Group 4
Dr. Marquardt
ENG1430
Summary
of “Rhodopis”
Rhodopis is a story about a female Greek
slave, this story told readers how slave Rhodopis became Egyptian Pharaoh’s
wife. Rhodopis is actually a name of a young beautiful Greek courtesan, and she
got married with an Egyptian Pharaoh. After her story was first recorded by the
Greek historian Strabo in the 1st century BC, this story was widely spread
around the word. And it is considered the earliest known variant of the
"Cinderella" story.
Long ago in the land of Egypt, land of
the green Nile, there lived a slave girl named Rhodopis. Rhodopis was born in
Greece, who was sold to an Egyptian in a young age. One thing that makes her
different from other slavery is that she is extremely beautiful. She has long
golden curly hair and brown deep eyes. Other female slaves don’t want to be her
friends and made her do all their work. Rhodopis only
can make friends with animals.
One evening Rhodopis had more energy
than usual when the day was done. Her master had fallen asleep under a tree
near the river. She went down to the river near her animals, danced and sang so
lightly. Then her master woke from his sleep and listened to her singing. He
admired her dancing and felt that one so talented should not be without shoes.
He ordered her a special pair of red slippers. After that, other servant girls
teased Rhodopis even more because they were jealous of her beautiful red
slippers.
A little while after this, the Pharaoh
held a big party in Memphis and all in the kingdom were invited. Rhodopis
wanted to dance in the party as well, but any other female slaves went to the
party that night, so she had to stay at home and did extra work. That night
Rhodopis was so sad that she began to sing out aloud to express her sadness.
Her voice attracted a hippo so that hippo wanted to get closer to her, but the splashing
of the water wet Rhodopis’s slippers. She took them off and put slippers under
the sun to dry. At that time, a falcon flew down and snatched one of the slippers.
However, Rhodopis was in awe because she knew it was the God Horus who had
taken her shoes. And the left slipper was thrown in the Pharaoh’s chariot.
Pharaoh thought that was God Horus’s sign. So he kept the slipper. In order to
find the owner of this slipper, Pharaoh asked all women in the kingdom to try
to put on this slipper, the one who fit the slipper best is the women who he
looked for.
Finally, people find out that no other
women can fit in this slipper expect Rhodopis. Then the pharaoh married Rhodopis.
This story was written in the 1st
century BC, so there are some terms that readers may not totally understand.
Such as “pharaoh”, pharaoh is a title of an ancient Egyptian king. “Courtesan”
is a prostitute, especially one associating with noblemen or men of wealth. And
her name “Rhodopis” means one’s face like a rose, and other strange thing is
that the slipper that master gave her is also red, there may exist some
connections.
Works Cited
"Egyptian
Cinderella -- Rhodopis." ArticleSnatch Article Directory. N.p., n.d. Web.
05 Mar. 2015.
