Phryne (; , 371 BC – after 316 BC) was an ancient Greek hetaira (courtesan). From Thespiae in Boeotia, she was active in Athens, where she became one of the wealthiest women in Greece. She is best known for her trial for impiety, where 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, and the Aphrodite of Knidos was based on her. Life Phryne was from Thespiae in Boeotia, though she seems to have spent most of her life in Athens. She was probably born around 371 BC, and was the daughter of Epicles. Both Plutarch and Athenaeus say that Phryne's real name was Mnesarete. According to Plutarch she was called Phryne because she had a yellow complexion like a toad (in Greek: φρύνη); she also used the name Saperdion. Phryne apparently grew up poor – comic playwrights portray her picking capers – and became one of the wealthiest women in the Greek world. According to Callistratus, after Alexander razed Thebes in 335, Phryne offered to pay to rebuild the walls. She probably lived beyond 316 BC, when Thebes was rebuilt. She was also said to have dedicated a statue of herself at Delphi, and a statue of Eros to Thespiae. 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". Trial The most famous event in Phryne's life was the prosecution brought shortly after 350 BC by Euthias, where she was defended by Hypereides. According to legend, Hypereides exposed Phryne's breasts to the jury, who were so struck by her beauty that she was acquitted. According to the ancient sources, 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 – that she held a "shameless komos" or ritual procession, that she introduced a new god, and that she organised unlawful thiasoi or debauched meetings. The new god that Phryne was supposed to have introduced to Athens was named by Harpocration as Isodaites; however, though Harpocration describes him as being "foreign" and "new", the name is Greek and