Rhodōpis
（
Ῥοδῶπις). A celebrated Greek courtesan, of Thracian
origin. She was a fellow-slave with the poet Aesop, both of them belonging to the Samian
Iadmon. She afterwards became the property of Xanthus, another Samian, who carried her to
Naucratis in Egypt, in the reign of Amasis, and at this great seaport she carried on the trade
of an hetaera for the benefit of her master. While thus employed, Charaxus, the brother of the
poetess Sappho, who had come to Naucratis as a merchant, fell in love with her, and ransomed
her from slavery for a large sum of money. She was in consequence attacked by Sappho in a
poem. She continued to live at Naucratis, and with the tenth part of her gains she dedicated
at Delphi ten iron spits, which were seen by Herodotus. She is called Rhodopis by Herodotus,
but Sappho in her poem spoke of her under the name of Doricha. It is therefore probable that
Doricha was her real name, and that she received that of Rhodopis, which signifies the
“rosy-cheeked,” on account of her beauty. Cf. Herod. ii. 134, 135; Athen.
p. 596; Suid. s. v.
