Phrynichus (tragic poet)

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Phrynichus, son of Polyphradmon and pupil of Thespis, was one of the earliest of the Greek tragedians.^[1] Some of the ancients, indeed, regarded him as the real founder of tragedy. He gained his first victory in a drama contest in 511 BC, when his famous play, the Capture of Miletus (probably composed shortly after the conquest of that city by the Persians [see Ionian Revolt]) moved the audience to tears.

Miletus was a colony of Athens and traditionally held very dear by the mother city. Phrynichus was fined "ὡς ὑπομνήσας οἰκεῖα κακά" ("for reminding familiar misfortunes"). It was decreed that no play on the subject should ever be produced again.

In 476 BC Phrynichus was successful with the Phoenissae, called after the Phoenician women who formed the chorus. This drama celebrated the defeat of Xerxes I at the Battle of Salamis four years earlier. Themistocles provided the funds as Choregos (producer), and one of the objectives of the play was to remind the Athenians of his great deeds. The Persians of Aeschylus (472 BC) was an imitation of the Phoenissae. Phrynichus is said to have died in Sicily.

Some of the titles of his plays, Danaides, Actaeon, Alcestis, Tantalus, show that he dealt with mythological as well as contemporary subjects. He introduced a separate actor, as distinct from the leader of the chorus, and thus laid the foundation for theatrical dialogue. But in his plays, as in the early tragedies generally, the dramatic element was subordinate to the lyric element as represented by the chorus and the dance. According to the Suda, Phrynichus first introduced female characters on the stage (played by men in masks), and made special use of the trochaic tetrameter.

Fragments in A Nauck, Tragicorum graecorum fragmenta (1887).

[edit] Notes

^ P.W. Buckham, Theatre of the Greeks, p. 108: "The honour of introducing Tragedy in its later acceptation was reserved for a scholar of Thespis in 511 BC, Polyphradmon's son, Phrynichus; he dropped the light and ludicrous cast of the original drama and dismissing Bacchus and the Satyrs formed his plays from the more grave and elevated events recorded in mythology and history of his country."

[edit] References

P.W. Buckham, Theatre of the Greeks, 1827.
The Oxford Classical Dictionary, p. 1177.
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.