Skip to content
Praxilla
EntityQ278711· pop 28· linked from 16 articles

thumb|upright|Marble sculpture of a dancing female figure, sometimes identified as Lysippus' sculpture of Praxilla. Praxilla (), was a Greek lyric poet of the 5th century BC from Sicyon on the Gulf of Corinth. Five quotations attributed to Praxilla and three paraphrases from her poems survive. The surviving fragments attributed to her come from both religious choral lyric and drinking songs (skolia); the three paraphrases are all versions of myths. Various social contexts have been suggested for Praxilla based on this range of surviving works. These include that Praxilla was a hetaira (courtes

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners
1
Total plays
1

<a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Praxilla">Read more on Last.fm</a>

via Last.fm · Praxilla

Wikidata facts

Instance of
human
Gender
female
Place of birth
Sicyon
Occupation
writer
Languages spoken
Ancient Greek
Field of work
poetry
Image
Praxilla. John William Godward.jpg
Show 5 more facts
date of birth
0500-00-00
date of death
0500-00-00
writing language
Ancient Greek
Commons category
Praxilla
significant place
Sicyon
Sources (1)

via Wikidata · CC0

~7 min read

Encyclopedic overview

11 sections
Contents
  • Life
  • Poetry
  • Hymn to Adonis
  • Praxilleion
  • Skolia
  • Dithyramb to Achilles
  • Reception
  • Notes
  • References
  • Works cited
  • External links

thumb|upright|Marble sculpture of a dancing female figure, sometimes identified as Lysippus' sculpture of Praxilla. Praxilla (), was a Greek lyric poet of the 5th century BC from Sicyon on the Gulf of Corinth. Five quotations attributed to Praxilla and three paraphrases from her poems survive. The surviving fragments attributed to her come from both religious choral lyric and drinking songs (skolia); the three paraphrases are all versions of myths. Various social contexts have been suggested for Praxilla based on this range of surviving works. These include that Praxilla was a hetaira (courtesan), or that she was a professional musician. Alternatively, the apparent implausibility of a respectable Greek woman writing drinking songs has been explained by suggesting that her poetry was in fact composed by two different authors, or that the drinking songs derive from a non-elite literary tradition rather than being authored by a single writer.

Praxilla was apparently well-known in antiquity: she was sculpted in bronze by Lysippus and parodied by Aristophanes. In the modern world, she has been referenced in artworks by Cy Twombly and Judy Chicago, and one of her poems was adapted by the Irish poet Michael Longley.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Praxilla” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (6)