Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/1155

Rh meditating the murder of her children, but still hesitating between the impulses of revenge for her own wrongs and.of pity for her children. A general notion of the composition is probably preserved in a painting on the same subject found at Pompeii (Mus. Borh. V. 33 ; Pompeii, vol. ii. p. 190), and the type of Medea is seen in a figure found at Herculaneum (Antiq. di Ercol. i. 13 ; Mus. Borh. X. 21 ), and on some gems. (Lippert,/iSM;^jt)/em. i. 93 ; Panofka, Annal. d. Inst. i. p. 243 ; Miiller, Arch'dol. d. Kunst, § 208, n. 2.) A minute description of the emotions expressed in the artist's Medea is given in the following epigrams from the Greek Antholog3^ (Antk Plan. iv. 135, 136, p. 317; Brunck, Anal vol. iii. p. 214, vol. ii. p. 174; Jacobs, Anih. Pal. Append, vol. ii. p. 667.) The first is anonymous:—

T4xvv Tijxoixaxov crropy^v koI ^tjA.oj' eSei^e MiySeiTjs, reKvav efs fxSpov eXKonevciii/ ' Tp fxeu yap avvevev(Tev iirl ^i(pos, p 8' auauevei ado^^iv /cot KTelveiv fiovKofxivT] Te/cea.

The other is ascribed to Antiphilus:—

Taj' oXoav Mi]5eiau '6t ^ypa(pe Tifiojuaxov Xf:ip, ^dXcp Kal t4kvols avTi!XiQeXKOjj.ivav, /xvpiov &paTo fiox^ou, 'iv ^'0ea ^icraa X°P«I?7» aiv rh fxh> els opyav j'eDc, rh S' els eXeov. &IJ.(pc>} S' itrXripuaeu • opa rinrov. eV yap aireiXa Sdirpvov., iv 8' ix4a} ^vfiSs avaarpecpeTai. 'Ap/fet S' a /x€XXir]a-LS, ecpa (T0(p6s ' cufxa Se t4kvwv eTrpeTre MrjSei'r?, kov xepl Tifiofxaxov.

There is a similar epigram by Ausonius (No. 129). From these descriptions it appears that the great art of Timomachus consisted in the expression of that conflict of emotions which precedes the perpe- tration of some dreadful act, and in exciting in the minds of the spectators the corresponding emotions of terror and pity, which are the end aimed at by all tragic exhibitions ; and, at the same time, in avoiding the excess of horror, by representing, not the deed itself, but only the conception of it in the mind. Plutarch mentions the painting as an ex- ample of one of those works of art, in which im- natural deeds (7rpo|ets &TOTroi) are represented, and which, while we abhor the deed, we praise on account of the skill shown in representing it in a becoming manner (t^j/ Texvw^ c' iJ.ejxifXT]Tai irpoar}- k6vtws Tb viroKeifiepov, Plut. de Aud. Poet. 3, p. 18, b.). There are also two other epigrams upon the picture in the Greek Anthology (Jacobs, l. e. Nos. 137, 138), from the former of which we learn that it was painted in encaustic ; and, from the connection in which Timomachus is mentioned by Pliny, it would seem that this was the case with all his works.

(2.) His Ajax resembled his Medea in the con- flict of emotions which it expressed. It repre- sented the hero in his madness, meditating the act of suicide. It is described by Philostratus ( Vit. Apollon. ii. 10), in an epigram in the Greek An- thology (Jacobs, I. c. No. 83, p. 648), and by Ovid (Tm^. ii. 528).

(3.) His other works are mentioned by Pliny in the following words : — *' Timomachi aeque lau- dantur Orestes, IpUgenia in Tauris, Lecythion agi- litatis exercitator, Cognatio nobilium, Palliati, quos dicturos pinxit, alteram stantem, alteram sedentem ; praecipue tamen ars ei favisse in Gorgone visa est." (Plin. //. N. xxxv. U.S. 40. § 30.) [P. S.]

TIMON {Tiixwv). ] . The son of Timarciius of Phlius, a philosopher of the sect of the Sceptics, and a celebrated writer of the species of satiric poems called Silli {(tIxXoi), flourished in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, about b. c. 279, and on- wards. A pretty full account of his life is pre- served by Diogenes Laertius, from the first book of a work on the Silli (eV r^ irpurcp t&v els robs aiXXovs uTTo^p'Tj/xaTwj/) by ApoUonides of Nicaea ; and some particulars are quoted by Diogenes from Antigonus of Carvstus, and from Sotion (Diog. Laert. ix. c. 12. §§ 109—115). Being left an orphan while still young, he was at first a choreutcs in the theatre, but he abandoned this profession for the study of philosophy, and, having removed to Megara, he spent some time with Stilpon, and then he returned home and married. He next went to Elis with his wife, and heard Pyrrhon, whose tenets he adopted, so far at least as his restless genius and satirical scepticism permitted him to follow any master. During his residence at Elis, he had children born to him, the eldest of whom, named Xanthus, he instructed in the art of me- dicine and trained in his philosophical principles, so that he might be his successor and repre- sentative {kuI SidSoxou rod fiiov KareXLire ; but these words may, however, mean that he left hira heir to his property). Driven again from Elis by straitened circumstances, he spent some time on the Hellespont and the Propontis, and taught at Chalcedon as a sophist with such success that he realised a fortune. He then removed to Athens, where he lived until his death, with the exception of a short residence at Thebes. Among the great men, with whom he became personally acquainted in the course of his travels, which pro- bably extended more widely about the Aegean and the Levant than we are informed, were the kings Antigonus and Ptolemy Philadelphus. He is said to have assisted Alexander Aetolus and Homerus in the composition of their tragedies, and to have been the teacher of Aratus (Suid. s. v. "ApaTos). " These indications," says Mr. Clinton, " mark his time. He might have heard Stilpo at Megara twenty-five years before the reign of Philadelphus " (Fast. Hellen. vol. iii. s. aa. 279, 272). He died at the age of almost ninety. Among his pupils were Dioscurides of Cyprus, Nicolochus of Rhodes, Euphranor of Seleuceia, and Praylus of the Troad.

Timon appears to have been endowed by nature with a powerful and active mind, and with that quick perception of the follies of men, which be- trays its possessor into a spirit of universal distrust both of men and truths, so as to make him a sceptic in philosophy and a satirist in every thing. Ac- cording to Diogenes, Timon had that physical defect, which some have fancied that they have found often accompanied by such a spirit as his, and which at least must have given greater force to its utterances ; he was a one-eyed man ; and he used even to make a jest of his own defect, calling himself Cyclops. Some other examples of his bitter sarcasms are recorded by Diogenes ; one of which is worth qoting as a maxim in criticism : being asked by Aratus how to obtain the pure text of Homer, he replied, " If we could find the old copies, and not those with modern emendations.'* He is also said to have been fond of retirement, and of gardening ; but Diogenes introduces this statement and some others in such a way as to suggest a doubt whether they ought to be referred