Ancient Greek civilization lasted about 2000 years. In those days, the territory of Ancient Greece was very vast: the Balkans, southern Italy, the Aegean region and Anatolia plus modern Crimea. Over the two-thousand-year history of the existence of Hellas, the ancient Greeks created and perfected not only the economic system, the republican system and civil society structure, but developed their culture in such a way that it had a significant impact on the formation of world culture.
The Greeks reached such a high level in the development of their culture in all directions that no one has yet been able to come close to it. The ancient Greeks were not the first, but the best in the development of their cultural heritage. A lot of Hellenic works have survived to our times. As an example, I want to bring a sculpture. It will be discussed in the article.
Sculptors of Hellas
The art of Ancient Greece served as an example and basis for contemporary art forms. The sculpture of the classical era stands out especially. In ancient Greece there were entire dynasties of sculptors, they hone their skills to such an extent that people from different countries came to admire their work. And nowadays these works cause awe and admiration. Their names have come down to us: Miron, Polyclet, Phidias, Lysippus, Leochar, Skopas, and many others. The works of these masters are still exhibited in the best museums and galleries in the world. One of a series of these geniuses was Praxiteles.
Praxitel
This outstanding sculptor came from a dynasty of great masters - his grandfather and father were also sculptors. One of the most famous works of his grandfather was the pediments of the deeds of Hercules for the temple in the capital of Upper Egypt - Thebes.
The practitioner's father, Kefisodot, was an outstanding sculptural professional: he sculpted statues of marble and bronze. Several of his works have survived to the present day. The originals are in Munich, and several copies are kept in private collections. One of the most famous works that can be seen today is Eirena and Plutos.
The sons of Praxiteles also became famous sculptors.
Praxiteles was born in Athens around 390 BC. From childhood, he disappeared in his father's workshops, where friends of Kefisodot gathered. These were eminent artists, philosophers and poets. The atmosphere prevailing in those workshops influenced the boy: he knew at a young age who he wanted to become. Having matured, Praxiteles reached such heights in mastery that orders from temples began to come to him. In Hellas, as you know, there was a polygenetic religion, and in each temple a particular deity was worshiped from Olympus.
One of the most famous sculptures of Praxiteles that survived to this day was the statue of Hermes with the baby Dionysus. This work was found during excavations in Olympia, at the place where the temple of Hera was. The statue is made elegantly, marble is finished to a gloss, the figure of Hermes is striking in its proportionality, the face of the god of commerce looks like a living one. Hermes' cloak, draped over a tree trunk, seems to be real, the hairs on it are so worked out. The statue of Hermes with the baby Dionysus is kept in the city of Olympia in the Archaeological Museum.
The Praxiteles sculptures differed from the works of his contemporaries. Thanks to his skill, he became one of the most famous sculptors of his time. To give special expression to the sculpture, the master preferred to paint them. He entrusted this work to his friend Nikiy, who was a famous artist. But during the life of Praxiteles, fame and veneration brought him not a statue of Hermes, but several statues of the goddess of love Aphrodite.
Statue of Aphrodite of Cnidus
Once, Praxiteles traveled to Ephesus (present-day Selcuk in Turkey) to help the Ephesians rebuild the Temple of Aremida, which was burned by the vandal Herostratus. There, the sculptor was to recreate the decorations for the altar in the temple. On the way to Ephesus, the master lingered in the city of Kos (present-day Bodrum in Turkey), because the priests of the temple of Aphrodite heard that such an eminent sculptor had come to them in the region and decided not to miss the chance - they ordered him a statue of Aphrodite.
The practitioner made two: one was naked to the waist, which did not violate the canons. And he performed the second innovatively: he completely exposed the goddess. And he invited the priests to choose one of the two statues. Seeing the naked goddess, the priests were embarrassed: after all, the naked Aphrodite is an unprecedented blasphemy and even blasphemy, but did not dare to make a claim to the famous master, but simply paid and took Aphrodite, who was dressed to the waist.
But the priests from the city of Knidos (100 km from Kos, present-day Mugla) were so fascinated by the statue of the naked Aphrodite that they were not afraid, they did not give a damn about the conventions and bought this statue for their temple. And they did it right! She brought the temple and the city unprecedented popularity: people gathered in Knidos from all over the civilized world to admire the beautiful Aphrodite. The scholar and writer Pliny the Elder spoke of her like this: "The sculpture of Praxiteles Aphrodite of Cnidus is the best sculptural work not only of Praxiteles, but also throughout the world."
The statue of Aphrodite was made in such a way that it seemed: the living goddess of love, who took water procedures, was suddenly caught by accidental witnesses. And she was embarrassed, bent in a natural pose, wanting to hide. In the hand of the goddess is a cloth that serves as a towel. It descends to hydria with water (in fact, Praxitel added these details in order for the sculpture to have additional support).
The statue is graceful, her face is spiritualized and humane. She has a perfect figure and flawless facial features. A delightful stranger embarrassedly smiles, her languid gaze betrays in her the goddess of love. Head-framing hair sits in a lush crown. Praxiteles sculpture was painted, it made her look like a living one. The height of the statue is about 2 meters.
This work struck the imagination of both ordinary people and statesmen, for example, the king of Bithynia Nycomed so wanted to get a statue in his possession that he invited the Cnidians to forgive their public duty in exchange for a statue. The Nicodeans preferred to pay the debt, but they did not give the statue back. They fell in love with her: several times the temple overseers caught at night there young men who committed illegal acts of a sexual nature, as evidenced by Lucian of Samosata.
Unfortunately, the fate of the original statue is sad: in the Byzantine era, the statue was taken to Constantinople, where it perished, either during the fire, or during one of the wars.
Only inaccurate copies have survived, because Praxitel was such a master whose work is not easy to fake in our time. The best copies are kept in the museums of the Vatican and Munich, and the torso closest to the original is in the Louvre.
Praxiteel sculpted his Aphrodite from nature, and heterosexual Frina, known at that time, posed for him.
The fate of women of ancient Greece
It is difficult to envy married women of ancient Hellas: they belonged to their husbands in soul, body and material condition, that is, they were completely dependent. Their main function was considered procreation. As Lycurgus wrote, the legislator: “The main task of the newlyweds is to give the state healthy, strong, hardy, best children. The young bride and groom should pay close attention to their spouse and reproductions. The same applies to the bride and groom, especially if their children have not yet been born. ”
The ancient Greek women had absolutely no rights, they were the property of men, so their main task was to serve their masters: first father or brother, and then husband. In schools, they were taught such things as sewing, culinary art, playing musical instruments, dancing, managing servants and slaves. Ancient Greek women could leave the house only accompanied by either male relatives or female minions.
A married woman should always ask her husband for permission to leave the house and spend the money. In addition to serving her husband and children, Greek women worked: they baked bread and pastries, sewed clothes, made jewelry and sold their goods in bazaars, where, in conversations with the same housewives, they were at least slightly distracted from household chores.
The Hellas were prepared for such a life from early childhood, so they did not rebel, but dutifully carried their cross. As they say, born a girl - be patient.
But there were women who did not intend to endure. These women were Athenian getters.
Who are getters
Geter, translated from ancient Greek - girlfriend, companion. In Hellas, getters were called girls who voluntarily abandoned the role of wife and mother in favor of an independent lifestyle.
Heterosexual should be comprehensively educated, it should be interesting with her, she should be smart: heterosexual men were often asked for advice in the political sphere by statesmen. Geter should look after herself, always be beautiful and airy, she should not talk about her problems. It should be easy with her. Athenian getters - a girl for a pleasant pastime, men strove for them to relax with both body and soul. The ancient Greeks respected heterosexuals, and the fact that heterosexuals wanted payment for their love - the Hellenes did not see anything reprehensible in this: after all, any person takes a fee for their time spent.
In our times, getters are compared with courtesans. But this is far from the case: a courtesan, this, whatever one may say, is a dependent person. And the getters were independent neither of men nor of the society in which they lived. We can say that - a courtesan is an elite prostitute, and yet the getter was not a prostitute, because the meeting with the getter did not always include a mandatory sex program. Geter herself decided whether to have sexual relations with a particular man, although she accepted the gift anyway. If I wanted to.
Heteroseurs themselves chose, they want to see a man as their admirer, while courtesans were not given that choice. An important feature: the getters were the priestesses of the temples of Aphrodite - the goddess of love and they gave part of their proceeds to the temples. Another caveat: in Hellas, marriages were made of love extremely rarely. Usually a girl was picked up by the groom when she was 10-12 years old and prepared for a married life. Often husbands did not love their spouses: for love they had getters.
Before the ancient Greek women realized that besides the fate of their wife they could choose an independent way of life, slaves, usually from other countries, were getters.
The fate of heterosexuals developed in different ways: some retained their independence until the end of their lives and at the “non-working” age taught girls this craft. For example, Nicaretha opened a heterosexual school in Corinth, and Elephantis created a guide to sexuality education. Some wrote philosophical works (like Cleonissa), while others got married. If she got married, she would choose not a simple Athenian hard worker as her husband, but a man with a high social status, so that there was at least some sense in losing independence.
History knows heterosexuals who married kings (Thais of Athens and Pharaoh Ptolemy I) and generals (Aspazia and Pericles). And how many getters were kept by mayors of cities, philosophers, poets, artists, speakers and many other famous very respected men, whose work we admire today!
One such heterosexual was the Praxiteles model - Phryna, which will be described below.
Brief information about Fryn
Phryne was the lover of the great sculptor Praxiteles. The real name of the Greek getra of Fryna is Mnesareta, and Frin’s nickname hinted at the unusually light, unusual for the inhabitants of those parts, shade of the girl’s skin.
Frina was born in a wealthy family of the famous doctor Epikl, who gave her daughter a brilliant education, because from childhood on the girl it was noticeable that she was not only beautiful, but also smart.
She did not want the fate of Kinder, Küche, Kirche (German for “children, kitchen, church”), so she ran away from home and went to Athens, where she became a popular hetero due to her breathtaking appearance. The height of the Greek geta of Fryna was not very high by current standards - 164 cm. The chest volume is 86 cm, the waist volume is 69 cm, and the hips are 93 cm.
Heter Fryn herself chose whom to show favor and who to refuse. And she set the tariff for her love as she pleases. For example, the king of Lydia so longed for her that he paid her a fabulous sum, and then raised taxes to close this gap in the country's budget. And Frina was so admired by the heterogenous Diogenes as a philosopher that she did not demand a fee at all.
Her geta had a lot of fans, which allowed her to fabulously enrich herself: she had her own house with a pool and amenities, slaves and other attributes that showed her high status.
Geter Fryn could afford to spend a decent amount on charity. For example, she invited residents of Thebes to reconstruct the walls of the city. But on one condition: they had to place a sign in a conspicuous place: "Alexander (Macedon) destroyed, and Phryna restored." The Thebes rejected this idea because they did not like the way her money was earned.
When Phryne went out into the city on her business, she dressed more than modestly so as not to attract special attention. But a legend has come down to our times about how once Phryne changed her rule, and at the festival of Poseidon she appeared completely naked. With this demarche, she challenged Aphrodite herself - the goddess of love.
The plot was captured on a canvas entitled "Phryne at the festival of Poseidon" Henryk Semiradsky, an artist and academician.
Phryne and Xenocrates
It’s hard to believe, but in Athens there was a man who did not care about the spells of Getrina Fryna. This was the philosopher Xenocrates (famous for the first time he divided philosophy into logic, ethics and physics).
This serious husband did not pay attention to women, he was not up to stupid things. He led the Academy of Plato.
Once at a company that discussed the strict temper of a philosopher, Phryne said that she could seduce this respected pundit, and even made a bet. At the next party, Xantip was seated next to Frina and she began to circle him.
The philosopher was a healthy man of a traditional orientation, but thanks to his willpower, he did not succumb to the spell of Geter, despite her rather frank tricks. Discouraged Fryna told the debaters: “I promised to wake up feelings in a man, not in a piece of marble!” and did not pay the lost money.
Phryne and Praxiteel
Praxiteles was madly in love with a beautiful young girl. When he sculpted his Aphrodite, he saw in the role of his model Frina, and only her one.
Young geter was playful and liked to play a little joke on her lover. Once Frin asked Praxiteles the question which of his works he considers the most successful, but the sculptor declined to answer. Then Geter persuaded the servant, he ran into the house and began to shout that a fire had broken out in Praxiteles workshop. The sculptor clutched his head and exclaimed sadly: “Ah, my Satyr and Eros are gone!” Laughing and reassuring Praxiteles, the sitter said that this was a joke, she just really wanted to find out what kind of work he cherishes the most. To celebrate, the sculptor presented one of the statues to choose from his beloved getter. She took the statue of Eros and gave it to the temple of Eros, which was located in her hometown of Thespia.
Phryne and the court
In the biography of the model Phryne, not everything was smooth. Once she had to stand trial. Orator Euthius was crazy about heterers, even shaved his beard to look younger, but she laughed and rejected his claims. Then he was deeply offended and sued Frina.
The reason for the trial was the very famous statue of Aphrodite of Cnidus: in ancient Greece, depicting the gods naked was blasphemy, this was equivalent to murder. Speaker Hyperida acted as the attorney for Geter Fryna. He very much counted on the favor of the girl in the event of a positive outcome in court.
In court, Euthius said that even Fryna is a courtesan, she is not just a licentious woman who confuses with her appearance both inexperienced youths and respectable husbands. In addition, she is an unheard of blasphemer who, out of vanity, competes in beauty with Aphrodite herself. Hyperid defended the girl with speeches that Phryne was a diligent priestess of the cult of Aphrodite and Eros, and her whole life was a confirmation of this ministry.
During the debate, Euthius accused Praxiteles and Apelles as accomplices. The case was taking a bad turn.
When Hyperid had almost no arguments left, he simply went up to Fryn and pulled off her clothes. Geter rose before the court in its pristine beauty. The judges and the audience present at the trial froze in silent admiration. And then they justified heterosexual, because according to the ancient Greek concept of kalogatii, a beautiful person cannot be a villain. And Euphius was punished with a large fine for a reservation.
Jean-Leon Jerome captured this scene in his painting “Frina before the Areopagus”.
The artist apparently used the word "Areopagus" for a red word, because in fact the Areopagus judged only for murders, and for blasphemy was tried in Heliei - a jury.
Frina and other artists
Heter Fryn posed not only for Praxiteles, but also for the famous artist Apelles, who was a friend of Alexander of Macedon. This union gave the world a fresco "Aphrodite Anadiome".
The plot of the fresco: Gay, tired of her husband’s infidelities, complained to her son Kronos about the pangs of jealousy, and he took it and scattered his father with a sickle. And the cut off genitals threw the adulterer into the sea. Blood turned sea foam and from it was born the goddess of love Aphrodite, who reached the shore on a huge sea shell.
The fresco, unfortunately, has not been preserved, but its alleged copy has survived to this day.
Famous artists of all times often return to the plot of this legend. For example, Botticelli, Boucher, Jean-Leon Jerome, Cabanel, Bouguereau, Redon, and many others.
Heter Fryn lived to a venerable age, she was rich, revered, famous. After her death, the beloved Praxiteles made another statue in memory of Frin. It was installed in Delphi.
Marble Phryne, adorned with gold, was installed between the statues of kings. A sign was attached to the pedestal on which they wrote: "Phrynius of Thespius, daughter of Epicles." This outraged the cynic Kratet, who said that this statue is nothing more than a monument of licentiousness. The social status of geta was much lower than the royal one, so some citizens were annoyed by the location of the statue of geta in such a company.
Poems, legends were composed about Freen, books were written, eminent figures of art dedicated to her many paintings. In the 80s of the last century, the impressionist artist Salvador Dali referred to the image of Frina as Aphrodite when she selected the design for the bottle with the perfume on which his name stood.
The legend of Freena has been living in the world for more than 4,000 years and this is not the limit.
Here was such a woman in whom one of the best sculptors of the planet saw a living embodiment of the goddess of love Aphrodite.