Greek Literature

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Philiscus (4), of Thessaly, sophist and rhetorician, c. 153–220 CE  

M. B. Trapp

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Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature

Sophist and rhetorician, held the chair of rhetoric at Athens.

Article

Philitas, of Cos, poet and scholar  

F. Williams

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Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
Philitas (also spelt Philetas) of *Cos, poet and scholar, born c.340 bce, became tutor of *Ptolemy II ‘Philadelphus’ (b. Cos 308); reputedly also taught *Zenodotus, *Theocritus, and *Hermesianax. He presumably spent some time in *Alexandria, but probably died in Cos, where a bronze statue was erected in his honour: it is possibly the one praised by *Posidippus (2)Ep. 63 (= Test. 5 Lightfoot).(1)Poetry Five book-titles are attested: Hermes, Demeter, Telephus (?), Epigrammata, Paegnia. Hermes (the reason for the title is unclear), in hexameters, narrated *Odysseus' visit to the island home of *Aeolus (1) and his love-affair with his daughter Polymele (fr. 9 L.). Demeter, a narrative elegy, recounted the goddess's mourning and search for Kore (*Persephone), including perhaps her visit to Cos. Telephus (if the title is right: Telephus was also the name of Philitas' father) contained a reference to the marriage of .

Article

Philocles  

Andrew Brown

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Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
Philocles, nephew of *Aeschylus, is said by the *Suda to have written 100 plays, and was victorious on the occasion when *Sophocles (1) produced Oedipus Tyrannus. However, he was nicknamed Gall and Son of Brine because of his harsh style, and was mocked by comic poets (e.g. Ar. Vesp.

Article

Philo Epicus  

Thomas Kuhn-Treichel

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
17 December 2020
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
  2. Jewish Studies
Philo Epicus was a Jewish-Hellenistic poet. He composed a hexametric poem on Jerusalem that featured both descriptions of the city and references to biblical events relating to the patriarchs. It is not clear whether he is to be identified with a Philo mentioned by Josephus (Ap. 1.218, with the attribute “the Elder”), Clement of Alexandria (Str. 1.141.3), and Eusebius of Caesarea (Hist. eccl. 6.13.7); while Nikolaus Walter argued for a distinction between the poet and a homonymous, otherwise unknown historian, some recent scholars seek to justify the identification.1 As to the date of his work, scholars have adduced literary, historical, and archaeological arguments to support various periods between the end of the 3rd and the first half of the 1st centuries bce.2 The only undisputable terminus ante quem for his work is the death of Alexander (11) Polyhistor (not long after 40bce), who quoted the poem in his treatise Περὶ Ἰουδαίων.

Article

Philogelos  

Stephanie West

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Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
A collection of 265 funny stories, compiled in late antiquity and ascribed to the otherwise unidentifiable Hierocles and Philagrius. We may perhaps compare the joke-books used by *Plautus' *parasites (Pers. 392–5, Stich. 400, 454 f.), but the work's purpose and intended audience are obscure. The jokes are not about named persons, but about typical representatives of various characters or professions, or of physical or (alleged) regional peculiarities—misers, cowards, wits, doctors, astrologers, eunuchs, Abderites, and so on. Well over half feature the scholastikos, a fool whose wits have been so addled by study that he overlooks some factor obvious to ordinary common sense. Thus (255) a scholastikos bought a raven with a view to testing the belief that the bird frequently lived over 200 years. (A very similar story is related of a modern politician who took up tortoise-keeping in retirement.) Some anecdotes are associated elsewhere with historical figures, e.g. 148: cf. Plut.

Article

Philonides (1), Athenian comic poet  

Kenneth Dover

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
Athenian comic poet, produced *Aristophanes (1)'s Wasps, Amphiaraus, and Frogs; we have three titles of his own plays, and he may be the Φιλ[ who won first prize at the City *Dionysiac.410 bce (IG 22. 2325. 64). It is stated by the first *hypothesis to Ar.

Article

Philostephanus, of Cyrene, 3rd cent. BCE  

John Francis Lockwood and J. S. Rusten

Article

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Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
Pupil or friend of *Callimachus (3), wrote: (1) geographical works, full of marvels and fables (Ath. 7. 297 f, 8. 331d; Gell. 9. 4. 2; Harp. under Βούχετα, Στρύμη; schol. Pind.Ol. 6. 77); (2) a mythological and antiquarian treatise Note-books (Ὑπομνήματα) (schol. Ap. Rhod. 2. 124); (3) On Discoveries (Clem.

Article

Philostrati  

Walter Manoel Edwards, Robert Browning, Graham Anderson, and Ewen Bowie

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
Up to four members of this family (probably Athenian, but property-owners on *Lemnos) can be tentatively distinguished on the basis of confused Suda entries φ 421–423: (1) Philostratus son of Verus, a sophist none of whose works probably survives. (2) His son L. Flavius Philostratus (‘the Athenian’—he held at least two high offices in Athens): his sophistic skills and connections brought him into the court of *Septimius Severus, whose wife *Iulia Domna (he says) prompted him to write (a) his eight-book novelistic biography of *Apollonius (12) of Tyana (τὰ ἐς τὸν Τυανέα Ἀπολλώνιον), published after ce 217. Later (perhaps in 242) he completed (b) Βίοι σοφιστῶν (‘Lives of the Sophists’), dedicated to a *Gordian. He probably also wrote: (c) Ἡρωïκός (‘On heroes’), a dialogue between a Phoenician sailor and a vintner exploring the cult and epiphanies of Protesilaus and other Trojan War heroes, ‘authorizing’ ‘eye-witness’ revision of some canonical details, (d) Γυμναστικός (‘On Athletic Training’) an essay both historical and protreptic on athletics with special attention to Olympia (where Philostratus was honoured with a statue, (e) a collection of some 50 very short ‘Love letters’ (plus some 15 others), (f) the second of two Διαλέξεις (‘Talks’), this on custom versus nature, (g) a short dialogue Νέρων (‘Nero’) transmitted with *Lucian's works, (h) a set of Εἰκόνες (‘Pictures’), lush but oblique descriptions of paintings supposedly in a gallery near Naples, purporting to instruct a ten-year-old boy (cf.

Article

Philoxenus (1), of Cythera, dithyrambic poet, c. 435–380 BCE  

Bernhard Zimmermann

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature

Dithyrambic poet who lived at the court of *Dionysius (1) of Syracuse, who sent him to the quarries. *Pherecrates (fr. 155. 26 KA) introduces him as a musical innovator and corrupter of the traditional music. In the Mysians he seems to have composed a dithyramb in a mixture of the Dorian and Phrygian modality. In his most famous work, the Cyclops, parodied in Ar. Plut. 290 ff., the Cyclops (see cyclopes) sang a solo to the lyre, which suggests that Philoxenus introduced solos into the choral genre. See music, § (4).

Article

Philoxenus (2), of Leucas, poet  

Bernhard Zimmermann

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Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature

Philoxenus (2) of Leucas, contemporary of *Philoxenus (1), author of the poem The Banquet, the description of a splendid dinner written in dactylo-epitrites and in dithyrambic language. The Cookery-book quoted by *Plato (2) Comicus (fr. 189 KA) and written in dactylic hexameters is probably another poem of the same author.

Article

Philoxenus (4), of Alexandria (1), Greek writer, 1st cent. BCE  

J. S. Rusten

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Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature

Greek Writer who wrote on the text of *Homer, accents, metre, verbs, and Atticism, and compiled important (lost) lexica of Homeric and other *dialects. See etymologica.

Article

Philyllius  

Kenneth Dover

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature

Philyllius, Athenian comic poet, won the first prize once at the *Dionysia, probably in the 410s, and once at the *Lenaea at the beginning of the 4th cent. bce (IG 22. 2325. 136–7). We have ten titles, mostly implying mythological burlesque, and thirty-three citations.

Article

phlyakes  

Geoffrey Arnott

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Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature

Farces (also called ἱλαροτραγῳδίαι, cheerful tragedies) which were performed in S. Italy and also perhaps at *Alexandria (1) in the 4th and 3rd cent. bce. The chief authors of these ludicrous scenes from daily life or from mythology were *Rhinthon, *Sciras, and *Sopater (1) of Paphos; vase-pictures illustrate an earlier (? pre-literary) stage in their development.

Article

Phocylides  

Martin Litchfield West

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature

(1) A gnomic hexameter poem (see gnōmē) composed in Miletus in the first half of the 6th cent. bce had successive maxims introduced by the formula ‘This too from Phocylides’; he may have been the poet, as later assumed, or a fictitious sage. Evidence for elegiacs by Phocylides is unreliable. (2) A late moralizing poem in 230 hexameters, probably composed by an *Alexandrian Jew around the turn of our era, also claims Phocylides as its author. It is generally cited as ‘Pseudo-Phocylides’. See jewish-greek literature.

Article

Phoenicides  

Geoffrey Arnott

Article

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Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature

Phoenicides, New Comedy poet (see comedy (greek), new) with two victories at the *Dionysia (IG 22. 2325. 76 = V B 1 col. 5. 17 Mette). Fr. 1 refers to a peace made in the 280s bce; in fr. 4 a courtesan on retirement describes her experiences of past lovers.

Article

Phoenix (3), of Colophon, iambic poet  

F. Williams

Article

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Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature

Phoenix (3) of Colophon, iambic poet of early 3rd cent. bce (see iambic poetry, greek); six choliambic fragments, on ethical subjects, moralizing rather than specifically *Cynic, survive; best known is fr. 6, a literary elaboration of a begging-song from *Rhodes.

Article

Phormis  

Kenneth Dover

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Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
Phormis (or Phormus), Syracusan writer of comedy. *Aristotle (Poet. 5. 1449b6) seems to treat him as a contemporary of *Epicharmus. The Suda adds that he was tutor to the sons of *Gelon (d. 478 bce), and attributes to Phormis the invention of long cloaks for his actors and (?) a new form of skēnē.

Article

Phrynichus (1), Athenian tragic poet, late 5th–early 4th cent. BCE  

Andrew Brown

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
Phrynichus (1), an early Athenian tragic poet; see tragedy, greek. The *Suda says that he won his first victory between 511 and 508 bce, was the first to introduce female characters in tragedy, and invented the trochaic tetrameter (the last claim, at least, being certainly false). *Themistocles was his *choregus for a victorious production in 476 (Plut.Them. 5), probably near the end of his career.At least two of his tragedies were on historical subjects. Soon after 494, when the city of *Miletus, which had been aided by Athens, was sacked by the Persians (see ionian revolt), Phry-nichus produced a Capture of Miletus, which, according to *Herodotus (1) 6. 21, so distressed the Athenians that they fined him a thousand drachmas ‘for reminding them of their own troubles’. The hypothesis to the Persians of *Aeschylus quotes *Glaucus (5) of Rhegium as saying that Aeschylus modelled the play on the Phoenician Women of Phrynichus, but that Phrynichus began his play with a eunuch who related the defeat of *Xerxes while setting out chairs for the royal councillors (but there may be a confusion here between Phrynichus' Phoenician Women and his Persians).

Article

Phrynichus (2), Athenian poet of Old Comedy, 2nd half of 5th cent. BCE  

Kenneth Dover

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
Phrynichus (2), Athenian comic poet, produced his first play in 434 (Suda) or 429 bce (Anon.De Com. 9 p. 7); the latter statement probably refers to his first victory—at the *Lenaea, where he won two victories (IG 22. 2325. 124), his first victory at the City *Dionysia being some time after 420 (ibid. 61). He produced Monotropos in 414 (hyp. 1 Ar. Av.) and Muses in 405 (hyp. 1 Ar. Ran.). We have eleven titles and over 90 citations; two of the titles, Connus and Revellers, are also attributed to *Ameipsias, and this attribution is to be preferred, since it is given by the fifth *hypothesis (1) to *Aristophanes (1)'s Clouds and the first hypothesis to his Birds, the composers of which will have derived their information ultimately from the *didaskaliai Fr. 61 (play unnamed) refers humorously to the mutilation of the *herms in 415.

Article

Phrynichus (3) 'Arabius', of Bithynia, Atticist  

Peter Barr Reid Forbes, Robert Browning, and Nigel Wilson

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
Phrynichus (3) ‘Arabius’ of Bithynia, Atticist (see asianism and atticism), rhetorician, and lexicographer under M. *Aurelius and *Commodus. He compiled Σοφιστικὴ προπαρασκευή, a lexicon of ‘Attic’ words in thirty-seven books, preserved only in a summary by Photius and in fragments; also Ἀττικιστής (περὶ κρίσεως καλῶν καὶ δοκίμων ὀνομάτων ‘Attikistes (on the choice of correct and excellent words)’), extant in an abridgement, our Eclogē (Ἐκλογή, ‘selection’). They were based on *Eirenaeus and Aelius *Dionysius (3); see also pausanias(4). Phrynichus is more restrictive than his contemporary *Pollux (the two may have known each other's work) in his view of acceptable words; with *Moeris, he ranks among the strictest of the ‘Atticists’. He recognizes different levels of style within ‘Atticism’. His models are *Plato (1), the Ten Orators (see attic orators), *Thucydides (2), *Aeschines (2) Socraticus, *Critias, *Antisthenes (1), *Aristophanes (1), *Aeschylus, *Sophocles (1), and *Euripides.