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Pliny on Rhodopis' pyramid.

Pliny on Rhodopis’ pyramid (Naturalis Historia 36.17):

Hæc sunt pyramidum miracula, supremumque illud, ne quis regum opes miretur, minimam ex iis, sed laudatissimam, a Rhodopide meretricula factam.

These are the marvels of the pyramids, and the greatest of all—lest anyone marvel at the riches of kings—is that the smallest but most admired of them was built by Rhodopis, a courtesan.

Rhodopis, a Greek said to be a contemporary of Aesop, was already known in antiquity not to have built any pyramids. Herodotus made his argument against the story based on the anachronisms in it: Rhodopis was said to have lived long after the pyramids in question were supposed to have been built. Even without any pyramids, she is immortalized as the heroine of the oldest known Cinderella story.

[For pyramis.]

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