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{{Infobox military person
| name          = Phrynon
| birth_date    = before 657 BC
| death_date    = {{circa}} 606 BC
| birth_place   = [[Athens]]
| death_place   = [[Sigeion]]
| allegiance    = Athens
}}

'''Phrynon of Athens''' ({{langx|el|Φρύνων ο Αθηναίος}}; [[Athens]]; before 657 BC – {{Circa}} 606 BC) was a general of ancient Athens, and a winner in [[ancient Olympic Games]].<ref name="kom39">{{Cite book
|    editor = Karl Otfried Müller
|     title = The history and antiquities of the Doric race
| publisher = Murray (Robarts - University of Toronto)
|  location = London
|      year = 1839
|     pages = 452-453 App. VI
|  language = English
|translator-first=George Cornewall |translator-last=Lewis |translator-first2=Henry |translator-last2=Tufnell
|    volume = 2
|       url = https://archive.org/stream/historyantiquiti02mluoft#page/446/mode/2up
}}</ref><ref name="dran">''[[Great Greek Encyclopedia]]'', Pavlos Drandakis, ed., {{langx|el|«Φρύνων ο Αθηναίος»}} vol. 24, p. 231.</ref>

== Biography ==
Phrynon was born in [[Athens]] before 657 BC. In 636 BC, he won the [[Stadion (running race)|stadion]] or [[pentathlon]] in the Olympic Games (36th [[Olympiad]]).<ref name=kom39 /><ref>[[Eusebius of Caesarea]], [http://www.attalus.org/translate/eusebius2.html ''Chronicle''.]</ref> Later, he became a general of Athens.<ref name="deve">{{cite book
|      first = Robert
|       last = Develin
|      title = Athenian Officials 684-321 <small>BC</small>
|  publisher = [[Cambridge University Press]]
|   location = New York
|       year = 2003
|  orig-year = 1989
|        url = https://books.google.com/books?id=cmoRFMTAu-0C
|access-date = 4 May 2020
|       isbn = 0-521-32880-2
|       page = 32
}}</ref>

In the period 608–606 BC, a war was conducted by Athens against [[Mytilene]] over control of [[Sigeum]].<ref name=kom39 /> Phrynon was the general of the Athenians.<ref name=dran /> In order to end the conflict quickly, Phrynon accepted the invitation to duel made by the Mytilenean general [[Pittacus of Mytilene|Pittacus]] (one of the [[Seven Sages of Greece]]).<ref name=kom39 /><ref name=dran /> Phrynon was defeated at the duel because Pittacus had a hidden net beneath his shield and with it caught and killed him.<ref>''Philosophes de Diogène Laërce'' (in [[French language|French]]). [http://remacle.org/bloodwolf/philosophes/laerce/pittacus.htm#74 Chapter IV (Pittacus), p. 74].</ref> Pittacus thus won the war for his homeland. The aristocrat and poet [[Alcaeus of Mytilene]] wrote several poems about this conflict.<ref name="deve" />

The Athenian soldiers received the corpse of their general and, withdrawing from Mytilene, carried it back to Athens, where Phrynon was buried with honors.<ref name=dran />

[[Herodotus]] mentions the struggle between Athens and Mytilene in the context of [[Peisistratos]] and does not restrict himself to the time of Peisistratos, but freely goes back to an earlier stage of what he says was a protracted struggle.<ref name="deve" /> [[Theodore Wade-Gery]] notes Phrynon as founder of colonies at [[Sigeum]] and [[Elaious]]—instead of [[Achilleion (Ionia)|Achilleion]] by tradition—and accepting the emendation which produces Phrynon's name at Ps. ''Skymnos'' 707f.<ref name="deve" />

== References ==
{{Portal|Biography|Ancient Greece}}
{{reflist}}

== See also ==
*[[Olympic winners of the Stadion race]]

{{Ancient Olympic winners}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Phrynon of Athens}}
[[Category:7th-century BC Greek people]]
[[Category:7th-century BC births]]
[[Category:600s BC deaths]]
[[Category:Ancient Athenian generals]]
[[Category:Ancient Olympic competitors]]
[[Category:Military personnel killed in action]]