Praxilla

Praxilla, of Sicyon, was a Greek lyric poet of the 5th century BC. According to Athenaeus (xv. 694), she was famous as a composer of "scolia" (short lyrical poems sung after dinner), which were considered equal to those of Alcaeus and Anacreon. She also wrote dithyrambs and hymns, chiefly on mystic and mythological subjects, genealogies, and the love-stories of the gods and heroes. A dactylic metre was also called by her name.

She composed a hymn to Adonis from which one fragment survives, in which Adonis, in response to a question from the shades in the underworld ("What was the most beautiful thing you left behind?"), answers:This fragment survives because Zenobius quoted it to explain the proverbial expression "sillier than Praxilla's Adonis" (because the inclusion of cucumbers alongside the sun and moon could seem incongruous).

Testimonia and fragments in David A. Campbell, "Greek Lyric", vol. 4, pp. 374-381 (Loeb Classical Library, 1992).

References

*1911