Minor Points of Interest
- Herodotus tells us that the prostitutes of Naucratis were "peculiarly alluring" and relates the story of Charaxus, brother of the poet Sappho, who traveled to Naucratis to purchase (for a "vast sum") the freedom of one Rhodopis, a bewitchingly beautiful Thracian slave and courtesan. After obtaining her freedom, she set up a house of ill-repute, built up a thriving business and amassed a small fortune. As a measure of thanks she commissioned an expensive votive offering to the gods, eventually placed at Delphi and which could be seen still in the historian's day.
- An Athenian cup found in one of the sanctuaries has a dedication inscribed from a worshipper named "Herodotus" and dates from the time the great historian was known to have visited there.
Read more about this topic: Naucratis
Famous quotes containing the words minor, points and/or interest:
“To minor authors is left the ornamentation of the commonplace: these do not bother about any reinventing of the world; they merely try to squeeze the best they can out of a given order of things, out of traditional patterns of fiction.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“Sometimes apparent resemblances of character will bring two men together and for a certain time unite them. But their mistake gradually becomes evident, and they are astonished to find themselves not only far apart, but even repelled, in some sort, at all their points of contact.”
—Sébastien-Roch Nicolas De Chamfort (1741–1794)
“There is hardly any contact more depressing to a young ardent creature than that of a mind in which years full of knowledge seem to have issued in a blank absence of interest or sympathy.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)