LAYS  , the name of two

Greek courtesans, generally distinguished as follows . (I) The elder, a native of Corinth, born c . 480 B.C., was famous for her greed and hardheartedness, which gained her the nickname of Axine (the axe) . Among her lovers were the philosophers Aristippus and Diogenes, and Eubatas (or Aristoteles) of Cyrene, a famous runner . In her old age she became a drunkard . Her grave was shown in the Craneion near Corinth, surmounted by a lioness tearing a ram . (2) The younger, daughter of Timandra the mistress of Alcibiades, born at Hyccara in Sicily c . 420 B.C., taken to Corinth during the Sicilian expedition . The painter Apelles, who saw her drawing water from the fountain of Peirene, was struck by her beauty, and took her as a model . Having followed a handsome Thessalian to his native land, she was slain in the temple of Aphrodite by women who were jealous of her beauty . Many anecdotes are told of a Lads by Athenaeus, Aelian, Pausanias, and she forms the subject of many epigrams in the Greek Anthology; but, owing to the similarity of names, there is considerable uncertainty to whom they refer . The name itself, like Phryne, was used as a general term for a courtesan .

See F .

Jacobs, Vermischte Schriften, iv . (183o) .