PHRYNICHUS

flourished c. 500 BC, , Athens Athenian tragic poet, an older contemporary of Aeschylus. He was the earliest tragedian of whose work some conception can be formed. Phrynichus' first victory probably occurred in about 510, and he was probably the first to introduce the female mask-i.e., women characters-into his plays. After the fall of Miletus in 494 he produced the Capture of Miletus, which so harrowed Athenian feelings that he was fined; in 476 his Phoenissae, in which news of the battle of Salamis comes to the Persian court, proved a more acceptable subject and won the first prize. flourished c. 420 BC Athenian poet of the Old Comedy. A contemporary of Aristophanes, Phrynichus began producing in 430 and won two victories in the Great Dionysia. His most clearly recognizable subjects show an odd parallelism with Aristophanes: his Monotropos ("The Solitary"), which rejected contemporary civilization, was placed third when Aristophanes' Birds was second in 414, and Phrynichus' Muses second to Aristophanes' Frogs in 405.