Note 634 — Chapter XX · EGYPTIANS.

The beautiful Thracian courtezan, Rhodôpis, was purchased by a Samian merchant named Xanthês, and conveyed to Naukratis, in order that he might make money by her (κατ᾽ ἐργασίην). The speculation proved a successful one, for Charaxus, brother of Sappho, going to Naukratis with a cargo of wine, became so captivated with Rhodôpis, that he purchased her for a very large sum of money, and gave her her freedom. She then carried on her profession at Naukratis on her own account, realized a handsome fortune, the tithe of which she employed in a votive offering at Delphi, and acquired so much renown, that the Egyptian Greeks ascribed to her the building of one of the pyramids,—a supposition, on the absurdity of which Herodotus makes proper comments, but which proves the great celebrity of the name of Rhodôpis (Herodot. ii, 134). Athenæus calls her Dôrichê, and distinguishes her from Rhodôpis (xiii. p. 596, compare Suidas, v. Ῥοδωπίδος ἀνάθημα). When Charaxus returned to Mitylênê, his sister Sappho composed a song, in which she greatly derided him for this proceeding,—a song which doubtless Herodotus knew, and which gives to the whole anecdote a complete authenticity.

Now we can hardly put the age of Sappho lower than 600-580 B. C. (see Mr. Clinton, Fasti Hellen ad ann. 595 B. C., and Ulrici, Geschichte der Griech. Lyrik, ch. xxiii, p. 360): Alkæus, too, her contemporary, had himself visited Egypt. (Alcæi Fragm. 103, ed. Bergk; Strabo, i, p. 63). The Greek settlement at Naukratis, therefore, must be decidedly older than Amasis, who began to reign in 570 B. C., and the residence of Rhodôpis in that town must have begun earlier than Amasis, though Herodotus calls her κατ᾽ Ἄμασιν ἀκμάζουσα (ii, 134). Nor can we construe the language of Herodotus strictly, when he says that it was Amasis who permitted the residence of Greeks at Naukratis (ii, 173).