Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/802

Rh 788 LITORTUS. favourites of the gods ; and in the midst of the enjo^-ment of their happy youth, they are carried oif by a sudden or violent death ; but their remem- brance is kept alive by men, who celebrate their memory in dirges and appropriate rites, and seek the vanished youths generally about the middle of summer, but in vain. The feeling which seems to have given rise to the stories about these person- ages, who form a distinct class by themselves in Greek mythology, is deeply felt grief at the cata- strophes observable in nature, which dies away under the influence of the burning sun (Apollo) soon after it has developed all its fairest beauties. Those popular dirges, therefore, originally the ex- pression of grief at the premature death of nature through the heat of the sun, were transformed into lamentations of the deaths of youths, and were sung on certain religious occasions. They were afterwards considered to have been the productions of the very same youths whose momory was cele- brated in them. The whole class of songs of this kind was called ^pfjvoi oIktoi, and the most cele- brated and popular among them was the ivos^ which appears to have been popular even in the days of Homer. (11. xviii. 5Q9, with the Schol.) Pamphos, the Athenian, and Sappho, sang of Linus under the name of Oetolinus (oItos Aivov, i. e. the death of Linus, Fans. ix. 29. § 3) ; and the tragic poets, in mournful choral odes, often use the form a^Aivos (Aeschyl. Agam. 121 ; Soph. Ajacc, 627 ; Eurip. Phoen. 1535, Orest. 1380), which is a compound of at, the interjection, and Alve. As regards the etymology of Linus, Welcker regards it as formed from the mournful interjection, li, while others, on the analogy of Hyacinthus and Narcissus, consider Linus to have originally been the name of a flower (a species of narcissus). (Phot. Lex. p. 224, ed. Pors. ; Eustath. ad Horn. p. 99 ; compare in general Arabrosch, De Lino., Berlin, 1 829, 4to ; Welcker, Kleine Schriften, i. p. 8, &c. ; E. V. Lasaulx, Ueber die Linosklage., Wurzburg, 1842, 4to.) [L. S.J LIPA'SIUS, the engraver of a beautiful gem, bearing the head of the city Antioch, with the in- scription AinAC lOT, in the Museum Worsleyanum (p. 143). According to Raoiil-Rochette, however, the name should be read 'AaTraaiov. (Letlre a M. Schorn, p. 3;^, or p. 122, 2d edit.) [P. S.J LIPODO'RUS (Amodwpos) commanded a body of 3000 soldiers in the army of the Greeks, who, having been settled by Alexander the Great in the upper or eastern satrapies of Asia, revolted as soon as they heard of his death, in b. c. 323. Pithon, having been sent against them by the regent Per- diccas, found means to bribe Lipodorus, who drew off his men during the heat of the battle, and thus caused the defeat of his friends. (Diod. xviii. 4, 7 ; Droysen, Gesch. der Nachf. Alex. pp. 56-58.) ^ - [E. E.J LITAE (AtTct), a personification of the prayers offered up in repentance. They are described as the daughters of Zeus, and as following closely be- hind crime, and endeavouring to make amends for what has been done ; but whoever disdains to receive them, has himself to atone for the crime tliat has been committed. (Horn. //. ix. 502, &c. ; Eustath, ad Horn. p. 768 ; Hesych. s. v. ahai., calls them Aetae, which however is probably only a mistake in the name.) [L. S.J LITO'RIUS (AiToipios) a veterinary surgeon, a native of Beneventum in Samnium, who may, per- LIVIA. haps, have lived in the fourth or fifth century after Christ. A few fragments of his writings, which are all that remain, are to be found in the collection of writers on veterinary surgery, first published in Latin by Jean de la Ruelle, Paris 1530, fol., and afterwards in Greek by Simon Gryiiaeus, Basil, 1537, 4to. [W.A.G.] LIT Y ERSES (AiTv4p<Tvs), a natural son of Midas, lived at Celaenae in Phrygia, engaged in rural pursuits, and hospitably received all strangers that passed his house, but he then compelled them to assist him in the harvest, and whenever they allowed themselves to be surpassed by him in their work, he cut oflF their heads in the evening, and concealed their bodies in the sheaves, accompanying his deed with songs. Heracles, however, slew him, and threw his body into the Maeander. The Phrygian reapers used to celebrate his memory in a harvest- song which bore the name of Lityerses (Schol. ad Theocrit. x. 41 ; Athen. x, p. 615, xiv. p. 619 ; Eustath. ad Horn. p. 1164 ; Hesych., Phot., Suid. s. V. ; Pollux, iv. 54). Concerning the song Lity- erses see Eichstadt, De Dramate Graecor. comico- sati/rico, imprimis de Sosilhei Lityersa, p. 1 6, &c. ; Ilgen, De Scoliorum Poesi, p. 16, &c. [L. S.J LIVILLA. [L1VIA.J LI' VI A. 1. Daughter of M. Li^^ius Drusus, consul B. c. 11 2, and sister of M. Livius Drusus, the celebrated tribune of the plebs, who was killed B. c. 91. [See the genealogical table. Vol, L p. 1076. J She was married first to M. Porcius Cato, by whom she had Cato Uticensis (Cic. Brut. 62 ; Val. Max. iii. 1. § 2 ; Aur. Vict, de Vir. III. 80 ; Plut. Cat. Min. i. 2), and subsequently to Q. Servilius Caepio, by whom she had a daughter, Servilia, who was the mother of M. Brutus, who killed Caesar. (Plut. Brut 2, Caes. 62, Cat. Min. 24.) Some writers suppose that Caepio was her first husband, and Cato her second. 2. LiviA Drusilla, the wife of Augustus, was the daughter of Livius Drusus Claudianus [Drusus, No. 7 J, who had been adopted by one of the Li via gens, but was a descendant of App. Claudius Caecus. Livia was born on the 28th of September, B. c. 56 — 54. {Leivonne, Reclierches pour servir a CHistoire de VEgypte., p. 171.) She was married first to Tib. Claudius Nero ; but her beauty having attracted the notice of Octavian at the beginning of B. c. 38, her husband was compelled to divorce her, and surrender her to the triumvir. She had already borne her husband one s»n, the future em- peror Tiberius, and at the time of her marriage with Augustus was six months pregnant with another, who subsequently received the name of Drusus. It was only two years previously that she had been obliged to fly before Octavian, in con- sequence of her husband having fought against him in the Perusinian war. (Suet. Tib. 3, 4 ; Veil. Pat. ii. 75, 79; Suet. Aug. 62; Dion Cass, xlviii. 15, 34, 44.) Livia never bore Augustus any children, but she continued to have unbounded influence over him till the time of his death. The empire which she had gained by her charms she maintained by the purity of her conduct and the fascination of her manners, as well as by a perfect knowledge of the character of Augustus, whom she endeavoured to please in every way. She was a consummate actress, excelled in dissimulation and intrigue, and never troubled either herself or her husband by complaining of the numerous mistresses of the