Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/907

Rh CREOPHVLUS. it on. (Apollod. i. 9. § 28 ; Schol. ad Eurip. Med. 20.) According to Hyginus (/. c.) Medeia'a present consisted of a crown, and Creon perished with his daughter, who is there called Creusa. (Comp. Diod. iv. .54.) 2. A son of Menoecns, and king of Thebes. After the death of Laius, Creon gave the kingdom to Oedipus, who h.id delivered the country from the Sphinx ; but after Oedipus had laid down the government, Creon resumed it. His tyrannical conduct towards the Argives, and especially to- wards Antigone, is well known from the Oedipus and Antigone of Sophocles. Creon had a son, Haemon, and two daughters, Henioche and Pyrrha. (Apollod. iii. 5. $ 8, 7. $ 1 ; Paus. ix. 10. <$ 3.) A third mythical Creon is mentioned by Apol- lodonis. (ii. 7. $ 8.) [L. S.] CREON (Kptwi/), a Greek rhetorician of un- certain date, who is mentioned in three passages of Suidas (s. w. iyKfKop^vhTifievos, viSdpiov^ and uos). 1. One of the earliest epic poets of Greece, whom tradition placed in direct connexion with Homer, as he is called his friend or even his son-in-law. (Plat, de Rep. x. p. 600, b ; Callim. Epigram. 6 ; Strab. xiv. p. 638, Horn. II. ii. 730 ; Suidas, s. v.) Creophylus is said to have received Homer into his house, and to have been a native of Chios, though other ac- counts describe him as a native of Samos or los. The epic poem Otxa-^^a or 0«xaA:as aKwcns^ which is ascribed to him, he is said, in some traditions, to have received from Homer as a present or as a dowry with his wife. (Proclus, ap. Hephaest. p. 466, ed. Gaisford; Schol. ad PUd. p. 421, ed. Bekker ; Suidas, s. v.) Tradition thus seems to point to Creophylus as one of the most ancient Horaeridae, and as the first link connecting Homer himself with the subsequent history of the Ho- meric poems ; for he preserved and taught the Homeric poems, and handed them down to his descendants, from whom Lycurgus, the Spartan lawgiver, is said to have received them. (Plut. Zyc. 4 ; Heracleid. Pont. Polit. Fragm. 2 ; lam- biich. Vit. Fythag. ii. .9 ; Strab. xiv. p. 639.) His poem Olxo-ia contained the contest which Hera- cles, for the sake of lole, undertook with Eurytus, and the final capture of Oechalia. This poem, from which Panyasis is said to have copied (Clem. Alex. Strom, iv. p. 266), is often referred to, both with and without its author's name, but we pos- sess only a few statements derived from it. (Phot. J^jc. p. 177, ed. Porson ; Tzetz. Chil. xiii. 659; Cramer, Anecd. ii. p. 327 ; Schol. ad Soph. Track. 266 ; Bekker, Anecd. p. 728.) Pausanias (iv. 2 § 3) mentions a poem 'UpaxXda by Creophylus, but this seems to be only a different name for the OtxnA'o- (Comp. Schol. ad Eurip. Med. 276.) The Heracleia which the Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius (L 1357) ascribes to Cinaethon, is like- wise supposed by some to be a mistake, and to allude to the Otx«Aia of Creophylus. (Welcker, Der Episch. Ci/clus, p. 219, &c. ; Wiillner, De Cycl. Epic. p. 52, &c. ; K. W. Muller, De Cycl. (ilraec. Epic. p. 62, &c.) 2. The author of Annals of Ephesus {&poi rrfers. [L. S.] CRESILAS. 8;{9 CREPEREIUS, the name of a Roman eques- trian family, which was distinguished for the strict discipline of its members, but of which otherwise only very little is known. Among the judges in the case of Verres, one M. Crepereius is mentioned by Cicero (in Verr. i. 10), and it is added, that as he was iribunus militaris dcsignaius^ he would not be able to take a part in the proceedings after the 1st of January of B. c. 69. There are several coins on which we read the name Q. Crepereius M. F. Roots, and from the representations of Venus and Neptune which a|)- pear on those coins, it has been inferred, that this person had some connexion with Corinth, perhaps after its restoration by J. Caesar, since those divi- nities were the principal gods of Corinth. (Haver- camp, in Morell. Tliesaur. Numism. p. 145, &c.) In the reign of Nero we meet with one Crepereius Gallus, a friend of Agrippina, who perished in the ship by means of which Agrippina was to be destroyed. (Tac. Ann. xiv. 5.) [L. S.] CREPEREIUS CALPURNIA'NUS (KpeTre- pijos Kairovpviav6s), a native of Pompeiopolis, is mentioned by Lucian {Quom.. Hist, conscrib. 15) as the author of a history of the wars between the Romans and Parthians, but nothing further is knoAvn about him. [L. S.J CRES (Kprfs), a son of Zeus by a nymph of mount Ida, from whom the island of Crete was believed to have derived its name. (Steph. Byz. s. V. KpifiTT} ; Paus. viii. 53. § 3.) According to Diodorus (v. 64), Cres was an Eteocretan, that is, a Cretan autochthon. [L. S.] CRESCENS, a Cynic of Megalopolis, (probably the city in Arcadia, though some believe that Ro7ne is meant by that appellation,) who lived in the middle of the second century after Christ, contemporary with Justin Martyr. The Chris- tian writers speak of his character as perfectly in- famous. By Tatian (Or. adv. Graec p. 157, &c.) he is accused of the most flagrant enormities, and is described as a person who was not prevented by his cynical profession from being ** wholly enslaved to the love of money." He attacked the Chris- tians with great acrimony, calling them Atheists ; but his charges were refuted by Justin, who tells us, that, in consequence of the refutation, he was apprehensive lest Crescens should plot his death. But whether he was really the cause of Justin's martyrdom or not is uncertain ; for, although he is accused of this crime by Eusebius, yet the charge is only made to rest on a statement of Tatian, which however merely is, that " he who advised others to despise death, was himself so much in dread of death, that he plotted death for Justin as a very great evil," without a word as to the success of his intrigues. (Justin, Apolog. ii. ; Euseb. H. E. iv. 16; Neander, Kircliengesch. i. p. 1131.) [G. E. L. C.l CRESCO'NIUS. [CoRiPPus.] CRE'SILAS (Kpeo-fAos), an Athenian sculptor, a contemporary of Phidias and Polycletus. Pliny {H. N. xxxiv. 19), in narrating a competition of five most distinguished artists, and among them Phidias .and Polycletus, as to who should make the best Amazon for the temple at Ephesus, men- tions Cresilas as the one who obtained the third prize. But as this is an uncommon name, it has been changed by modem editors into Ctesilas or Ctesilaus; and in the same chapter (§ 15) an artist, " Desilaus," whose wounded Amazon was a ce.tr-
 * cc. ; Sext. Empir. adv. MatL i. 2 ; Eustath. ad
 * E<^€(ri«j/), to which Athenaeus (viii. p. 361)