Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/875

Rh LYNCEUS. thers Astrabacus and Alopecus under a bush of willows (A1J70S), by which it was surrounded in such a manner that it stood upright. (Paus. iii. 16. § 7.) [L. S.] LYLLUS. [Myllus.] LYNCEUS (At>7K€us). 1. A son of Aeg}'ptu8 and Argyphia, and husband of the Danaid Hy- permnestra, by whom he became the father of Abas. He was king of Argos, whence that city is called Airy/cr^ioj' "Apyos (ApoUon. Rhod. i. 125). His story is, that when the Danaides, by the desire of their father, killed their husbands in one night, Hypermnestra alone spared the life of her hus- band Lynceus. Danaus thereupon kept his dis- obedient daughter in strict confinement, but was afterwards prevailed upon to give her to Lynceus, who succeeded him on the throne of Argos (Apollod. ii. 1. § 5, 2. § 1 ; Paus. ii. 16. § 1 ; Ov. Heroid. 1 4). The cause of Hypermnestra sparing Lynceus is not the same in all accounts (Schol. ad Find. Nem. X. 10, ad Eurip. Hecub. 869, ad Fiiid. Pyth. ix. 200). It is also said that she assisted her hus- band in his eseape from the vengeance of Danaus, that he fled to Lyrceia (Lynceia), and from thence gave a sign with a torch that he had safely arrived there ; Hypermnestra returned the sign from the citadel of Argos, and in commemoration of this event the Argives celebrated every year a festival with torches (Paus. ii. 23. § 4 ; comp, ii. 19. § 6, 21. § 1, 20. § 5). When Lynceus received the news of the death of Danaus from his son Abas, Lynceus gave to Abas the shield of Danaus, which had been dedicated in the temple of Hera, and in- stituted games in honour of Hera, in which the victor received a shield as his prize (Hygin, Fab. 273). According to some, Lynceus slew Danaus and all the sisters of Hypermnestra, in revenge for his brothers (Schol. ad Eurip. Hecuh. 869 ; Serv. ad Aen. x. 497). Lynceus and his wife were re- vered at Argos as heroes, and had a common sanc- tuary, and their tomb was shown there not far from tlie altar of Zeus Phyxius (Hygin. Fab. 168; Paus. ii. 21. § 2). Their statues stood in the temple at Delphi, as a present from the Argives. (Paus. X. 10. § 2.) 2. A son of Aphareus and Arene, and brother of Idas, was one of the Argonauts and famous for his keen sight, whence the proverb o^vrepov ^Xiireiv Tou Au7K€a)s (Apollod. i. 8. § 2, 4. § 17, iii. 10. § 3). He is also mentioned among the Calydonian hunters, and was slain by Pollux (i. 8. § 2, iii. 11. § 2 ; comp. Pind. Nem.'x. 21, 115, &c. ; Apollon. Rhod. i. 151, &c., iv. 1466, &c. ; Aristoph. Flut. 210). There are two other mythical personages of this name. (Hygin. Fab. 173; Apollod. ii.7. § 8.) [L.S.] LYNCEUS (AiryKeus), of Samos, the disciple of Theophrastus, and the brother of the historian Duris, was a contemporary of Menander, and his rival in comic poetry. He survived Menander, upon whom he wrote a book. He seems to have been more distinguished as a grammarian and his- torian than as a comic poet ; for, while only one of his comedies is mentioned (the Khravpos), we have the titles of the following works of his : — AlyuTTTiaKa, 'ATrO/UfTj^uoj/euiUOTa, 'ATro(pd4yiJUiTa, 'EiriaToAal denri/rjTiKai, rex^V o^poiiuvTiK'^. (Suid. s. V. ; Athen. viii. p. 337, d., et passim ; Plut. De- metr. 27 ; Vossius, de Hid. Graec. p. 134, ed. Westerraann ; Meineke, Hist. Crit. Com. Graec. p. 468 ; Clinton,Fas<. Hell. vol. iii. p. 493.) [P. S.] LYSANDER. 861 LYNCEUS, a contemporary of Propertius, who complains that Lynceus had won the affections of his mistress. (Propert. iii. 30.) Lynceus was a poet, and appears to have written a tragedy on the expedition of the Seven against Thebes (Ibid. vv. 39—42.) LYNCUS (AiyKos), a king of Scythia, or, according to others, of Sicily, wanted to murder Triptolemus, who came to him with the gifts of Ceres, in order to secure the merit to himself, but he was metamorphosed bv the goddess into a lynx (Ov. Met. V. 630, &c. ;" Serv. ad Aen. i. 327). Another person of the same name occurs in Quin- tus Smyi-naeus (xi. 90). [L. S.] LYRCUS (Aup/fos), the name of two mythical personages. (Paus. ii. 25. § 4 ; Parthen. Erot. i-) [L. S.] LYSANDER {AvaravZpos)., of Sparta, was the son of Aristocleitus or Aristocritus, and, according to Plutarch, of an Heracleid family. Aelian and Athenaeus tell us that he rose to the privileges of citizenship from the condition of a slave (jUo6wi/), and Miiller thinks that he was of a servile origin, as well as Callicratidas and Gylippus ; while Tiiirl- wall supposes them to have been the offspring of marriages contracted by freemen with women of inferior condition, and to have been originally in legal estimation on a level with the /u.odwves, or favoured helot children, who were educated in their master's family together with his sons. (Plut. Li/s. 2 ; Paus. vi. 3 ; Ael. V. H. xii. 43 ; Athen. vi. p. 271, f ; Muller, Dor. iii. 3. § 5 ; ThirlwalPs Greece.^ vol. iv. p. 374 ; Mitford's Greece., ch. xx. sect. 2, note 4.) In B. c. 407, Lysander was sent out to succeed Cratesippidas in the command of the fleet, the Spartans, as it would appear, having been induced to appoint him, partly because his ability marked him as fit to cope with Alcibiades, partly that they might have the advantage of his peculiar talents of supple diplomacy at the court of Cyrus the Younger. (Comp. Cic. De Off. i. 30, De Senect. 17.) Having increased his fleet to seventy ships by reinforce- ments gathered at Rhodes, Cos, and Miletus, he sailed to Ephesus ; and, when Cyrus arrived at Sardis, he proceeded thither, and so won upon the prince as to obtainfrom him an increase in the pay of the sailors : nor could Tissaphernes, acting doubtless under the instructions of Alcibiades, succeed in his efforts to induce Cyrus even to re- ceive an Athenian embassy. Lysander fixed his head-quarters at Ephesus, of the later prosperity and magnificence of which he is said by Plutarch to have laid the foundation, by the numbers he attracted thither as to a focus of trade. After his victory at Notium over Antiochus [see Vol. I. pp. 100, b, 193, b], he proceeded to organise a number of oligarchical clubs and factions in the several states, by means of the men who seemed fittest for the purpose in each ; and the jealousy with which he regarded Callicratidas, his suc- cessor in B. c. 406, and the attempts he made to thwart and hamper him, may justify the suspicion that his object, in the establishment of these asso- ciations, was rather the extension of his own per- sonal influence than the advancement of his coun- try's cause. His power and reputation among the Spartan allies in Asia were certainly great, for, in a congress at Ephesus, they determined to send ambassadors to Lacedaemon requesting that Ly- sander might be appointed to the command of the