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PIIRYNNIS.
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 4>opju.o<£op(H (Schol. ad Aristoph. I. c., and Av. 750). These accusations are probably to be regarded rather r.s 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 Mi-jwre 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 lie sometimes uses words of peculiar formation (Meineke, p. 151). The celebrated grammarian, Didy-mus of Alexandria, wrote commentaries on Phrynichus, one of which, on the Kpow?, is quoted by Athenaeus (ix. p. 371, f.).
The number of his comedies is stated by the anonymous writer on comedy (p. 34) at ten ; and Suidas gives the same number of titles, namely, 'Ec^uaATTjF, Kowos, KpoVos, Kwjuacrrai, 2,d.Tvpoi, Tpaycpfiol $ 'ATreAeyflepo*, Moj/o'rpoTros, Moucrat, MutfTTjs, npocurrpiai, the subjects of which are fully discussed by Meineke. The Movorponos was acted, with the Birds of Aristophanes and the Co- mastae of Ameipsias, in 01. 91. 2, b. c. 414, and obtained the third prize ; and the Moucrai was acted, with the Frogs of Aristophanes and the Cleo- phon of Plato, in 01. 93. 3, b. c. 405, and obtained the second prize. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. pp. 483, 484 ; Meineke, Frag. Com. Grace, vol. i. pp. 146—160, ii. pp. 580—608 ; Bergk, Reliq. Com. Att. Ant. pp. 366, &c.) [P. S.]
PHRYNIS. [phrynnis.]
PHRYNISCUS (QpuviffKos), an Achaean, who was engaged in the expedition of Cyrus the Younger. When the Cyreans had been deceived by the ad venturer Coeratadas at Byzantium, b. c. 400, Phry- niscus was one of those who advised that they should enter the service of Seuthes, the Odrysian prince, who wanted their aid for the recovery of his dominions. We find Phryniscus afterwards, together with Timasion and Cleanor, joining cor dially with Xenophon in his endeavour to obtain from Seuthes the pay that was due, and so baffling the attempt of Heracleides of Maroneia to divide the Greek generals (Xen. Anab. vii. 2. §§ 1, 2, 5. . §§ 4, 10). [heracleides, No 16.] [E. E.]
PHRYNNIS (4»puW), or PHRYNIS (<tyv-m), a celebrated dithyrambic poet, of the time of the Peloponnesian war, was a native of Mytilene, but flourished at Athens. His father's name seems to have been Camon, or Cambon, but the true form is very doubtful. Respecting his own name, also, there is a doubt, but the form Phrynnis is the genuine Aeolic form. He belonged to the Lesbian school of citharoedic music, having been instructed by Aristocleitus, a musician of the time of the Persian wars, who claimed a lineal descent from Terpander. Before receiving the instructions
PHTIIIA.
of this musician, Phrynnis had been a flute-player, which may partly account for the liberties he took with the music of the cithara. His innovations, effeminacies, and frigidness are repeatedly attacked by the comic poets, especially Pherecrates (ap. Plut. de Mus. p. 1146 ; Meineke, Frag. Com. Graec. vol. ii. p. 326, &c.) and Aristophanes (Nub. 971, comp. Scho/.}, Among the innovations which he is said to have made, was the addition of two strings to the heptachord ; and Plutarch relates that, when he went to Sparta, the Ephors cut off two of his nine strings, only leaving him the choice, whether he would sacrifice the two lowest or the two highest. The whole story, however, is doubtful ; for it is not improbable that the number of strings had been increased at an earlier .period. (For a fuller discussion of his musical innovations, see Schmidt, Dithyramb, pp. 89—95.)
Phrynnis was the first who gained the victory in the musical contests established by Pericles, in connection with the Panathenaic festival (Schol. ad Aristoph. Nub. L c.\ probably in b. c. 445 (M'uller, Gesch. d. Griech. Litt. vol. ii. p. 286). He was one of the instructors of Timotheus, who, however, defeated him on one occasion. (M'uller, /. c.) [P. S.]
PHRYNON. [alcaeus.]
PHRYNON, a statuary, whom Pliny mentions as the disciple of Polycleitus, and who must, there fore, have lived about b.c. 408. His country is not mentioned. (ff.N. xxxiv. 8. s. 19 ; respect ing the true reading see Thiersch, Epochen, p. 276.) [P. S.]
PHRYNUS, artists. 1. A Greek statuary, whose name is only known by an inscription in ancient characters, on a small bronze figure found at Locri. (Visconti, Mus. Pio-Clem. vol. iv. pi. xlix. p. 66.)
2. A maker of vases, whose name occurs on a vase of an ancient style, found at Vulci, and now in the collection of M. Durand. The inscription is as follows:
SPVNO^EFOIEJENXAIPEMEN.
(Raoul-Rochette, Lettre a M. Schorn, p. 56, 2d ed.) [P. S.]
PHTHIA (4>6ia). ]. A daughter of Amphion and Niobe. (Apollod. iii. 5. § 6.)
2. The beloved of Apollo, by whom she became the mother of Dorus, Laodocus, and Polypoetes. (Apollod. i. 7. § 6 ; comp. aetolus.)
3. The name in some traditions given to the mistress of Amyntor. (Tzetz. ad Lye. 421 ; comp. phoenix, No. 2.) [L. S.]
COIN OF PHTHIA,
PHTHIA (Oflia). 1. A daughter of Menon of Pharsalus, the Thessalian hipparch [menon, No. 4], and wife of Aeacides, king of Epeirus, by whom she became the mother of the celebrated Pyrrhus, as well as of two daughters : deidameia, the wife of Demetrius Poliorcetes and Troi'as, of whom
