It was the most commonly used nickname for a famous Greek hetaira (meaning Toad or Rough-skinned). She was the daughter of Epicles and lived in Thespias and later moved to Athens. She was Praxiteles' favorite lover and model. Because of her singular beauty she was a model for most of the statues of Aphrodite. Her real name was Mnesareté (she who commemorates virtue).
In Greek, toad, antiphrastic nickname of Mnesarete (remembrance of virtue) of Thespias, hetaera of the fourth century BC. C . , muse of Praxiteles and other sculptors for his Aphrodites. Accused of impiety by the jealous and spiteful Euthys, the court of the heliastas acquitted her after her defender Hyperides stripped her naked before the judges: so much beauty (the same as we see in the Venus of Cnidus) could not be less than virtuous.
