Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/117

Rh  was in the end successfully executed by 212 of them, under the guidance of the same two leaders. (Thuc. iii. 20—23.)

 EUPOMPUS, of Sicyon, one of the most distinguished Greek painters, was the contemporary of Zeuxis, Parrhasius, and Timanthes, and the instructor of Pamphilus, the master of Apelles. He was held in such esteem by his contemporaries, that a new division was made of the schools of art, and he was placed at the head of one of them. Formerly only two schools had been recognized, the Greek Proper or Helladic, and the Asiatic; but the fame of Eupompus led to the creation of a new school, the Sicyonian, as a branch of the Helladic, and the division then adopted was the Ionian, the Sicyonian, and the Attic, the last of which had, no doubt, Apollodorus for its head. Another instance of the influence of Eupompus is his celebrated answer to Lysippus, who, at the beginning of his career, asked the great painter whom he should take for his model; and Eupompus answered that he ought to imitate nature herself, and no single artist. The only work of Eupompus which is mentioned is a victor in the games carrying a palm. (Plin. xxxiv. 8. s. 19. § 6, xxxv. 9, 10. s. 36. §§ 3, 7.)

 EU′PREPES, celebrated in the racing annals of Rome as having carried off 782 chaplets of victory,—a greater number than any single individual before his time had ever won. He was put to death when an old man, upon the accession of Caracalla (A. D. 211), because the colours which he wore in the circus were different from those patronised by the prince, who favoured the Blues. (Dion Cass. lxxvii. 1.)

 EURI′PIDAS, or EURI′PIDES, an Aetolian, who, when his countrymen, with the help of Scerdilaïdas the Illyrian, had gained possession of Cynaetha, in Arcadia (B. C. 220), was at first appointed governor of the town; but the Aetolians soon after set fire to it, fearing the arrival of the Macedonian succours for which Aratus had applied. In the next year, B. C. 219, being sent as general to the Eleans, then allied with Aetolia, he ravaged the lands of Dyme, Pharae, and Tritaea, defeated Miccus, the lieutenant-general of the Achaeans, and seized an ancient stronghold, named Teichos, near Cape Araxus, whence he infested the enemy's territory more effectually. In the winter of the same year he advanced from Psophis, in Arcadia, where he had his head-quarters, to invade Sicyonia, having with him a body of 2200 foot and 100 horse. During the night he passed the encampment of the Macedonians, in the Phliasian territory, without being aware of their vicinity; on discovering which from some foragers in the morning, he hastened back, hoping to pass them again, and to arrive at Psophis without an engagement; but, falling in with them in the passes of Mount Apelaurus, between Phlius and Stymphalus, he basely deserted his troops, and made his escape to Psophis, with a small number of horsemen, while almost all the Eleans were either cut to pieces by the Macedonians, or perished among the mountains. Philip then advanced on Psophis, and compelled it to capitulate, Euripidas being allowed to return in safety to Aetolia. In B. C. 217 we find him acting again as general of the Eleans, who had requested that he might be sent to supersede Pyrrhias. He ravaged Achaia in this campaign, but was pursued and defeated by Lycus, the lieutenant-general of the Achaeans. (Polyb. iv. 19, 59, 69—72, v. 94, 95.)

 EURI′PIDES. 1. A tragic poet of Athens, is mentioned by Suidas as having flourished earlier than his more celebrated namesake. He was the author of twelve plays, two of which gained the prize. (Suid. s. v. .)

2. The distinguished tragic writer, of the Athenian demus of Phlya in the Cecropid tribe, or, as others state it, of Phyle in the tribe Oeneïs, was the son of Mnesarchus and Cleito, and was born in B. C. 485, according to the date of the Arundel marble, for the adoption of which Hartung contends. (Eur. Restitutus, p. 5, &c.) This testimony, however, is outweighed by the other statements on the subject, from which it appears that his parents were among those who, on the invasion of Xerxes, had fled from Athens to Salamis (Herod. vii. 41), and that the poet was born in that island in B. C. 480. (See Clinton, sub anno.) Nor need we with Müller (Greek Literature, p. 358) set it down at once as a mere legend that his birth took place on the very day of the battle of Salamis (Sept. 23), though we may look with suspicion on the way in which it was contrived to bring the three great tragic poets of Athens into connexion with the most glorious day in her annals. (Hartung, p. 10.) Thus it has been said that, while Euripides then first saw the light, Aeschylus in the maturity of manhood fought in the battle, and Sophocles, a beautiful boy of 15, took part in the chorus at the festival which celebrated the victory. If again we follow the exact date of Eratosthenes, who represents Euripides as 75 at his death in B. C. 406, his birth must be assigned to B. C. 481, as Müller places it. It has also been said that he received his name in commemoration of the battle of Artemisium, which took place near the Euripus not long before he was born, and in the same year; but Euripides was not a new name, and belonged, as we have seen, to an earlier tragic writer. (See, too, Thuc. ii. 70, 79.) With respect to the station in life of his parents, we may safely reject the account given in Stobaeus (see Barnes, Eur. Vit. § 5), that his father was a Boeotian, banished from his country for bankruptcy. His mother, it is well known, is represented by Aristophanes as a herb-seller, and not a very honest one either (Ach. 454, Thesm. 387, 456, 910, Eq. 19, Ran. 839; Plin. xxii. 22; Suid. s. vv. ; Hesych. s. v. ); and we find the same statement made by Gellius (xv. 20) from Theopompus; but to neither of these testimonies can much weight be accorded (for Theopompus, see Plut. Lys. 30; Ael. V. H. iii. 18; Clem. Alex. Strom. i. 1; Joseph, c. Apion. i. 24; C. Nep. Alc. 11), and they are contradicted by less exceptionable authorities. That the family of Euripides was of a rank far from mean is asserted by Suidas (s. v.) and Moschopulus (Vit. Eur.) to have been proved by Philochorus in a work no longer extant, and seems, indeed, to be borne out by what Athenaeus (x. p. 424, e.) reports from Theophrastus, that the poet, when a boy, was cup-bearer to a chorus of noble Athenians at the Thargelian festival,—an office for which nobility of blood was requisite. We know also that he was taught rhetoric by Prodicus, who was certainly not moderate in his terms for instruction, and who was in the habit, as 