RHODOPIS: THE VERY FIRST CINDERELLA

Since we were talking about the inspirations for classic Disney stories, let’s talk about the story that inspired Cinderella.

This is the earliest version of the typical rags-to-riches story (complete with the bonggang shoes and all that) that dates
back to 30 BCE, and was set in Egypt. This is the story of Rhodopis, the very first Cinderella.

Rhodopis is a Thracian girl sold to slavery from one dealer to another, until she came to Egypt and was sold to a wealthy
Egyptian by the name of Charaxos. Rhodopis was a great beauty: she had wavy golden hair, pale skin and green eyes,
whereas all the other servant girls have black hair, brown eyes and copper skin. Because of this, the other girls became
too envious and made her work harder than anybody else. She had no friends, only the birds and the animals (what is it
with this girls and friendly “birds”, right?)

But she remained cheerful and polite, and at the end of the day, when she thinks no one is watching, she would sing and
dance in the secluded part of the riverside, which became her only solace. One day, however, just when she thinks she
was alone and began singing and dancing, she didn’t see that the master of the house, Charaxos himself, was resting
beneath a tree and has heard her voice. When he came to investigate, he was amazed with her beauty and her skill in
dancing. He noticed that she had no shoes, though, so the next day, Charaxos gave her a pair of slippers gilded with
rose-red gold and had leather soles. This made the other servants angrier at her and made her work even harder, hurling
insults while she work.

Word got out that the Pharaoh will arrive in Memphis and will hold a banquet where everyone is invited (rich kid 3.0).
The girls were excited, especially Rhodopis, because she heard there will be dancing and singing and lots of great food to
be had, but on the day of the banquet, the jealous servant girls gave Rhodopis plenty of chores to work on so that she
cannot come to the party.

On her way to wash the linens in the river bank, she left her slippers on a rock so it would not get wet, but a falcon
swept one of the slippers away. She was in awe for she knew the falcon is none other than the god Horus. Rhodopis,
now with only one slipper, kept it in her tunic.

Meanwhile, the falcon dropped the slipper into the bored Pharaoh’s lap. Knowing that this was a sign from the revered
god Horus himself, he decreed that the owner of the slipper would be his queen.

After searching on land and not finding the owner he called for his barge and began to travel the Nile, pulling
into every landing so that maidens could try on the slipper. As the barge rounded the bend in front of the home of
Rhodopis, the servant girls ran to the landing to try on the shoe while Rhodopis hid in the rushes. When the servant girls
saw the slipper, they recognized it as Rhodopis' slipper but they said nothing and still tried to force their feet into it. The
Pharaoh spied Rhodopis hiding in the rushes and asked her to try on the slipper. She slid her tiny foot into the slipper
and then pulled the other from her tunic. The Pharaoh pronounced that she would be his queen. The servant girls cried
out that she was a slave and not even Egyptian. The Pharaoh responded with "She is the most Egyptian of all...for her
eyes are as green as the Nile, her fair as feathery as papyrus, and her skin the pink of a lotus flower."