Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/1145

Rh MYRON. found in Hadrian's Vilhi, in 1793; is in the Va- tican Museura ; a fourth, restored as a gladiator, is in the Capitoline Museum. To these may, in all probability, be added (5) a torso, restored as one of the sons of Miobe, in the gallery at Florence ; (0) the torso of an Endymion in the same gallery; (7) a ligure restored as a Diomed, and (8) a bronze in the gallery at Munich. (Miiller, in the Amal- tliea^ vol. iii. p. 243.) The original statue is men- tioned by Quinctilian and Lucian. The former dilates upon the novelty and difficulty of its atti- tude, and the triumph of the artist in representing such an attitude, even though the work may not be in all respects accurate (ii. 13). Lucian gives a much more exact description. {PhilopseiuL 18, vol. iii. p. 45) : — Mc5j/ top diaKevoura, i^u S' €70;, c/)rjs, Tov eviKeKvcpSra /cord to XVI^°- '''VS d(p4(T€Cos, anecTTpa/iifxeuov els ro Si(TKO(p6pov, rjpefxa oKXa^ovra TQf erepq}, ioiKora ^waaTrjaofXii/Cf) /ierd ttjs ^orjs ; ovK hcelvov, 71 S' OS, end Kal Mvpuvos epyov ev Kal TovTo ecTTiy, 6 SicrKe€6os 8u Xeyeis. We have given the passage at length in order to make mani- fest the absurdit}' of supposing that the figure was not in the action of throwing the quoit, but merely stretching back the hand to receive the quoit from some imaginary attendant who held it {rdu Sicko- ^opov). The real meaning is that the head was turned round backwards towards the hand which h«ld the quoit. The two most perfect copies, the Townley and the Massimi, agree with Lucian's description, except that the former has the head in quite a different position, bending down forwards. Barry preferred this position {Works,yo. i. p. 479 ; ed. 1809, 4to.) ; but the attitude described by Lucian, and seen in the Massirai statue, gives a better balance to the figure. There is, also, great reason to doubt whether the head of the Townley statue really belongs to it. (See Townley Gallery, Lib. Ent. Knowledge, vol. i. p. 240, where it is figured.) On the whole, the Massimi copy is the best of all, and probably the most faithful to the original. It is engraved in the Abhildu7igen zu WinckelmanTi's Werke, fig. 80 ; and in Miiller's Jienkm'dler d. alien Ku7ist^ vol i. pL xxxii. fig. 139, b. Of Myron's other works Pliny (xxxiv. 8. s. 19. § 3) enumerates the following : — a dog ; Perseus, which Pausanias saw in the Acropolis at Athens . 23. § 8) ; sea-monsters {pristas, see Bcittiger, inf. cit.) ; a satyr admiring a double flute and Minerva, probably a group descriptive of the story of Marsyas ; Delphic pentathletes ; pancratiasts ; a Hercules, which, in Pliny's time, was in the temple of Pompey, by the Circus Maximus ; and an Apollo, which was taken away from the Ephe- sians by M. Antonius, and restored to them by Augustus, in obedience to an admonition in a dream. The words in the passage of Pliny, fecisse et ci- ciidae monumentum ac locusiae carminibus suis ICrinna siyjiificat, are a gross blunder, which Pliny made by misUiking the name of the poetess Myro in an epigram by Anyte (or Erinna, Anth. Fal. vii. 190) for that of the sculptor Myron. In addition to Pliny's account, the following works of Myron are mentioned by other writers : Colossal statues of Zeus, Hera, and Heracles, at Samos, the three statues on one base. They were removed by M. Antonius, but restored by Augustus, except the Zeus, which he placed on the Capitol and built a shrine for it (Strab. xiv. p. 637, b.) A Dionysus in Helicon, dedicated by Sulla. (Paus. ix. 30. § 1.) MYRONIDES. 1131 A Hercules, which Verres took from Heius the Mamertine. (Cic. Verr. iv. 3.) A bronze Apollo, with the name of the artist Avorked into the thigh, in minute silver letters, dedicated in the shriiie of Aesculapius at Agrigentum by P. Scipio, and taken away by Verres. (Cic. Verr. iv. 43.) A wooden statue of Hecate, in Aegina. (Pans. ii. 20. § 2.) Several statues of athletes. (See Sillig,s.t>.) Lastlj', a striking indication how far Myron's love of variety led him beyond the true limits of art, a drunken old woman, in marble, at Smyrna, which of course, according to Pliny, was inprimis inclyta. (Plin. H. N. xxxvi. 5. s. 4.) His Cow was not his only celebrated work of the kind : there were four oxen, which Augustus dedicated in the portico of the temple of Apollo on the Palatine, B. c. 28 (Pro- pert, ii. 23. 7) ; and a calf carrying Victory, de- rided by Tatian. (Adv. Grace. 54, p. 117, ed. Worth.) He was also an engraver in metals : a cele})rated patera of his is mentioned by Martial (vi. 92). Nothing is known of Myron's life except that, according to Petronius (88), he died in great po- verty. He had a son, Lycius, who was a distin- guished artist. (Besides the usual authorities, Winckelmann, Meyer, Thiersch, Miiller, Junius, Sillig,&c., there is an excellent lecture on Myron in Bottiger's Andeutungen zu 24 Vorir'dgen iiber die Archao- %2>, Vorles.21.) [P. S] MYRONIA'NUS {Uvpuviavos), of Amastris, a Greek writer of uncertain age, was the author of a work entitled 'laropiKwv d/xoiuv Kf(pdaia. (Diog. Laert. iv. 14, v. 36.) It is also cited by Diogenes under the title of 'laropiKoi. /ce^aAaia (x. 3), and of "Ofxaia simply (i. 115, iii. 40, iv. 8). MYRO'NIDES {MvpwyiSrjs), a skilful and suc- cessful Athenian general. In B. c. 457, the Co- rinthians invaded Megara with the view of relieving Aegina, by drawing away thence a portion of the Athenian troops, which were besieging the chief city of the island. The Athenians, however, who had at the same time another force in Egypt, acting with Inarus, did not recal a single man from any quarter for the protection of Megara : but the old and young men who had been left behind at home, marched out under Myronides, and met the Co- rinthians in the Megarian territory. After a battle, in which victory inclined, though not decisively, to the Athenians, the Corinthian troops withdrew, and Myronides erected a trophy. But the Corin- thians, being reproached at home for leaving the field, returned ; and were setting up a rival trophy, when the Athenians made a sally from Megara, and, in the battle which ensued, completely defeated them. The fugitives, in their retreat, entered an enclosure fenced in by a large ditch, where they were surrounded by the Athenians, who oc- cupied with a part of their force the only egress, and slew with their darts every man within. In the following year, B. c. 456, and sixty-two day* after the battle of Tanagra, Myronides led an Athenian army into Boeotia, and defeated the Boeotians at Oenophyta, a victory which made his countrymen masters of Phocis, and of all the Boeo- tian towns, with the single exception of Thebes ; while even there it seems to have led to the tem- porary establishment of democracy. After his victory, Myronides marched against the Opuntian Locrians, from whom he exacted a hundred hos- tages J and then, according to Diodorua, he peue*