Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/885

Rh LYSiPPUS. LYSI'NUS is mentioned in the spurious letters of Phalari<, as a poet who wrote odes and tragedies against Phalaris. (See Bentley's Dissertatio7i and Answer to Boyle.) [P. S.] LYSIPPE (Auo-iTTTTTj), the name of three my- thical personages, one a daughter of Thespius (ApoUod. ii. 7. 5$ 8), the second a daughter of Proetus (Apollod. ii. 2. § 2 ; comp. Proktus), and the third the wife of Prolans in Elis. (Paus. v. 2. §4.) ^ [L. S.] LYSIPPUS (Auj-iTTTros), a Lacedaemonian, was left by Agis IL as harniost at Epitalium in Elis, when the king himself returned to Sparta from the Eleian campaign, B. c. 400. During the summer and winter of that year Lysippus made continual devastations on the Eleian territory. In the next year, B. c. 399, the Eleians sued for peace. (Xen. Hell, iii, 2. §§ 29, &c. ; comp. Diod. xiv. 17 ; Wess. ad loc. ; Paus. iii. 8, where he is called Lysistra- tus.) [E. E.] LYSIPPUS (AuVtTTTros), literary. 1. An Arca- dian, a comic poet of the old Comedy. His date is fixed by the marble Didascalia, edited by Odericus, at 01. Ixxxvi. 2, B. c. 434, when he gained the first prize with his KaraxTji'at ; and this agrees with Athenaeus, who mentions him in conjunction with Callias (viii. p. 344, e.). Besides the Karax'^j/at, we have the titles of his Bcikx"' (Suid., Eudoc), ■which is often quoted, and his (dupaoKonos (Suid.). Vossius (de Poet. Graec. p. 227) has followed the error of Eudocia, in making Lysippus a tragic poet. Besides his comedies he wrote some beau- tiful verses in praise of the Athenians, which are quoted by Dicaearchus, p. 10. (Meineke, Frag. Com. Graec. vol. i. p. 215, vol. ii. p. 744 ; Fabric. B'M. Graec. vol. ii. p. 310.) 2. Of Epeirus, wrote a KaTaKoyos daeSoiy, which is quoted by the scholiast on ApoUonius Rhodius, iv. 1093. (Vossius, de Hist. Graec. p. 464, ed. Westermann ; Ebert, Diss. Sicul. p. 107 ; Mounier, de Diagora Melio, p. 41, Rotterd. 1838.) [P-S.] LYSIPPUS (AucrtTTTros), artists. 1. Of Sicyon, one of the most distinguished Greek statuaries, is placed by Pliny at 01. 114, as a contemporary of Alexander the Great (//. A^. xxxiv. 8. s. 19). We have no very clear intimation of how long he lived ; but there is no doubt that the great period of his artistic activity was during the reign of Alexander ; and perhaps Pliny has mentioned the 1 1 4th Olympiad in particular, as being that in which Alexander died. We learn from Pausanias (vi. 1. § 2) that he made the statue of the Olympic victor Troilus, who conquered in the 1 02nd Olym- piad ; but there is abundant evidence that the statues of victors in the games were often made long after the date of their victories. On the other hand, there is an inscription on a base found at Rome, S^Aeu/cos ^aaiKevs. A^anriros «-rrolei. Now Seleucus did not assume the title of King till 01. 117. 1. But this proves nothing ; for the addition of an inscription to a statue made long before, was a most frequent occurrence, of which we have many examples. Originally a simple workman in bronze (/aber aerariiis), he rose to the eminence which he after- wards obtained by the direct study of nature. It was to the painter Eupompus that he owed the guiding principle of his art ; for, having asked him which of the former masters he should follow, Eupompus replied by pointing to a crowd of men, engaged in their various pursuits, and told him LYSIPPUS. 871 that nature must be imitsited, and not an artist (Plin. l. c. § 6). It is not to be inferred, how- ever, that he neglected the study of existing works of art : on the contrary Cicero tells us {Brut. 86), that Lysippus used to call the Doryphorus of Polycleitus his master ; and there can be no doubt that the school of Lysippus was connected with the Argive school of Polycleitus, as the school of Scopas and Praxiteles was with the Attic school of Phidias ; there being in each case a succession of great principles, modified by a closer imitation of the real, and by a preference for beauty above dig- nity. Perhaps the great distinction between Ly- sippus and his predecessors could not, in a few words, be better expressed than by saying that he rejected the last remains of the old conventional rules which the early artists followed, and which Phidias, without pennitting himself to be enslaved by them, had wisely continued to bear in mind, as a check upon the liberty permitted by mere natural models, and which even Polycleitus had not altogether disregarded (Varr. de Ling. Lat. ix. 18). In Lysippus's imitation of nature the ideal appears almost to have vanished, or perhaps it should rather be said that he aimed to idealize merely human beauty. He made statues of gods, it is true ; but even in this field of art his favourite subject was the human hero Hercules ; while his portraits seem to have been the chief foundation of his fame. He ventured even to depart from the proportions observed by the earlier artists, and to alter the robust form (to reTpaycovov., quadratas veteritm staturas) which his predecessors had used in order to give dignity to their statues, and which Polycleitus had brought to perfection. Lysippus made the heads smaller, and the bodies more slender and more compact {graciliora siccioraque), and thus gave his statues an appearance of greater height. He used to say that former artists made men as they were, but he as they appeared to be. Hia imitation of nature was carried out in the minutest details : *' propriae hujus videntur esse argutiae opeiTim, custoditae in minimus rebus," says Pliny, who also mentions the care which Lysippus be- stowed upon the hair. Propertius (iii. 7. 9) speaks of his statues as seeming to have the breath of life (animosa), and the same idea is expressed by the grammarian Nicephorus Chumnus, in an interesting but little known passage, in which he describes Lysippus and Apelles as making and painting ^waas e'lKovas Koi Trvorjs fioi^^s Kal Kiinlja-eus d7roenro- fievas. (Boissonade, Anecdot, vol. iii. p. 357.) The works of Lysippus are said to have amounted to the enormous number of 1500 ; at least this is the story of Pliny, who tells us that Lysippus used to lay by a single piece of gold out of the price received for each of his works, and that, after his death, the number of these pieces was found to be 1500 {H.N. xxxiv. 7. s. 17). His works were almost all, if not all, in bronze ; in consequence of which none of them are extant. But from copies, from coins, and from the works of his successors, we derive valuable materials i'or judging of his style. The following are the chief works of his which are mentioned by the ancient authors :— First, those of a mythological character. 1. A colossal statue of Zeus, 60 feet high, at Tarentum, which is fully described by Pliny (//. A^. xxxiv. 7. 8. 18 ,• comp Strab. vi. p. 278 ; Lucil. ap. Non. s. v. Cubitus). 2. Zeus in the forum of Sicyon (Paus, o K 4