Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/311

Rh ARISTEAS. other traditions which place him before the time of Homer, or describe him as a contemporary and teach- er of Homer. (Strab. xiv. p. 639.) In the account of Herodotus (iv. 13—16), Tzetzes (Chil. ii. 724, &c.) and Suidas (s. v.), Aristeas was a magician, who rose after his death, and whose soul could leave and re-enter its body according to its plea- sure. He was, like Abaris, connected with the worship of Apollo, which he was said to have in- troduced at Metapontum. Herodotus calls him the favourite and inspired bard of Apollo ((poi- 66afnrTos). He is said to have travelled through the countries north and east of the Euxine, and to have visited the countries of the Issedones, Ari- maspae, Cimmerii, Hyperborei, and other mythical nations, and after his return to have written an epic poem, in three books, called to. 'Apiixdaireia, in which he seems to have described all that he had seen or pretended to have seen. This work, which was unquestionably full of marvellous stories, was nevertheless looked upon as a source of historical and geographical infonnation, and some writers reckoned Aristeas among the logographers. But it was nevertheless a poetical production, and Strabo (i. p. 21, xiii. p. 589) seems to judge too harshly of him, when he calls him an dur^p yaijs ft ris dWos. The poem " Arimaspeia" is frequently mentioned by the ancients (Paus. i. 24. § 6, v. 7. § 9 ; Pol- lux, ix. 5 ; GeDius, ix. 4 ; Plin. H. N. vii. 2), and thirteen hexameter verses of it are preserved in Longinus [De Sublim. x. 4) and Tzetzes {Chil. vii. 686, &c.). The existence of the poem is thus attested beyond all doubt ; but the ancients them- selves denied to Aristeas the authorship of it. (Dionys. Hal. Jiid. de Tkiccyd. 23.) It seems to have fallen into oblivion at an early period. Sui- das also mentions a theogony of Aristeas, in prose, of which, however, nothing is known. (Vossius, De Hist. Graec. p. 10, &c. ed. Westermann ; Bode, Gesch. der Ephch. Dichtk. pp. 472—478.) [L. S.] ARI'STEAS ('Apfo-Tcos). 1. Son of Adei- mantus. [Aristeus.] 2. Of Chios, a distinguished officer in the re- treat of the Ten Thousand. (Xen. Anab. iv. I. § 28, vi. § 20.) 3. Of Stratonice, was the victor at the Olympic games in wrestling and the pancratium on the same day, 01. 191. (Paus. v. 21. § 5; Krause, Olympia, p. 249.) 4. An Argive, who invited Pyrrhus to Argos, B. c. 272, as his rival Aristippus was supported by Antigonus Gonatas. (Plut. Pyrrli. 30.) 5. A grammarian, referred to by Varro. {L.L. X. 75, ed. Miiller.) ARI'STEAS or ARISTAEUS, a Cj-prian by nation, was a high officer at the court of Ptolemy Philadelphus, and was distinguished for his mili- tary talents. Ptolemy being anxious to add to his newly founded library at Alexandria (b. c. 273) a copy of the Jewish law, sent Aristeas and Andreas, the commander of his body-guard, to Jerusalem. They carried presents to the temple, and obtained from the high-priest, Eleazar, a ge- nuine copy of the Pentateuch, and a body of seventy elders, six from each tribe, who could translate it into Greek. On their arrival in Egypt, the elders were received with great distinc- tion by Ptolemy, and were lodged in a house in the island of Pharos, where, in the space of seventy-two days, thej' completed a Greek version of the Pentateuch, which was called, from the ARISTEIDES. 293 number of the translators, kotcJ Toits iSSofn^Koma ( the Septuagint ), and the same name was extend- ed to the Greek version of the whole of the Old Testament, when it had been completed under the auspices of the Ptolemies. The above account is given in a Greek work which professes to be a letter from Aristeas to his brother Philocrates, but which is generally admitted by the best critics to be spurious. It is probably the fabrication of an Alexandrian Jew shortly before the Christian aera. The fact seems to be, that the version of the Pentateuch was made in the reign of Ptolemy Soter, between the years 298 and 285 b. c. for the Jews who had been brought into Egypt by that king in 320 b. c. It may have obtained its name from its being adopted by the Sanhedrim (or council of seventy) of the Alexandrian Jews. The other books of the Septuagint version were trans- lated by different persons and at various times. The letter ascribed to Aristeas was first printed in Greek and Latin, by Simon Schard, Basil. 1561, 8vo., and reprinted at Oxford, 1692, 8vo. ; the best edition is in Gallandi Biblioth. Pair. ii. p. 771. (Fabric. Bib. Graec. iii. 660.) The story about Aristeas and the seventy inter- preters is told, chiefly on the authority of the let- ter but differing from it in some points, by Aristo- bulus, a Jewish philosopher {ap. Euseb. Praep. Evan. xiii. 12), Philo Judaeus {VU. Mos. 2), Jo- sephus {Ant. Jud. xii. 2), Justin Martyr {Cohort, ad Graec. p. 13, Apol. p. 72, IMal. cum Tryph. p. 297), Irenaeus {Adv. Haer. iii. 25), Clemens Alexandrinus {Strom, i. p. 250), Tertullian {Apolog. 18), Eusebius {Praep. Evan. viii. 1), Athanasius {Synop. S. Scrip, ii. p. 156), Cyril of Jerusalem {Cutech. pp. 36, 37), Epiphanius {De Mens, et Pond. 3), Jerome {Praef. in Pentateuch; Quaesi. in Genes. Prooem.), Augustine {De Civ. Dei, xviii. 42, 43), Chrj^sostom {Adv. Jud. 1. p. 443), Hilary of Poitiers {In Psalm. 2), and Theodoret. (Praef. in Psahn.) [P. S.] ARI'STEAS and P API AS, sculptors, of Aphro- disium in Cyprus, made the two statues of centaurs in dark grej' marble which were found at Hadrian's villa at Tivoli in 1746, and ai'e now in the Capito- line museum. They bear the inscription APICTEAC KAI nAniAC A*POAICIEIC. From the style of the statues, which is good, and from the place where they were discovered, Winckelmann sup- poses that they were made in the reign of Hadrian. Other statues of centaurs have been discovered, very much like those of Aristeas and Papias, but of better workmanship, from which some writers have inferred that the latter are only copies. The two centaurs are fully described by Winckelmann ( Werke, vi. 282, with Meyer's note ; vii. 247), and figured by Cavaceppi {Raccolta di Statue, i. tav. 27, 28) and Foggini {Mus. Capit. tav. 13, 14.) [P.S.] ARISTEIDES ('Apio-Tet'STjs). 1. SonofLysima- chus, the Athenian statesman and general, makes his first certain appearance in history as archon epony- mus of the year 489 b. c. (Mar. Par. 50.) From Herodotus we hear of him as the best and justest of his countrymen ; as ostracised and at enmity with Themistocles ; of his generosity and bravery at Sakimis, in some detail (viii. 79, 82, and 95) ; and the fact, that he commanded the Athenians in the campaign of Plataea. (ix. 28.) Thucydides names hira once as co-ambassador to Sparta with Themistocles, once in the words tov ctt' 'Apiarfidov 6pov. (i. 91, v. 18.) In the Gorgias of Plato, he