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Fun fact: According to Greek legend there was a famous prostitute who managed to avoid a death sentence by showing the judges her boobs and arguing that it would be a crime against the Gods to destroy something so beautiful.

Theย courtesan named was named Phryne and she was indeed a renowned beauty, and was indeed was put on trial for a capital crime. And yes, the sum of her defense consisted of her stripping in court (helped by her lover/defendant) and asking the jury (all males) if they were prepared to destroy this.

But this is actually a very interesting case of Values Dissonance - the capital crime she was accused of was blasphemy. In Ancient Greek society, exceptional beauty was a sign of favor from the gods, and they took the idea that beauty indicated goodness with great seriousness. They even called their nobles Kaloi k'Agathoi, โ€œthe Beautiful and the Good.โ€

So by showing off her great physical beauty, Phryne was being very clever indeed, her argument essentially beingย โ€œHow could I possibly commit blasphemy if the gods have given me this body?โ€œ

Fucking love history.

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Ruminant Llama 2y ago

Greek mythology is so much fun to read!

If you rather like listening, I really recommend Stephen Fry`s "Mythos" -Trilogy audiobooks ๐Ÿ˜‰

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