C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Phrynichus (Fifth Century B.C.)

Phrynichus (frin’i-kus). A Greek tragic poet of the fifth century B.C. Departing from the custom of tragic poets, he took for the subject of his greatest tragedy ‘The Capture of Miletus’ by the Persians, a contemporary event. It moved the Athenians profoundly, but they fined the poet 1,000 drachmas for harrowing their sensibilities by rehearsing the woes of their allies. Next he wrote: ‘The Phœnician Women,’ commemorating the defeat of Xerxes at Salamis. He wrote also several tragedies on legendary themes, as ‘The Danaids’; ‘Actæon’; ‘Alcestis’; ‘Tantalus.’ Only fragments of his plays remain.

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