PHILOXENUS, a celebrated dithyrambic poet, a native of the island of Cythera, flourished B.C. 398, being contemporary with Timotheus and Telestes, and died at the age of sixty, B.C. 380. He was a son of Euletidas, and, when Cythera was taken by the Lacedæmonians, he was carried off as a slave. He was sold to Agesylas, and on his death was bought by the poet Melanippides, by whose instruction he seems to have profited. He was devoted to the pleasures of the table, and became a great favourite of the elder Dionysius. It is said the luxury of the court of Syracuse furnished the theme of his poem Δείρνω (Dinner). His poem Cyclops or Galateia is said to have been one of the finest of his productions. Alexander the Great was a great admirer of the dithyrambs of Philoxenus and Telestes. The fragments of Philoxenus are almost all in Athenæus. Most of them have been recently edited by Meinecke, by Bergk, and by Schmidt.