Hello my mythology and history Greek enthusiasts!
Today we are looking at the ancient Greek Cinderella.
Almost all of us know the story of Cinderella. Some know it from the 1697 version by French author Charles Perrault in his book ”Mother Goose Tales”. Others met her through the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm in 1812.
But how many of you know the original story of Rhodopis? A Greek slave who married the king of Egypt and has many similarities with our famous Cinderella?
Grab your favorite drink, and let’s travel back in time to discover how this ancient legend began!
And sincei this story was told thousands of years ago, there are actually two different versions that have survived. Let’s look at how they compare!
The Ancient Greek Cinderella
Herodotus’ version
The story of Rhodopis, which means rosy cheeks, is first told to us by Herodotus in his 2nd volume of his book “The Histories” written around 431 BC.
Accordingto Herodotus, Rhodopis was a beautiful girl from Thrace, a region of Northern Greece and was a slave of Iadmon from Samos and a fellow slave of Aesop, the famous storyteller. Aesop himself makes a brief reference to her story and evenstates that he had met her personally and had told her many of his stories.
Later, she became a slave of Xanthis who was also from Samos and he took her to Naucratis, a Greek city in Egypt. There she met Haraxos, the brother of the famous poet Sappho who fell in love with her and set her free for a very large sum of money.
Haraxos returned to Lesvos while Rhodopi continued to live in Naucratis. Because of her incredible beauty she managed to acquire a great fortune there. Wanting to leave behind something to be remembered by in Greece, she therefore used a portion of her wealth to dedicate a unique monument at Delphi..
And this is where Herodotus’ story ends.
I guess you are wondering where the resemblance to our ancient Greek Cinderella is, and you wouldn’t be wrong to ask! To find it, we have to move forward in the timeline. For the next 400 years, Rhodopis’ name completely disappears from ancient sources.
Let’s see what happens next when the story changes.
Strabo’s version
Strabo, a Greek historian, philosopher and geographer from Amasya of Pontus, mentions her in his book “Geographica” written between 7 BC and 24 AD. Strabo’s story is also the first version of Cinderella as we know it today.
In the description of Strabo, we find many similarities with that of Herodotus. So we can conclude that Strabo had Herodotus as his source.
However, Strabo gives us a version that we do not find in Herodotus.
According to Strabo, Rhodopis was born in Greece but she was abducted by pirates who sold her as a slave in Egypt.
Her master was a good man and appreciated her. He had even given her a beautiful pair of sandals. However, he did not pay much attention to what was happeningin his house and slept most of the day. So, the other slaves who were jealous of her, found an opportunity to burden her with a heavy workload.
One day, while Rhodopis was bathing or washing her clothes in the river, an eagle appeared and snatched one of her sandals that she had left in the sun to dry. He carried it far to another city in Egypt, Memphis, and let it fall at the feet of the Pharaoh, while he was administering justice out in the countryside.
Pharaoh, astonished but also impressed by both the elegance of the sandal and the strangeness of the event, considered it a divine sign. He immediately sent his men all over the country to look for the owner of the sandal.
When they find Rhodopis in the city of Naucratis, they immediately take her to the Pharao in Memphis. Pharaoh, impressed by her beauty, made her his wife and Queen of Egypt.
Conclusion
So we find that there are many similarities in the history of Rhodopis as told by Strabo, with that of Cinderella.
A beautiful girl loses her shoe. A king finds it and looks for its owner. Once he finds her, he marries her.
The myth of Cinderella in all of its versions remains timeless throughout the centuries. This is proven by the reference of two non contemporary Greek authors in classical antiquity plus the history of Cinderella as we know it today.
The Ancient Greek Cinderella on YouTube
I have also made a video about the story of Rhodopis. Audio is in slow Greek with English subtitles. You can watch it on YouTube.
Want to challenge your Greek? Check out the Greek version:
Ροδώπις – η Αρχαία Ελληνική Σταχτοπούτα
