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PHRYNE

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 545 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PHRYNE , See also:

Greek courtesan, lived in the 4th See also:century n.c. Her eal name was Mnesarete, but owing to her complexion she was called Phryne (See also:toad), a name given to other courtesans. She was See also:born at See also:Thespiae in See also:Boeotia, but seems to have lived at See also:Athens. She acquired so much See also:wealth by her extraordinary beauty that she offered to rebuild the walls of See also:Thebes, which had been destroyed by See also:Alexander the See also:Great (336), on See also:condition that the words " Destroyed by Alexander, restored by Phryne the courtesan," were inscribed upon them. On the occasion of a festival of See also:Poseidon at See also:Eleusis she laid aside her garments, let down her See also:hair, and stepped into the See also:sea in the sight of the See also:people, thus suggesting to the painter See also:Apelles his great picture of See also:Aphrodite See also:Anadyomene, for which Phryne sat as See also:model. She was also (according to some) the model for the statue of the Cnidian Aphrodite by See also:Praxiteles. When accused of profaning the Eleusinian mysteries, she was defended by the orator See also:Hypereides, one of her lovers. When it seemed, as if the See also:verdict would be unfavourable, he See also:rent her robe and displayed her lovely bosom, which .so moved her See also:judges that they acquitted her. According to others, she herself thus displayed her charms. She is said to have made an See also:attempt on the virtue of the philosopher See also:Xenocrates. A statue of Phryne, the See also:work of Praxiteles, was placed in a See also:temple at Thespiae by the See also:side of a statue of Aphrodite by the same artist. See See also:Athenaeus, pp.

558, 567, 583, 585, 590, 591; See also:

Aelian, See also:Var. Hist. ix. 32 ; See also:Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxxiv. 71. PHRYNICHUS-1. Son of Polyphradmon and See also:pupil of See also:Thespis, one of the earliest of the Greek tragedians. Some of the ancients, indeed, regarded him as the real founder of tragedy. He gained his first poetical victory in 51I B.C. His famous See also:play, the See also:Capture of See also:Miletus, was probably composed shortly after the See also:conquest of that See also:city by the Persians. The See also:audience was moved to tears, the poet was fined for reminding the Athenians of their misfortunes, and it was decreed that no play on the subject should be produced again. In 476 Phrynichus was successful with the Phoenissae, so called from the Phoenician See also:women who formed the See also:chorus, which celebrated the defeat of See also:Xerxes at See also:Salamis (48o).

See also:

Themistocles acted as See also:choragus, and one of the See also:objects of the play was to remind the Athenians of his great deeds. The Persians of See also:Aeschylus (472) was an See also:imitation of the Phoenissae. Phrynichus is said to have died in See also:Sicily. Some of the titles of his plays, Danaides, See also:Actaeon, See also:Alcestis, See also:Tantalus, show that he treated mythological as well as See also:con-temporary subjects. He introduced a See also:separate actor as distinct from the See also:leader of the chorus, and thus laid the See also:foundation of See also:dialogue. But in his plays, as in the See also:early tragedies generally, the dramatic See also:element was subordinate to the lyric element as represented by the chorus and the See also:dance. According to Suidas, Phrynichus first introduced See also:female characters on the See also:stage (played by men in masks), and made See also:special use of the See also:trochaic tetrameter. Fragments in A. See also:Nauck, Tragicorum graecor+_sm fragmenta (1887). 2. A poet of the Old See also:Attic See also:comedy and a contemporary of See also:Aristophanes. His first comedy was exhibited in 429 B.C.

He Fragments in T. See also:

Kock, Comicorum atticorum fragmenta (188o). 3. PHRYNICIIUS ARABIUS, a grammarian of See also:Bithynia, lived in the 2nd century A.D. According to Suidas he was the author of (I) an Atticist, or On Attic Words, in two books; (2) Ti.BEµtpwv ovveyay77, a collection of subjects for discussion; (3) Eo/ivr1.lt0j irapavKevi7, or Sophistical Equipment, in See also:forty-seven (or seventy-four) books.' As See also:models of Attic. See also:style Phrynichus assigned the highest See also:place to See also:Plato, See also:Demosthenes and See also:Aeschines the Socratic. The work was learned, but prolix and garrulous. A fragment contained in a See also:Paris MS. was published by B. de See also:Montfaucon, and by I. See also:Bekker in his Anecdota graeca (1814). Another work of Phrynichus, not mentioned by See also:Photius, but perhaps identical with the Atticist mentioned by Suldas, the Selection ('EicXo'y,) of Attic Words and Phrases, is extant. It is dedicated to Cornelianus, a See also:man of See also:literary tastes, and one of the imperial secretaries, who had invited the author to undertake the work. It is a collection of current words and forms which deviated from the Old Attic See also:standard, the true Attic equivalents being given side by side. The work is thus a See also:lexicon antibarbarum, and is interesting as illustrating the changes through which the Greek See also:language had passed between the 4th century B.C. and the 2nd century A.D.

See also:

Editions of the 'Rani, with valuable notes, have been published by C. A, See also:Lobeck (182o) and W. G. See also:Rutherford (1881) ; Lobeck devotes his See also:attention chiefly to the later, Rutherford to the earlier usages noticed by Phrynichus. See also J. Brenous, De Phrynicho Atticista (1895). 4. An Athenian See also:general in the Peloponnesian See also:War. He took a leading See also:part in establishing the See also:oligarchy of the Four See also:Hundred at Athens in 411 B.C., and was assassinated in the same See also:year (See also:Thucydides viii.).

End of Article: PHRYNE

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