Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/115

Rh and accordingly that Alcamenes was born in the district called the Λίμναι, which is in some degree confirmed by his having made a statue of Dionysus in gold and ivory to adorn a temple of that god in the Lenaeum, a part of the Limnae. (Paus. 1.20.2.) He was the most famous of the pupils of Phidias, but was not so close an imitator of his master as Agoracritus. Like his fellow-pupil, he exercised his talent chiefly in making statues of the deities. By ancient writers he is ranked amongst the most distinguished artists, and is considered by Pausanias second only to Phidias. (Quint. Inst. 12.10.8; Dionys. De Demosth. acum. vol. vi. p. 1108, ed. Reiske; Paus. 5.10.2.) He flourished from about Ol. 84 (Plin. Nat. 34.8. s. 19) to Ol. 95 (B. C. 444-400). Pliny's date is confirmed by Pausanias, who says (8.9.1), that Praxiteles flourished in the third generation after Alcamnenes; and Praxiteles, as Pliny tells us, flourished about Ol. 104 (B. C. 364). The last works of his which we hear of, were the colossal statues of Athene and Hercules, which Thrasybulus erected in the temple of Hercules at Thebes after the expulsion of the tyrants from Athens. (B. C. 403.) The most beautiful and renowned of the works of Alcamenes was a statue of Venus, called from the place where it was set up, Ἡ ἐν κήποις Ἀφροδίτη. (Lucian, Imagines, 4, 6; Paus. 1.19.2.) It is said that Phidias himself put the finishing touches to this work. (Plin. Nat. 36.5. s. 4.) The breasts, cheeks, and hands were especially admired. It has been supposed by some that this was the Venus for which he gained the prize over Agoracritus. There is no direct evidence of this, and it is scarcely consistent with what Pliny says, that Alcamenes owed his success more to the favouritism of his fellow-citizens than to the excellence of his statue. Another celebrated specimen of his genius was the western pediment of the temple at Olympia, ornamented with a representation of the battle between the Centaurs and the Lapithae. (Paus. 5.10.2.) Other works of his were: a statue of Mars in the temple of that god at Athens (Paus. 1.8.5); a statue of Hephaestus, in which the lameneess of the god was so ingeniously represented as not to give the appearance of deformity (Cic. De Nat. Deor. 1.30; V. Max. 8.11. ext. 3); an Aesculapius at Mantineia (Paus. 8.9.1); a three-formed Hecate (the first of the kind), and a Procne in the Acropolis at Athens (Paus. 2.30.2, 1.24.3); and a bronze statue of a victor in the Pentathlon. (Plin. Nat. 34.8. s. 19.) A story of very doubtful credibility is told by Tzetzes (Chil. 8.193), that Alcamenes and Phidias contended in making a statue of Athene, and that before the statues were erected in their destined elevated position, that of Aleamenes was the most admired on account of its delicate finish; but that, when set up, the effect of the more strongly defined features in that of Phidias caused the Athenians to change their opinion. On a Roman anaglyph in the villa Albani there is the following inscription:

Q. LOLLIUS ALCAMENES DEC. ET DUUMVIR.

If this contains the name of the artist, he would seem to have been a descendant of an Alcamenes, who had been the slave and afterwards the freedman of one of the Lollian family, and to have attained to the dignity of deenrio and duumvir in some municipium. He perhaps exercised the art of carving as an amateur. (Winckelmann, 8.4, 5.)

ALCANDER (Ἄλκανδρος). There are three mythical personages of this name, who are mentioned respectively in Hom. Il. 5.678; Verg. A. 9.766; Antonin. Lib. 14. A female Alcandra occurs in the Od. 4.125.

ALCANDER (Ἄλκανδρος), a young Spartan, who attacked Lycurgus and thrust out one of his eyes, when his fellow-citizens were discontented with the laws he proposed. His mangled face, however, produced shame and repentance in his enemies, and they delivered up Alcander to him to be punished as he thought fit. But Lycurgus pardoned his outrage, and thus converted hint into one of his warmest friends. (Plut. Lyc. 11; Aelian, Ael. VH 13.23; V. Max. 5.3. § ext. 2.)

ALCA'THOE or ALCl'THOE (Ἀλκαθόη or Ἀλκιθόη), a daughter of Minyas, and sister of Leucippe and Arsippe. Instead of Arsippe, Aelian (Ael. VH 3.42) calls the latter Aristippa, and Plutarch (Quaest. Gr. 38) Arsinoe. At the time when the worship of Dionysus was introduced into Boeotia, and while the other women and maidens were revelling and ranging over the mountains in Bacchic joy, these two sisters alone remained at home, devoting themselves to their usual occupations, and thus profaning the days sacred to the god. Dionysus punished them by changing them into bats, and their work into vines. (Ov. Met. 4.1-140, 390-415.) Plutarch, Aelian, and Antoninus Liberalis, though with some differences in the detail, relate that Dionysus appeared to the sisters in the form of a maiden, and invited them to partake in the Dionysiac mysteries. When this request was not complied with, the god metamorphosed himself successively into a bull, a lion, and a panther, and the sisters were seized with madness. In this state they were eager to honour the god, and Leucippe, who was chosen by lot to offer a sacrifice to Dionysus, gave up her own son Hippasus to be torn to pieces. In extreme Bacchic frenzy the sisters now roamed over the mountains, until at last Hermes changed them into birds. Plutarch adds that down to his time the men of Orchomenos descended from that family were called ψολόεις, that is, mourners, and the women ὀλεῖαι or αἰολεῖαι, that is, the destroyers. In what manner the neglect of the Dionysiac worship on the part of Alcathoe and her sister was atoned for every year at the festival of the Agrionia, see Dict. of Ant. s. v. Ἀγριώνια; comp. Buttmatnn, Mytholog. ii. p. 201, &c.

ALCA'THOUS (Ἀλκάθοος). 1. A son of Pelops and Hippodameia, brother of Atreus and Thyestes, first married Pyrgo and afterwards Euaechme, and was the father of Echepolis, Callipolis, Iphinoe, Periboea, and Autonmedusa. (Paus. 1.42.1, 4, 43.4; Apollod. 2.4.11, 3.12.7.) Pausanias (1.41.4) relates that, after Euippus, the son of king Megareus, was destroyed by the Cythacronian lion, Megareus, whose elder son Timalcus had likewise fallen by the hands of Theseus, offered his daughter Euaechme and his kingdom to him who should slay that lion. Alcathous undertook the task, conquered the lion, and thus obtained Euaechme for his wife, and afterwards became the successor of Megarcus. In gratitude for this success, he built at Megara a temple of Artemis Agrotera and Apollo Agraeus. He also restored the walls of Megara, which had