Women of History: Selected from the Writings of Standard AuthorsVarious
History
Women of History: Selected from the Writings of Standard Authors
Various
Women -- Biography
This celebrated woman was of Photia, and daughter of one Hermotomus.
According to the portrait left us by AElian, she was very accomplished,
both in body and mind. Her name, before she went to Cyrus, was Milto,
for which the king substituted that of the famous mistress of Pericles.
Her rearing under her father, who lost her mother when the child was
born, was proportioned to his limited means; and, when very young, she
was the cause of a peculiar grief to him, insomuch as, while she was
extremely beautiful, she was rendered almost hideous by a tumour which
grew upon her chin. The doctor to whom her father had sent her to get
the tumour removed, returned the patient in the same condition in which
she went, for the reason that he had got no fee; and Milto was
consequently plunged in grief, every now and then examining her face in
the mirror. It was said that she discovered in a dream the means of her
cure; and when this was accomplished, her features were restored to
their natural proportions, so that she became the fairest maiden of her
time. She has been represented as having blonde hair, with a natural
curl; large eyes; a nose slightly aquiline; small ears; a delicate skin,
partaking of the rose and the lily; red lips; pearly teeth; her legs
and arms formed in perfection; and a voice so mellifluous as to rival
that of the sirens. These qualities, which were the gift of nature, were
unadorned by artifice, for neither the inclination nor the ability of
her father permitted of extraneous decoration.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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