Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/1168

Rh 1154 NEOPHYTUS. into exile, when the cities of Boeotia submitted to the Roman deputies Marcius and Atilius, B.C. 172. Hereupon he took refuge with Perseus, to whose fortunes he seems to have henceforward closely at- tached himself, as he was one of the three companions of the king's flight after the decisive battle of Pydna, n. c. 168. He eventually fell into the hands of the Romans, by whom he was executed the following year, b. c. 167. (Polyb. xxvii. 1,2; Liv, xliv. 43, xlv. 31 ; Pint. AemiU 23). [E. 11. B.] NEOPHRON or NEOPHON (Neo>p«j/, Neo^wj/, Suidas gives both, Diogenes Laertius 'Ne6(ppmv), of Sicyon, a tragic writer of doubtful age. In the Scholia to the Medeia of Euripides, we have two fragments of a play written by him on the same subject, one of four lines at v. 668, and another of five lines at v. 1 354. Besides these we have fifteen lines quoted by Stobaeus, from the same tragedy. The account given of him by Suidas, as has been shown by Elmsley (ad Eurip. Med. p. 68), is manifestly inconsistent. Suidas states that he wrote 120 tragedies, that the Medeia of Euripides was sometimes attributed to him, and that he was the first to introduce on the stage the natSa7w7os, and the examination of slaves by torture. In one particular — that the Medeia of Euripides was sometimes attributed to him — Suidas is confirmed by Diogenes Laertius. But Suidas goes on to say that he was involved in the fate of Callistlienes, and put to death by Alexander the Great. If the latter account be true, the former cannot but be an error, as Euripides lived long before the days of Alexander the Great, and, in the very play of the Medeia, among others, had introduced the HaL^ayoi'yQS. Besides, Nearchus, a tragedian, is mentioned by Suidas {s.v. KaWiadhris) as the unfortunate friend of Callisthenes who suf- fered with him. From this reasoning it seems certain that Suidas confounded the two, and that Clinton is right in placing Neophron, as he does, before the age of Euripides. This is further strengthened by an acute remark of Elmsley's, that men do not quote small plagiarists of great writers, but delight to trace wherever great writers have borrowed their materials. As far as we can judge from the fragments already mentioned, Euri- pides may have borrowed his plot and characters from Neophron, but certainly not his style. (Elms- ley, /. c. ; Gaisford's Stobaeus, vol. i. p. 385 ; Suid. s. V. ; Diog. Laert. ii. 1 34 ; Clinton, F. H. vol. ii. p. xxxi.) [W.M.G.] NEO'PHYTUS. A short, but curious tract, published by Cotelerius in his Ecdesiae Graecae Monumenta, vol. ii. p. 457—462, bears this title : Neo<^UTOu irpecrSvTepov fiovaxov koI iyKXeiffTov irepl Twu Kara x^P"-^ KvTrpou (jKaiwv, Neophyti Presbyteri Monachi et Inclusi, De Calamitatibus Cypri. It gives a brief account of the usurpation of the island by Isaac Comnenus, its conquest, and the imprisonment of Isaac by Richard Coeur de Lion, king of England, and the sale of the island to the Latins (as the writer represents the transaction) by Richard. The writer was con- temporary with these transactions, and therefore lived about the close of the twelfth century. He was a resident in and probably a native of Cyprus. There are several MSS. in the different European libraries bearing the name of Neophytus. Of these a MS. formerly in the Colbertine Library at Paris, contained thirty Orationes., evidently by our Neo- phytus : a Catena in Canticum, and some others on NEOPTOLEMUS. theological subjects, are of more dubious authorship, but are probably by our Neophytus : a Demonstratio de Plantis, and one or two chemical treatises, are by another Neophytus, surnamed Prodromenus ; and Definitiones and Divisiones Summariae iotius Aris- totelis PhilosopMae and Epitome in Porphyrii quinque voces et in Aristotelis Organon are appa- rently by a third writer of the same name. (Cote- lerius, /. c. and notes in col, 678, 679 ; Du Cange, Glossarium Med. et Inf. Graecitatis ; Index Aucto- rum, p. 29 ; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. v. p. 738, vol. viii. 661, 662, vol, xi. p. 339, &c. ; Cave, Hist. Litt. ad Ann. 1190, vol. ii. p. 251, ed. Oxford, 1740, 1742.) [J. C. M.] NEOPTO'LEMUS (NeoTrroAeyuos), i. e. a young warrior, a son of Achilles and Deidameia, the daughter of Lycomedes, was also called Pyrrhus (Apollod. iii. 13. § 8 ; Hom. Od. xi. 491, &c.). According to some, however, he was a son of Achilles and Iphigeneia (Tzetz. ad Lye. 133 ; Eu- stath. ad Hom. p. 1187), and after the sacrifice of his mother he was carried by his father to the island of Scyros. The name of Pyrrhus is said to have been given to him by Lycomedes, because he had fair (irvppos) hair, or because Achilles, while disguised as a girl, had borne the name of Pyrrha (Pans. X. 26. § 1 ; Hygin. Fab. 97 ; Eustath. ad Hom. p. 1187 ; Serv. ad Ae?i. ii. 469). He was called Neoptolemus because either Achilles or Pyrrhus himself had fought in early youth (Eustath. I. c.). From his father he is sometimes called Achil- lides (Ov. Her. viii. 3), and from his grandfather or great-grandfather, Pelides and Aeacides (Virg. ^e«.ii.263,iii.296). Neoptolemus was brought up in Scyros in the house of Lj'comedes (Horn. //. xix. 326 ; Soph. Pkiloct. 239,' &c.), whence he was fetched by Odysseus to join the Greeks in the war against Troy (Horn. Od. xi. 508), because it had been prophesied by Helenus that Neoptolemus and Philoctetes, with the arrows of Heracles, were ne- cessary for the taking of Troy (Soph. Phil. 115). In order to obtain those arrows Neoptolemus and Odysseus were sent from Troy to the island of Lemnos, where Philoctetes was living, who was prevailed upon to join the Greeks (Soph. Phi/. 1433). At Troy Neoptolemus showed himself in every respect Avorthy of his great father, and at last was one of the heroes that were concealed in the wooden horse (Hom. Od. xi. 508, &c. 521). At the taking of the city he killed Priam at the sacred hearth of Zeus Herceius (Pans. iv. 17. § 3, X. 27 ; Virg. Aen. ii. 547, &c.), and sacrificed Polyxena to the spirit of his father (Eurip. Hecub. 523). When the Trojan captives were distributed, Andromache, the widow of Hector, was given to Neoptolemus, and by her he became the father of Molossus, Pielus, Per- gamus (Pans. i. 11. § 1), and Amphialus (Hygin. Fab. 123; comp. Andromache). Respecting his return from Troy and the subsequent events of his life the traditions differ. According to Homer {Od. iii. 188, iv. 5, &c,) he lived in Phthia, the kingdom of his father, whither Menelaus sent to him Her- mione from Sparta, because he had promised her to him at Troy. According to others Neoptolemus himself went to Sparta to receive Hermione, because he had heard a report that she was betrothed to Orestes (Hygin. Fd). 123 ; Pans. i_ii. 25. § 1, 26. § 5). Servius {ad Aen. ii. 166, iii. 321, &c.) re- lates that on the advice of Helenus, to whom he subsequently gave Andromache and a district in