PHRYNICUS, one of the last and most noted writers of the old comedy at Athens, flourished B.C. 435, and was the contemporary of Eupolis, Euripides, and Aristophanes. He obtained the second prize, B.C. 405, the year before Athens was taken by the Spartans. Plutarch states that in one of his plays he defended Alcibiades when he was accused of having mutilated the statues of Hermes. Aristophanes ridicules Phrynichus for introducing too frequently on the stage characters in low life. The fragments of Phrynichus have been collected by Morel, Ex Veterum Comicorum Fabulis quæ integra non extant, Par. 1553; by Hertelius, Vetusissimorum Comicorum Sententie, Bâle, 1560; and by Grotius, Excerpta ex Tragædiis et Comædiis, Gr. Lat. Par. 1626. (See also Meinecke, Frag. Com. Græc.; and Bergk, Reliq. Com. Att. Ant.)