“I have long expected this question,” answered the Athenian.  “I shall be delighted to make you acquainted with the past history of this woman before you enter her house.  So long as we were on the Nile, I would not intrude my tale upon you; that ancient river has a wonderful power of compelling to silence and quiet contemplation.  Even my usually quick tongue was paralyzed like yours, when I took my first night-journey on the Nile.”

“I thank you for this,” replied the Spartan.  “When I first saw the aged priest Epimenides, at Knossus in Crete, he was one hundred and fifty years old, and I remember that his age and sanctity filled me with a strange dread; but how far older, how far more sacred, is this hoary river, the ancient stream ‘Aigyptos’!  Who would wish to avoid the power of his spells?  Now, however, I beg you to give me the history of Rhodopis.”

Phanes began:  “When Rhodopis was a little child playing with her companions on the Thracian sea-shore, she was stolen by some Phoenician mariners, carried to Samos, and bought by Iadmon, one of the geomori, or landed aristocracy of the island.  The little girl grew day by day more beautiful, graceful and clever, and was soon an object of love and admiration to all who knew her.  AEsop, the fable-writer, who was at that time also in bondage to Iadmon, took an especial pleasure in the growing amiability and talent of the child, taught her and cared for her in the same way as the tutors whom we keep to educate our Athenian boys.

The kind teacher found his pupil tractable and quick of comprehension, and the little slave soon practised the arts of music, singing and eloquence, in a more charming and agreeable manner than the sons of her master Iadmon, on whose education the greatest care had been lavished.  By the time she had reached her fourteenth year, Rhodopis was so beautiful and accomplished, that the jealous wife of Iadmon would not suffer her to remain any longer in the house, and the Samian was forced, with a heavy heart, to sell her to a certain Xanthus.  The government of Samos at that time was still in the hands of the less opulent nobles; had Polykrates then been at the head of affairs, Xanthus need not have despaired of a purchaser.  These tyrants fill their treasuries as the magpies their nests!  As it was, however, he went off with his precious jewel to Naukratis, and there gained a fortune by means of her wondrous charms.  These were three years of the deepest humiliation to Rhodopis, which she still remembers with horror.

Now it happened, just at the time when her fame was spreading through all Greece, and strangers were coming from far to Naukratis for her sake alone, that the people of Lesbos rose up against their nobles, drove them forth, and chose the wise Pittakus as their ruler.

   [According to Herodotus the beauty of Rhodopis was so great that
   every Greek knew her by name.]