Phrynichus
(Φρύνιχος) an Athenian general, the son of Stratonides (Schol. ad Aristoph. Lys. 313). In B. C. 412 he was sent out with two others in command of a fleet of 40 ships to the coast of Asia Minor. The troops encamped in the territory of Miletus. A battle ensued in which the Athenians were victorious. A Peloponnesian fleet having arrived soon after, the colleagues of Plllrynichus were for risking an engagement, from which Phrynichus (wisely, as Thucydides thinks) dissuaded them (Thuc. 8.25, 27, &c.). In 411, when proposals were made to the Athenians at Samos on the part of Alcibiades, who offered to secure for them Persian aid if an oligarchy were established instead of a democracy, Phrynichus again offered some sagacious advice, pointing out the dangers into which such a course would plunge them, and expressing his belief that Alcibiades was not at heart more friendly to an oligarchy than to a democracy, and his doubts as to his power of executing his promises. Peisander and the other members of the oligarchical faction, however, slighted his advice, and sent a deputation to Athens. Phrynichus, fearing for his safety in case Alcibiades should be restored, sent a letter to Astyochus, informing him of the machinations of Alcibiades. Astyochus betrayed the communication to Tissaphernes and Alcibiades, and the latter complained to his friends in the Athenian armament of the treason of Phrynichus, and demanded that he should be put to death. Thirlwall (vol. iv. p. 34) is atiloss to decide whether the conduct of Phrynichus upon this occasion was the result of a blind want of caution, or a bold and subtle artifice. He wrote again to Astyochus, offering to betray the Athenian armament into his hands, and before the letter of Alcibiades, to whom Astyochus again showed the letter of Phrynichus, who sent a fresh charge against Phrynichus, could reach the Athenians, Phrynichus warned the Athenians that the enemy were preparing to surprise their encampment. By these means he made it appear that the charges of Alcibiades were groundless, and preferred against him out of personal enmity. Soon afterwards Peisander, wishing to get Phrynichus out of the way, procured his recal. In the subsequent progress of the oligarchical intrigues, when the oligarchical faction found that the hopes held out to them by Alcibiades were groundless, and that they could get on better without him than with him, Phrynichus again joined them, and, in conjunction with Antiphon, Peisander, and Theramenes, took a prominent part in the revolution which issued in the establishment of the oligarchy of the Four Hundred. When, on the junction effected between Alcibiades and the Athenians at Samos, Theramenes and others counselled the oligarchs to make the best terms they could with their antagonists, Phrynichus was one of the foremost in opposing every thing of the kind, and with Antiphon and ten others was sent to Sparta to negotiate a peace. On his return he was assassinated in the agora by a young Athenian, who was assisted by an Argive. The former escaped, but the latter was seized and put to the torture. It appeared that the assassination was the result of a conspiracy among those opposed to the oligarchs, and the latter found it the most prudent plan not to pursue the investigation (Thuc. 8.48, 50, &c., 54, 68, 90, 92). Lycurgus (ad v. Leocr. p. 217, ed. Reiske) gives a different account of his assassination. [C.P.M]
(Φρύνιχος), literary.
1. The son of Polyphradmon (or, according to others, of Minyras), an Athenian, was one of the poets to whom the invention of tragedy is ascribed : he is said to have been the disciple of Thespis (Suid. s. v.) He is also spoken of as before Aeschylus (Schol. in Aristoph. Ran. 941). He is mentioned by the chronographers as flourishing at Ol. 74, B. C. 483 (Cyrill. Julian. i. p. 13b.; Euseb. Chron. s. a. 1534 ; Clinton, F. H. s. a.). He gained his first tragic victory in Ol. 67, B. C. 511 (Suid. s. v.), twenty-four years after Thespis (B. C. 535), twelve years after Choerilus (B. C. 523), and twelve years before Aeschylus (B. C. 499); and his last in Ol. 76, B. C. 476, on which occasion Themistocles was his choragus, and recorded the event by an inscription (Plut. Themist. 5). Phrynichus must, therefore, have flourished at least 35 years. He probably went, like other poets of the age, to the court of Hiero, and there died; for the statement of the anonymous writer on Comedy, in his account of Phrynichus, the comic poet (p. 29), that Phrynichus, the son of Phradmon, died in Sicily, evidently refers properly to the tragic poet, on account of his father's name.
In all the accounts of the rise and development of tragedy, the chief place after Thespis is assigned to Phrynichus. The external and mechanical improvements in the drama are indeed ascribed to each of the great tragedians who lived at the end of the sixth and beginning of the fifth centuries B. C., namely, Choerilus, Phrynichus, Pratinas, and Aeschylus; and there might well be doubts on such matters, as every formal improvement made by either of these poets must, of necessity, have been adopted by the others; so that the tragedy which Phrynichus exhibited in B. C. 476. after the introduction of those improvements which are usually ascribed to Aeschylus, must have been altogether a different kind of drama from that with which he gained his first prize in B. C. 511. Of such inventions, the one ascribed to Phrynichus is the introduction of masks representing female persons in the drama. But those improvements which are ascribed specially to Phrynichus affect the internal poetical character of the drama, and entitle him to be considered as the real inventor of tragedy, an honour which the ancients were in doubt whether to assign to him or to Thespis (Plato, Mlinos, p. 321). For the light, ludicrous, Bacchanalian stories of the latter, he substituted regular and serious subjects, taken either from the heroic age, or the heroic deeds which illustrated the history of his own time. In these he aimed, not so much to amuse the audience as to move their passions; and so powerful was the effect of his tragedy on the capture of Miletus, that the audience hurst into tears, and fined the poet a thousand drachmae, because he had exhibited the sufferings of a kindred people, and even passed a law that no one should ever again make use of that drama (Hdt. 6.21). It has been supposed by some that the subjects chosen by Phrynichus, and his mode of treating them, may have been influenced by the recent publication, under the care of Peisistratus, of the collected poems of Homer; which poems, in fact, Aristotle regards as the source of the first idea of tragedy. Aeschylus, the great successor of Phrynichus, used to acknowledge his obligations to Homer, by saying that his tragedies were only τεμάχη τῶν Ὁμήρου μεγάλων δείπνων. (Ath. viii. p. 348.)
In the poetry of the drama, also, Phrynichus made very great improvements. To the light mimetic chorus of Thespis he added the sublime music of the dithyrambic chorusses; and the effect of this alteration must have been to expel from the chorus much of the former element, and to cause a better arrangement of the parts which were assigned respectively to the chorus and the actor. We have several allusions to the sublime grandeur, and the sweet harmony of his choral songs. Aristophanes more than once contrasts the e ancient and beautiful melodies with the involved refinements of later poets (Av. 748, Vesp. 219, 269, Ran. 911, 1294, Thesin. 164; comp. Schol. ad loc. and ad Ran. 941) ; some writers ascribe to Phrynichus the ancient hymn to Pallas which Aristophanes refers to as a model of the old poetry (Nub. 964; comp. Lamprocles) ; and his were among the paeans which it was customary to sing at the close of banquets and of sacrifices (Bode, Gesch. d. Hellen. Dichtkunst, vol. ii. pt. 1, p. 70).
Phrynichus appears moreover to have paid particular attention to the dances of the chorus ; and there is an epigram ascribed to him, celebrating his skill in the invention of figures (Plut. Sympos. 3.9). Suidas also says that he composed pyrrhic dances (s. v.)
In the drama of Phrynichus, however, the chorus still retained the principal place, and it was reserved for Aeschylus and Sophocles to bring the dialogue and action into their due position. Thus Aristophanes, while attacking Aeschylus for this very fault, intimates that it was a remnant of the drama of Phrynichus (Ran.906, &e.); and one of the problems of Aristotle is, "Why were the poets of the age of Phrynichus more lyric than the later tragedians ?" to which his answer is that the lyric parts were much more extensive than the narrative in their tragedies. (Prob. 19.31.)
Of the several plays of Phrynichus we have very little information. Suidas, who (as in other instances) has two articles upon him, derived, no doubt, from different sources, gives the following titles :--Πλευρωνίαι (or Πλεύρων, Paus. 10.31.2), Αἰγύπτιοι, Ἀκταίων, Ἄλκηστις, Ἀνταῖος ἢ Λίβυες, Δίκαιοι ἢ Πέρσαι ἢ Σύνθωκοι, Δαναίδες, Ἀνδρομέδα, Ἠριγόνη, and Ἅλωσις Μιλησίων (or Μιλήτου ἅλωσις). The last of these plays, which has already been referred to, must have been acted after B. C. 494, the year in which Miletus was taken by the Persians. Suidas omits one of his most celebrated, and apparently one of his best plays, namely, the Phoenissae, which had for its subject the defeat of the Persian invaders, and to which Aeschylus is said by an ancient writer to have been greatly indebted in his Persae (Argum. in Aesch. Pers.). The conjecture of Bentley seems very probable, that this was the play with which Phrynichus gained his last recorded victory, with Themistocles for his choragus. Phrynichus had a son, Polyphradmon, who was also a tragic poet. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. p. 316; Bentley, Answer to Boyle ; Welcker, Die Griech. Trag. pp. 18, 127; Müller; Bode; Bernhardy.)
2. A tragic actor, son of Chorocles, whom Suidas confounds with the great tragic poet, but who is distinguished from him by a scholiast on Aristophanes (Aristoph. Birds 750), who mentions four Phrynichi, the tragic poet, the tragic actor, the comic poet, and a general. This actor is no doubt the person whose dancing is ridiculed by Aristophanes, in passages which Bentley erroneously referred to the tragic poet (Vesp. 1481, 1515). He is also mentioned by Andocides as Φρύνιχος ὁ ὀρχησάμενος (De Myst. p. 24); and an attack in the Clouds of Aristophanes (1092), on the tragic actors of the day is explained by the scholiast as referring to Phrvnichus. (See Meineke, Hist. Crit. Com. Graec. pp. 148, 149.)
3. A comic poet of the Old Comedy (τῶν ἐπιδευτέρων τῆς ἀρχαίας κωμωδίας), was, according to the most probable statement, the son of Eunomides (Schol. ad Aristoph. Ran. 14). He first exhibited, according to Suidas, in Ol. 86, B. C. 435, where, however, we should perhaps read Ol. 87, for the anonymous writer on Comedy (p. 29) places him, with Eupolis. at Ol. 87. 3, B. C. 429 (Clinton, F. H. sub ann.). Nothing more is known of the life of Phrynichus, for the statement of the anonymous writer, that he died in Sicily, refers, in all probability, to the tragic poet (see above), and the story of a scholiast (ad Aristoph. Ran. 700) about his being elected a general, is an error which has been sufficiently exposed by Bentley and Meineke.
Phrvnichus was ranked by the grammarians among the most distinguished poets of the Old Comedy (Anon. de Com. p. 28), and the elegance and vigour of his extant fragments sustain this judgment. Aristophanes, indeed, attacks him, together with other comic poets, for the use of low and obsolete buffoonery (Ran. 14), but the scholiast on the passage asserts that there was nothing of the sort in his extant plays. He was also charged with corrupting both language and metre, and with plagiarism; the last of these charges was brought against him by the comic poet Hermippus, in his Φορμόφοροι (Schol. ad Aristoph. l.c., and Av. 750). These accusations are probably to be regarded rather as indications of the height to which the rivalry of the comic poets was carried, than as the statement of actual truths. We find Eupolis also charged by Aristophanes with plagiarisms from Phrynichus (Nub. 553). On the subject of metre, we are informed that Phrynichus invented the Ionic a Minore Catalectic verse, which was named after him (Marius Victor, p. 2542, Putsch; Hephaest. p. 67, Gaisf.) : about another metre, the Trinician, there is some doubt (see Meineke, pp. 150, 151). His language is generally terse and elegant, but he sometimes uses words of peculiar formation (Meineke, p. 151). The celebrated grammarian, Didymus of Alexandria, wrote commentaries on Phrynichus, one of which, on the Κρόνος, is quoted by Athenaeus (ix. p. 371f.).
The number of his comedies is stated by the anonymous writer on comedy (p. 34) at ten; and Suidaa gives the same number of titles, namely, Ἐφιάλτης, Κόννος, Κρόνος, Κωμασταί, Σάτυρυι, Τραγφδοὶ ἢ Ἀπελεύθεροι, Μονότροπος, Μοῦσαι, Μύστης, Προάστριαι, the subjects of which are fully discussed by Meineke. The Μονότροπος was acted, with the Birds of Aristophanes and the Comastae of Ameipsias, in Ol. 91. 2, B. C. 414, and obtained the third prize; and the Μοῦσαι was acted, with the Frogs of Aristophanes and the Cleophon of Plato, in Ol. 93. 3, B. C. 405, and obtained the second prize. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. pp. 483, 484; Meineke, Frag. Com. Graec. vol. i. pp. 146-160, ii. pp. 580-608; Bergk, Reliq. Com. Att. Ant. pp. 366, &c.) [P.S]
(Φρύνιχος). (1) A Greek tragic poet of Athens, an older contemporary of Aeschylus. He won his first victory as early as B.C. 511. He rendered a great service to the development of the drama by introducing an actor distinct from the leader of the chorus, and so laying the foundation for the dialogue. But the dialogue was still quite subordinate to the lyrics of the chorus. In this department he won extraordinary celebrity by the grace and melody of his verses, which continued to be sung at Athens long after. Besides mythical subjects, he dealt with events of contemporary history, as the conquest of Miletus (Μιλήτου Ἅλωσις) by the Persians. At the representation of that event the audience burst into tears, and the poet was fined 1000 drachmae for recalling the disasters of his country, all further performance of the piece being prohibited (Herod.vi. 21). Again, in his Phoenissae (so named after the chorus of Sidonian women) he dealt with the battle of Salamis. This play, which was put on the stage by Themistocles in 478, was the model of Aeschylus's Persae. Phrynichus, like Aeschylus, is said to have died in Sicily. We possess only the titles of nine of his plays and a few fragments.
(2) A Greek poet of Athens; one of the less important writers of the Old Attic Comedy, and a frequent butt of the other comic poets. In B.C. 405, however, his Musae took the second prize after Aristophanes' Frogs. We have only fragments of about ten plays, ed. by Koch (1880 foll.).
(3) A Greek Sophist, who lived in the second half of the third century A.D. in Bithynia; author of a selection of Attic verbs and nouns (Ἐκλογὴ Πημάτων καὶ Ὀνομάτων Ἀττικῶν), compiled with great strictness in the exclusion of all but the best Attic forms. We have also notable excerpts from a work of his in thirty-seven books, dedicated to the emperor Commodus, and entitled The Sophistic Armoury (Παρασκευή). It was founded on the most comprehensive learning, and designed to supply the orator with everything necessary for good and pure expression. The arrangement is alphabetical, and it includes examples from the best authors, the different styles being carefully distinguished. The first work is edited by Lobeck (Leipzig, 1820); the second by Bekker (Berlin, 1814). See Rutherford's New Phrynichus (1881).
- dramatist, his play The Pleuronian Women, Paus. 10.31.4
- the Athenian tragedian, his play "Capture of Miletus" suppressed: Hdt. 6.21