"One day Rhodopis was out bathing. An eagle snatched one of her sandals from a maid's hands. The bird flew to Memphis, where it dropped the sandal from high in the air onto the Pharaoh's lap as he was judging people's disputes out in the open. The Pharaoh saw that it was a beautiful sandal. He sent men all over Egypt to look for the woman it belonged to. They finally found her, in Naucratis. She became the Pharaoh's wife. On her death, the pyramid was built in her honor." (The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony, pg. 270-271)
This story was recorded by a greek historian named Strabo and, as you most likely noticed, it is reminiscent of a story you're more familiar with, Cinderella. This isn't the only account of the girls life though.
The other story involves a young Greek man by the name of Charaxus. He came from the island of Lesbos with a shipment of wine to make his fortune. What he found instead was the most beautiful courtesan he'd ever seen and his fortune began to disappear. The account survived through the writings of Sappho who pleaded with her brother Charaxus to return home before that foul strumpet spent every last scrap of his wealth. According to Calasso, "Herodotus was shocked when it was suggested that the Micerine pyramid had been built for Rhodopis. How could a buliding "that had cost countless thousands of talents" belong to a hetaera?"
A fact that both stories agree upon is that, while in slavery, Rhodopis made friends with another slave by the name of Aesop. The life of Aesop is left widely up to speculation as well, but there's no doubt that he was a great story teller. Was Rhodopis' fairy tale ending some how related to her fable weaving friend? It's hard to say, but the story caught on and the Micerine pyramid is sometimes referred to as the Courtesan's pyramid.
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