Phano Factoid Prosopography

Based on: Dem. 59

This case study is based on the challenges surrounding the disambiguation and modelling of Phano in Dem. 59. In Dem. 59, Apollodorus argues that Neaira is a foreign-born prostitute illegally living with an Athenian citizen man (Stephanus) as his wife. To support his argument, Apollodorus uses the figure of Phano, who he alleges is the daughter of Neaira being passed off as a legitimate citizen daughter.

Within the text of Dem. 59, we learn about multiple arguments being made about Phano's identity:

1. The prosecution argues that Phano was once called Strybele (Dem. 59.50)
2. The prosecution argues that Phano is the daughter of Neaira and therefore not a citizen (Dem 59.50)
3. The defense argues that Phano is the daughter of Stephanus and therefore a citizen (Dem. 59.119)

To express these contrasting arguments, this case study turns to Factoid Prosopography, an approach to prosopography centered on the idea of factoid, or "a spot in a source that says something about a person or persons." Rather than a fact, a factoid is an assertion from a source that is neither necessarily true or untrue.

The above arguments can be extrapolated into the following factoids:

• Factoid 1: Phano was once called Strybele
• Factoid 2: Phano is the daughter of Neaira
• Factoid 3: Phano is the daughter of Stephanus

On this page, you can examine visualizations of the Phano factoids, modelled through the Factoid Prosopography Ontology. These visualizations were created with the TALOS RDF Graph Viewer. You can also download the RDF used to create these visualizations.

Visualization of all Factoids:

Factoid 1: Phano was once called Strybele

Factoid 2: Phano is the daughter of Neaira

Factoid 3: Phano is the daughter of Stephanus