Lais
2. The younger Lais was the daughter of Timandra (see above), who is sportively called Damasandra in Athenaeus (xiii. p. 574e.). Lais was probably born at Hyccara in Sicily.
According to some accounts she was brought to Corinth when seven years old, having been taken prisoner in the Athenian expedition to Sicily, and bought by a Corinthian. (Plut.
l.c. ; Paus. 2.2.5; Schol.
ad Aristoph. Plut. 179;
Athen. 13.589.)
This story however, which involves numerous difficulties, is rejected by Jacobs, who attributes it to a confusion between this Lais and the elder one of the same name.
The story of Apelles having induced her to enter upon the life of a courtezan must have reference to the younger Lais. (
Athen. 13.588.)
She was a contemporary and rival of Phryne. (
Athen. 13.588e.)
She became enamoured of a Thessalian named Hippolochus, or Hippostratus, and accompanied him to Thessaly. Here, it is said, some Thessalian women, jealous of her beauty, enticed her into a temple of Aphrodite, and there stoned her to death. (
Paus. 2.2 ยง 5; Plut. vol. ii. p. 767e.;
Athen. 13.589b.)
According to the scholiast on Aristophanes (
Aristoph. Pl. 179), a pestilence ensued, which did not abate till a temple was dedicated to Aphrodite Anosia.
She was buried on the banks of the Peneus.
The inscription on her monument is preserved by Athenaeus (xiii. p. 589).
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