
Hypereides' household
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Myrtilus — εἶχεν, ἐν Πειραιεῖ δὲ Ἀρισταγόραν, Φίλαν δ’ ἐν Ἐλευσῖνι, ἣν πολλῶν ὠνησάμενος χρημάτων εἶχεν ἐλευθερώσας, ὕστερον δὲ καὶ οἰκουρὸν αὐτὴν ἐποιήσατο, ὡς Ἰδομενεὺς ἱστορεῖ. ἐν δὲ τῷ ὑπὲρ Φρύνης λόγῳ Ὑπερείδης ὁμολογῶν ἐρᾶν τῆς γυναικὸς καὶ οὐδέπω τοῦ ἔρωτος ἀπηλλαγμένος τὴν προειρημένην Μυρρίνην εἰς τὴν οἰκίαν εἰσήγαγεν. ἦν δ’ ἡ Φρύνη ἐκ Θεσπιῶν. κρινομένη δὲ ὑπὸ Εὐθίου τὴν ἐπὶ θανάτῳ ἀπέφυγεν· διόπερ ὀργισθεὶς ὁ Εὐθίας οὐκ ἔτι εἶπεν ἄλλην δίκην, ὥς φησιν
…he kept, and Aristagora in the Piraeus, and Phila at Eleusis, whom he had bought for a great deal of money and kept after freeing her; later he even made her his housekeeper, as Idomeneus reports. And in his speech for Phryne, Hypereides, admitting that he loved the woman and was not yet free of love, brought the aforementioned Myrrhine into his house. Phryne was from Thespiae. Put on trial by Euthias on a capital charge, she was acquitted; so in anger Euthias never pleaded another case, as we are told by…
Myrtilus is listing the courtesans the orator Hypereides kept, and comes to the one he defended. Grapevine: Idomeneus of Lampsacus wrote gossipy lives of Athenian politicians around 300 BC.
Myrtilus' point is that the great orator was a lover first. Hypereides kept women in three places, and he said so in open court: his speech for Phryne admitted he loved her. Idomeneus, the source for the household, wrote lives of Athenian demagogues and is not always kind.<br><br>Phryne came from Thespiae in Boeotia, a small town with a famous sanctuary of Eros. The trial was for her life. Her prosecutor, Euthias, lost and gave up the courts for good, a detail that makes the acquittal sound as humiliating for him as it was famous for her.
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