Philoxenus


Philoxenus

(fĭlŏk`sənəs), c.436–c.380 B.C., Greek dithyrambic poet, b. Cythera. Having fallen out of grace with the emperor Dionysius, he was imprisoned in Syracuse. There he wrote his Cyclops, mocking Dionysius. In Cyclops (fragments of which remain), the central character sang a solo to the lyre—an innovation in the dithyramb.