The Celebrity Sex Worker of Ancient Greece

Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society

History Hit

Society, Sex, Scandal, Education, History

4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 19 March 2024

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This is the story of one of the most notorious women of the Ancient world.

Phrynne was a sex worker in the 4th century BC who came from an impoverished background to be one of the most talked about, and wealthiest, women in Greece.

What do we know about her remarkable life? Was it true that by exposing her breasts in court, she was acquitted from a potential death penalty? And how has her influence been felt in the centuries since then?

Joining Kate today is Melissa Funke, author of Phryne: A Life in Fragments, to find out more.

This episode was edited and produced by Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Charlotte Long.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Good news your favorite history nerds are back. Yes, we at We Are History
0:05.9	have been trawling the history shelves of our local bookshops. Well, I have John,
0:10.4	you most do you went around finding your books and moving them to the front of the
0:13.5	displays. If I could find them it's a bonus. We are ready to tell you all about what we've
0:18.0	learned from the revolting French to some revolting women via some Brits abroad and a foul-mouthed Irishman.
0:24.8	So download We Are History.
0:27.1	Our laughable attempt to a silly history podcast.
0:30.1	With me, Jono Foul, and me Angela Barnes. Wherever you get your podcasts.
0:35.0	Hello my lovely bedwixters I'm back again you're back again and that that really is the most
0:46.3	important thing because if you weren't back again this is just a mad woman talking
0:49.3	into a microphone with absolutely nobody listening to her so I'm very glad that you are here again but
0:55.3	before we can keep going on our little journey together uh-huh you know it's the fair days
0:59.5	warning this is an adult podcast broken by adults to other adults about adult
1:03.5	things in an adulty way covering the range of adult subjects and you should be an adult
1:07.4	too. It does seem kind of silly that I have to keep issuing this warning at the top
1:12.4	of a show which is quite clearly about sex but I've actually got to the point where I enjoy doing it now
1:16.3	so that's just it fair dues forevermore let's do this! Come take a seat betwixtus and thank you so much for Donning such a fabulous toga.
1:30.0	We are here in 350 b.C. E ancient Greece and we have arrived just in time for the infamous
1:37.2	trial of Freeny, one of the most famous and frankly fabulous cortisans of her and well of all time actually.
1:45.6	Freeny is on trial with three accusations put against her, one of them being
1:50.3	that she organized unlawful fire say which were apparently debauched meetings.
1:55.6	I've never been to one of them but I have been to a weatherspoons and I think that
	...

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