1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Praxilla

PRAXILLA, of Sicyon, Greek lyric poetess, one of the so-called nine “lyric” Muses, flourished about 450 B.C. 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.

Fragments in T. Bergk, Poetae lyrici graeci, vol. iii.; see also C. F. Neue, De Praxillae Sicyoniae reliquiis (progr. Dorpat, 1844).