Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/704

Rh 686 CHARIS. alarmed Charikiis for his personal safety ; but he soon became reassured, and co-operated with his uncle in the promotion of his plans. (Plat. Lye. 5.) Yet this is not very consistent Avith Aris- totle's statement {Polit. v. 12, ed. Bekk.), that an aristocratic government was established on the ruins of the tyranny of Charilaiis, which latter account again is still less reconcileable with the assertion of Plutarch (/. c), that the kingly power had lost all its substance when Lycurgus began to remodel the constitution. There is, however, much probability in the explanation oflfered as an hypo- thesis by Thirlwall. {Greece, vol. i. p. 299, «Scc.) We hear from Pausanias that Charilaiis was en- gaged successfully in a war with the Argives, which had slumbered for two generations. He aided also his colleague Archelaus in destroying the border-town of Aegys, which they suspected of an intention of revolting to the Arcadians ; and he commanded the Spartans in that disastrous contest with Tegea, mentioned by Herodotus (i. QG), in which the Tegean women are said to have taken up arms and to have caused the rout of the in- vaders by rushing forth from an ambuscade during the heat of the battle. Charilaiis himself was taken prisoner, but was dismissed without ransom on giving a promise (which he did not keep), that the Spartans should abstain in future from attack- ing Tegea. (Paus, iii. 2, 7, viii. 48.) For the chronology of the reign of Charilaiis, see Clinton. (Fast. i. p. 140, &c.) There are two passages of Herodotus, which, if we follow the common read- ing, are at variance with some portions of the above account ; but there is good reason for suspecting in both of them a corruption of the text. (Herod, i. 65 ; Larch, ad loc., viii. 131; comp. Clint Fast. i. p. 144, note b.) [E. E.] CHARIMANDER, the author of a work on Comets, quoted by Seneca. {Quaest. Nat. vii. 5.) CHARIS (Xopiy), the personification of Grace and Beauty, which the Roman poets translate by Gratia and we after them by Grace. Homer, without giving her any other name, describes a Charis as the wife of Hephaestus. (//. xviii. 382.) Hesiod {Theog. 945) calls the Charis who is the wife of Hephaestus, Aglaia, and the youngest of the Chiirites. (Comp. Eustath. ad Horn. p. 1148.) According to the Odyssey, on the other hand. Aphrodite was the wife of Hephaestus, from which we may infer, if not the identity of Aphrodite and Charis, at least a close connexion and resemblance in the notions entertained about the two divinities. The idea of personified grace and beauty was, as we have already seen, divided into a plurality of beings at a very early time, probably to indicate the various ways in which the beautiful is mani- fested in the world and adorns it. In the Iliad itself (xiv. 269) Pasithea is called one of the younger Charites, who is destined to be the wife of Sleep, and the plural Charites occurs several times in the Homeric poems. {Od. xviii. 194.) The parentage of the Charites is differently de- scribed ; the most common account makes them the daughters of Zeus either by Hera, Eurynome, Eunomia, Eurydomene, Harraonia, or Lethe. (Hesiod. Tlieog. 907, &c. ; ApoUod. i. 3. $ 1 ; Pind. 01. xiv. 15; Phurnut. 15; Orph. Hymn. 59. 2 ; Stat. Theb. ii. 286 ; Euatath. ad Horn. p. 982.) According to others they were the daugh- ters of Apollo by Aegle or Euanthe (Paus. ix. 35. § 1), or of Dionysus by Aphrodite or Coronis. CHARIS. The Homeric poems mention only one Charis, or an indefinite number in the plural, and from the passage in which Pasithea is mentioned, it would almost seem as if the poet would intimate that he was thinking of a great number of Charites and of a division of them into classes. Hesiod distinctly mentions three Charites, whose names are Euphro- syne, Aglaia, and Thalia, and this number as well as these names subsequently became generally established, although certain places in Greece re- tained their ancient and established number. Thus the Spartans had only two Charites, Cleta and Phaenna, and the Athenians the same number, Auxo and Hegemone, who were worshipped there from the earliest times. Hermesianax added Peitho as a third. (Paus. ix. 35.) Sostratus {ap. Eustath. ad Horn. p. 1665) relates that Aphrodite and the three Charites, Pasithea, Cale, and Eu- phrosyne, disputed about their beauty with one another, and when Teiresias awarded the prize to Cale he was changed by Aphrodite into an old woman, but Cale rewarded him with a beautiful head of hair and took him to Crete. The name Cale in this passage has led some critics to think that Homer also (//. xviii, 393) mentions the names of two Charites, Pasithea and Cale, and that koAtJ should accordingly be written by a capital initial. The character and nature of the Charites are sufficiently expressed by the names they bear : they were conceived as the goddesses who gave festive joy and enhanced the enjoyments of life by refinement and gentleness. Gi*acefulness and beauty in social intercourse are therefore attributed to them. (Horat. Carm. iii. 21,22; Pind. 01. xiv. 7, &c.) They are mostly described as being in the service or attendance of other divinities, as real joy exists only in circles where the individual gives up his own self and makes it his main object to afford pleasure to others. The less beauty is ambitious to rule, the greater is its victory ; and the less homage it demands, the more freely is it paid. These seem to be the ideas embodied in the Charites. They lend their grace and beauty to everything that delights and elevates gods and men. This notion was probably the cause of Charis being called the wife of Hephaestus, the divine artist. The most perfect works of art are thus called the works of the Charites, and the greatest artists are their favourites. The gentle- ness •and gracefulness which they impart to man's ordinary pleasures are expressed by their moderat- ing the exciting influence of wine (Hor. Carm. iii. 19. 15 ; Pind. 01. xiii. 18), and by their accom- panying Aphrodite and Eros. (Hom. Od. viii. 364, xviii. 194; Paus. vi. 24. ^ 5.) They aLo assist Hermes and Peitho to give grace to elo- quence and persuasion (Hesiod. Op. 63), and wis- dom itself receives its charms from them. Poetry, however, is the art which is especially favoured by them, whence they are called ipaaifioX-Troi or (piK-qcrifioXTToi. For the same reason they are the friends of the Muses, with whom they live to- gether in Olympus. (Hes. Tlteog. 64 ; Eurip. Here. fur. 673 ; Theocrit. xvi. in fin.) Poets are inspired by the Muses, but the application of their songs to the embellishment of life and the festivals of the gods are the work of the Charites. Late Roman writers describe the Charites (Gratiae) as the symbols of gratitude and benevolence, to which they were led by the meaning of the word gratia