Today’s Quotation is care of Praxilla. Listen in! Subscribe to Quotomania on quotomania.com or search for Quotomania on your favorite podcast app!
Praxilla was a Greek lyric poet who originated from the city of Sicyon in the fifth century B.C.E.
There is no direct evidence from Praxilla herself, and what survives are reiterated poems by other people.
Not much is known about Praxilla’s life other than she was a composer.
Some assumptions suggests that she may have been a prostitute but because there is no official story of her life these interpretations are inconclusive.
She was famous for the composition of scolia, short poems with erotic overtones, featuring gods, goddesses, and mythological heroes, that were typically sung after the evening meal.
Much of her work survives today through extant fragments quoted by writers such as Zenobius or Hephaestion, in their own works, or mentioned in annotations left by ancient writers on other works. Only 8 fragments of hers survive. Many of these are hymns and dithyrambs.
One fragment includes the Hymn to Adonis which itself is fragmented. This hymn tells of Adonis being asked by the inhabitants of Hades to name the most beautiful things he left behind in the world of the living. These survive today only because Zenobius quoted them.
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