Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/711

Rh CIIERA. riclo, and his daughter Endcis was the mother of Peleus. (Apollod. iii. 12. § 6.) Chciron is the noblest specimen of a combination of the human and animal forms in the ancient works of art ; for while the centaurs generally express the sensual and savage features of a man combined with the strength and swiftness of a horse, Cheiron, who possesses the latter likewise, combines with it a mild wisdom. He was represented on the Amy- claean throne of Apollo, and on the chest of Cyp- selus. (Paus. iii. 18. § 7, v. 19. § 2.) Some repre- sentations of him are still extant, in which young Achilles or Erotes are riding on his back. {AIus. PioClement. i. 52 ; Bottiger, Vasengem'dlde^ iii. p. 144, &c.) [L. S.] CHE'LIDON, the mistress of C. Verres, who is said by Cicero to have given all his decisions during his city praetorship (b. c. 74) in accordance with her wishes. She died two years afterwards, when Verres was propraetor in Sicily, leaving him her heir. She is called by the Pseudo-Asconius a plebeian female client of Verres. (Cic. Verr. i. 40, 52, V. 13, 15, ii. 47, iv. 32 ; Pseudo-Ascon. p. 193; Schol. Vatic, p. 376, ed. Orelli.) CHELI'DONIS (XeAtSoiz/s), a Spartan woman of great beauty and royal blood, daughter of Leo- tychides. She married Cleonymns, who was much older than herself, and to whom she proved un- faithful in consequence of a passion for Acrotatus, son of Areus I. It was partly on account of this injury that Cleonymus, offended also by his exclu- sion from the throne, invited Pyrrhus to attempt the conquest of Sparta in B. c. 272. Chelidonis, alarmed for the result, was prepared to put an end to her own life rather than fall into her husband's hands ; but Pyrrhus was beaten off from the city, chiefly through the valour of Acrotatus. If we may trust the account of Plutarch, the Spartans generally of both sexes exhibited more sympathy with the lovers than indignation at their guilt, — a proof of the corruption of manners, which Phylar- chus {ap. Athen. iv. p. 142, b.) ascribes principally to Acrotatus and his father. ( Plut. Pyrrh. 26 — 28.) [E. K] CHELO'NE (XfXwj/77), the tortoise. When all the gods, men, and animals were invited by Hermes to attend the wedding of Zeus and Hera, the nymph Chelone alone remained at home, to shew her dis- regard of the solemnit)'. But Hermes then des- cended from 01>Tnpus, threw Chelone's house, which stood on the bank of a river, together with the nymph, into the water, and changed her into a tortoise, who had henceforth to carry her house on her back. (Serv. ad Aen. i. 509.) [L. S.] CHEOPS (XeovJ/), an early king of Egypt, god- less and tyrannical, who, according to Herodotus and Diodorus, reigned for fifty years, and built the first and largest pyramid by the compulsory labour of his subjects. Diodorus calls him Chembes or Chemmis. His account agrees with that of Hero- dotus, except that he supposes seven generations to have intervened between Remphis or Rhampsinitus and Cheops. (Herod, ii. 124 — 127 ; Larcher, ad loc; Diod. i. 63.) [Cephren.] [E. E.] CHEPHREN. [Cephren.] CHERA (X^pa), a surname of Hera, which was believed to have been given her by Temenus, the son of Pelasgus. He had brought up Hera, and erected to her at Old Stymphalus three sanctuaries under three different names. To Hera, as a maiden previous to her man-iage, he dedicated one in which CHERSIPHRON. 6/-)8 she was called iro7s ; to her as the wife of Zeus, a second in which she bore the name of TeAem ; and a third in which she was worshipped as the x^P**» the widow, alluding to her separation from Zeus. (Pans. viii. 22. § 2.) [L. S.] CHE'RSIPHRON (XepffKppwv), or, as the name is written in Vitruvins and one passage of Pliny, CTESIPHON, an architect of Cnossus in Crete, in conjunction with his son Metagenes, built or com- menced building the great temple of Artemis at Ephesus. The worship of Artemis was most proba- bly established at Ephesus before the time of the Ionian colonization [Artemis, p. 376, a.] ; and it would seem, that there was alr^y at that distant period some temple to the goddess. (Paus. vii. 2. § 4. ) We are not told what had become of this temple, when, about the beginning of the 6th century B. c, the Ionian Greeks undertook the erection of a new temple, which was intended for the centre of their national worship, like the temple of Hera at Saraos, which was built about the same time by the Dorian colonies. The preparation of the foundations was commenced about B. c. 600. To guard against earthquakes, a marsh was chosen for the site of the temple, and the ground was made firm by layers of charcoal rammed down, over which were laid fleeces of wool. This contrivance was sug- gested by Theodoras of Samos. [Theodobus.]: The work proceeded very slowly. The erection of the columns did not take place till about 40 years later, (b. c. 560.) This date is fixed by the state- ment of Herodotus (i. 92), that most of the pillars were presented by Croesus. This therefore is the date of Chersiphron, since it is to him and to his son Metagenes that the ancient writers attribute the erection of the pillars and the architrave. Of course the plan could not be extended after the erection of the pillars ; and therefore, when Strabo (xiv. p. 640) says, that the temple was enlarged by another architect, he probably refers to the building of the courts round it. It was finally completed by Demetrius and Paeonius of Ephesus, about 220 years after the foundations were laid ; but it was shortly afterwards burnt down by Herostratus on the same night in which Alex- ander the Great was born, b. c. 356. It was re- built with greater magnificence by the contribu- tions of all the states of Asia Minor. It is said, that Alexander the Great offered to pay the cost of the restoration on the condition that his name should be inscribed on the temple, but that the Ephesians evaded the offer by replying, that it was not right for a god to make offerings to gods. The architect of the new temple was Deinqcrates. The edifice has now entirely disappeared, except some remnants of its foundations. Though Pliny (like others of the ancient writers) has evidently confounded the two buildings, yet his description is valuable, since the restored temple was probably built on the same foundations and after the same general plan as the old one. We have also de- scriptions of it by Vitruvius, who took his state- ments from a work on the temple, which was said to have been written by the architects themselves, Chersiphron and Metagenes. (vii. Praef. § 12.) There are also medals on which the elevation of the chief portico is represented. The temple was Octastyle, Dipteral, Diastyle, and Hypaethral. It was raised on a basement of 10 steps. Its dimensions were 425 X 220 feet. The columns were 127 in number, 60 feet high, and made of