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Rhodopis really arrived in Egypt under the conduct of Xantheus the
Samian; she was brought there to exercise her trade, but was redeemed
for a vast sum by Charaxus, a Mytilenaean, the son of
Scamandronymus, and brother of Sappho the poetess. After thus
obtaining her freedom, she remained in Egypt, and, as she was very
beautiful, amassed great wealth, for a person in her condition; not,
however, enough to enable her to erect such a work as this pyramid.
Any one who likes may go and see to what the tenth part of her wealth
amounted, and he will thereby learn that her riches must not be
imagined to have been very wonderfully great. Wishing to leave a
memorial of herself in Greece, she determined to have something made
the like of which was not to be found in any temple, and to offer it at
the shrine at Delphi. So she set apart a tenth of her possessions,
and purchased with the money a quantity of iron spits, such as are fit
for roasting oxen whole, whereof she made a present to the oracle.
They are still to be seen there, lying of a heap, behind the altar
which the Chians dedicated, opposite the sanctuary. Naucratis seems
somehow to be the place where such women are most attractive. First
there was this Rhodopis of whom we have been speaking, so celebrated a
person that her name came to be familiar to all the Greeks; and,
afterwards, there was another, called Archidice, notorious
throughout Greece, though not so much talked of as her predecessor.
Charaxus, after ransoming Rhodopis, returned to Mytilene, and was
often lashed by Sappho in her poetry. But enough has been said on the
subject of this courtesan.
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