nt. After her murder, a
pestilence is said to have broken out in Thessaly, which did not end
until in expiation a temple had been erected to Aphrodite.

Phryne was the most beautiful woman of all antiquity. She was born at
Thespiae in Boeotia, but flourished at Athens toward the latter part of
the fourth century before our era. The name Phryne belongs essentially
to the history of Greek art, for all her life was associated with the
activities of the most eminent painters and sculptors. In her youth she
was loved by the sculptor Praxiteles. Pausanias tells a story how "once
when Phryne asked for the most beautiful of his works, Praxiteles,
lover-like, promised to give it to her, but would not tell which he
thought the most beautiful. So a servant of Phryne ran in, declaring
that the sculptor's studio had caught fire, and that most, but not all,
of his works had perished. Praxiteles at once ran for the door,
protesting that all his labor was lost if the flames had reached the
_Satyr_ and the _Love_. But Phryne bade him stay and be of good cheer,
telling him that he had suffered no loss, but had only been entrapped
into saying which were the most beautiful of his works. So she chose the
_Love_."

Either this or a similar statue of Eros was dedicated by Phryne in
Thespiae, the city of her birth. Later, Praxiteles made of her a statue
of gold, which was set up at Delphi between those of two kings. She also
served as his model for the celebrated Aphrodite of Cnidos, which Pliny
describes as "the finest statue, not only by Praxiteles, but in the
whole world." The inhabitants of Cnidos placed the image, which they
believed had been made under the direct inspiration of the goddess of
love herself, in a beautiful shrine surrounded by myrtle trees, so
arranged that the figure might be seen from many different points of
view; "and from all sides," adds Pliny, "it was equally admired." Hither
came Greeks from all parts of the world merely to behold the statue and
to worship at the shrine of the goddess. King Nicomedes of Bithynia, in
his eagerness to possess the statue, offered to pay for it the whole
public debt of the island, which was enormous; but the Cnidians
preferred to suffer anything rather than give up their treasure; and
with good reason, "for by that statue Praxiteles made Cnidos famous."
Writers of epigrams were fond of extolling the statue; and many of the
extant statues of Venus are but replicas or adaptations of thi