, Phryne toys with the theological implications of Praxiteles' use of her as a model for Aphrodite, and her statuary appearance at a sanctuary to Eros at Thespiai.
2010, Laura Salah Nasrallah, Christian Responses to Roman Art and Architecture: The Second-Century Church Amid the Spaces of Empire, page 261:But in the first of these instances, an impediment may be supposed to be insurmountable, which Dryden has only surmounted by the substitution of matchless beauties of his own! He wins his cause, like Phryne pleading before the Areopagus.
1835, Selections from the Edinburgh Review, page 354: