Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/97

Rh EVELTIION. reccixerpoifxeva, mentioned bj-^ Proclus and Laer- tius, which is not, however, to be taken as the title of » work : 'OfryaviKri, mentioned by Plutarch : 'Acrrpouofxia St' €ir6ou, by Suidas : two books, EvoTTTpou or KdroTTTpov, and ^aivS/xeva, mentioned by Hipparchus, and the first by an anonymous biographer of Aratus : Tlepl @e<iu Koi Koa/j-ou koi ratv MeT€apooyov/i4uwv, mentioned by Eudocia : Trjs UepioSos, a work often mentioned by Strabo, and by many others, as to which Harless thinks Semler's opinion probable, that it was written by Eudoxus of Rhodes. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol iv. p. 10, &c. ; Weidler, Hist. Astron. ; Diog. Laert. iii. 86-91 ; Delambre, Hist, de rAstron. Anc. vol. i.; Hipparchus, Comment in Aralum ; Bohmer, Dis- seriatio de Eudojco Cnidio, Helmstad. 1715 ; Ide- ler, in the Abhandl. der Berliner Akad. d. Wissen- schafl for the year 1828, p. 189, &c., and for the year 1830, p. 49, &c. ; Letronne, Journal, d. Sav. 1840, p. 741, &c.) [A.DeM.] EUDOXUS (EuSo|os), a Greek physician, born at Cnidos in Caria, who lived probably in the fifth or fourth century B. c, as he was mentioned by the celebrated astronomer of the same name. (Diog. Laert. viii. 90.) He is said to have been a great advocate for the use of gymnastics. [W. A. G.] EUDOXUS (Ei;5o|os). 1. An Athenian comic poet of the new comedy, was by birth a Sicilian and the son of Agathocles. He gained eight vic- tories, three at the city Dionysia, and five at the Lenaea. His NavKXrjpos and 'TTroSoAi/xaios are quoted. (Apollod. ap. Diog. La'irt. viii. 90 ; Poll, vii. 201; Zenob. Adag. i. 1; Meineke, Frag. Com. Graec. vol. i. p. 492, vol. iv. p. 508.) 2. Of Rhodes, an historical writer, whose time is not known. (Diog. Laert. I. c. ; ApoUon. Hist. Com. 24 ; Etym. Mag. s. v. 'ASpms : Vossius, de Hist. Graec. p. 59, ed. Westermann.) 3. Of Cyzicus, a geographer, who went from his native place to Egypt, and was employed by Pto- lemy Evergetes and his wife Cleopatra in voyages to India ; but afterwards, being robbed of all his property by Ptolemy Lathyrus, he sailed away down the Red Sea, and at last arrived at Gades. He afterwards made attempts to circumnavigate Africa in the opposite direction, but without suc- cess. (Strab. ii. pp. 98—100 ; Plin. ii. 67.) He must have lived about b. c. 130. [P. S.] EVE'LPIDES (EueXTn'Srjs), a celebrated oculist in the time of Celsus, about the beginning of the Christian era, several of whose medical formulae have been preserved. (Cels. de Med. pp. 120, 122, 123, 124.) [W. A. G.] EVELPISTUS (Eue'ATTjo-Tos), an eminent sur- geon at Rome, who lived shortly before the time of Celsus, and therefore probably about the end of the first century B. c. (Cels. de Med. vii. praef. p. 137.) He is perhaps the same person one of whose plasters is preserved by Scribonius Largus, de Compos. Medicam, c. 215, p. 230. [W. A.'G.] EVELTHON (EueAewv), king of Salamis in Cyprus. When Arcesilaus III. was driven from Cyrene in an attempt to recover the royal privi- leges, probably about B. c. 529 or 528 [see vol. i. p. 477], his mother Pheretima fled to the court of Evelthon, and pressed him with the most perse- vering entreaties for an army to enforce her son's restoration. The king at last sent her a golden spindle and distaff, saying that such were the more jippropriate presents for women. (Her. iv. 162, V. 104; Polyaen. viii. 47.) ^'- E.] EVEMERUS. 83 EVE'MERUS orEUHF/MERUS (EO^M«pos), a Sicilian author of the time of Alexander the Great and his immediate successors. Most writers call, him a native of Messene in Sicily (Plut. de Is. et Os. 23 ; Lactant. de Fals. Relig. i. 1 1 ; Etym. M. s.v. ^poTos), while Amobius (iv. 15) calls him an Agrigentine, and otiiers mention either Tegea in Arcadia or the island of Cos as his native place. (Athen. xv. p. 658. ) His mind was trained in the philosophical school of the Cyrenaics, who had before his time become notorious for their scepti- cism in matters connected with the popular reli- gion, and one of whom, Theodoras, is frequently called an atheist by the ancients. The influence of this school upon Evemerus seems to have been very great, for he subsequently became the founder of a peculiar method of interpreting the legends and mythi of the popular religion, which has often and not unjustly been compared with the ration- alism of some modem theologians in Germany. About B. c. 316 we find Evemerus at the court of Cassander in Macedonia, with whom he was con- nected by friendship, and who, according to Euse- h'ms(Fraep. Eifang. ii. 2, p. 59), sent him out on an exploring expedition. Evemerus is said to have sailed down the Red Sea and round the southern coasts of Asia to a very great distance, until he came to an island called Panchaea. After his re- turn from this voyage he wrote a Avork entitled 'lepa 'AuaypacpT^, which consisted of at least nine books. The title of this " Sacred History," as we may tenn it, was taken from the duaypacpai, or the inscriptions on columns and walls, which existed in great numbers in the temples of Greece, and Evemerus chose it because he pretended to have derived his information from public documents of that kind, which he had discovered in his travels, especially in the island of Panchaea. The work contained accounts of the several gods, whom Evemerus represented as having originally been men who had distinguished themselves either as warriors, kings, inventors, or benefactors of man, and who after their death were worshipped as gods by the .grateful people. Zeus, for example, was, according to him, a king of Crete, who had been a great conqueror ; and he asserted that he had seen in the temple of Zeus Triphylius a column with an inscription detailing all the exploits of the kings Uranus, Cronus, and Zeus. (Euseb. /. c; Sext. Empir. ix. 17.) This book, which seems to have been written in a popular style, must have been very attractive ; for all the fables of mythology were dressed up in it as so many true and histo- rical narratives ; and many of the subsequent his- torians, such as the uncritical DiodoruS (see Fragm. lib. vi.) adopted his mode of dealing with myths, or at least followed in his track, as we find to be the case with Poly bins and Dionysius. Traces of such a method of treating mythology occur, it is true, even in Herodotus and Thucydidcs ; but Evemerus was the first who carried it out syste- matically, and after his time it found numerous admirers. In the work of Diodorus and other historians and mythographers, we meet with innu- merable stories which have all the appearance of being nothing but Evemeristic interpretations of ancient myths, though they are frequently taken by modern critics for genuine legends. Evemerus was much attacked and treated with contempt, and Eratosthenes called him a Bergaean, that is, as great a liar as Autiphanes of Borga (Polyb. u2