Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/204

192 2. A daughter of Eurymedon, and by Poseidon the mother of Nausithous. (Horn. Od. vii. 56, &c,)

3. A daughter of Acessamenus, and tlie mother of Pelagon by the river god Axius. (Hom. //. xxi. 142.)

4. A daughter of Alcathous, and the wife of Telamon, by whom she became the mother of Ajax and Teucer. (Apollod. iii. 12. § 7 ; Paus. i. 42. § 1, 17. § 3.) Some writers call her Eriboea. (Pind. Isihm. vi. 65 ; Soph. Aj. 566.)

5. A daughter of Hipponous, and the wife of Oeneus, by whom she became the mother of Ty- deus. (Apollod. i. 8. § 4 ; comp, Oeneus.)

6. The wife of king Polybus of Corinth. (Apol- lod. iii. 5. § 7 ; comp. Oedipus.)  PERICLEITUS, a Lesbian lyric musician of the school of Terpander, flourished shortly before Hipponax, that is, a little earlier than B. C. 550. At the Lacedaemonian festival of the Carneia, there were musical contests with the cithara, in which the Lesbian musicians of Terpander's school had obtained the prize from the time of Terpander himself to that of Pericleitus, with whom the glory of the school ceased. (Plut. de Mus. 6. p. 1133, d.)  PERICLEITUS, artist. [.]  PERICLES. 1. The greatest of Athenian statesmen, was the son of Xanthippus, under whose command the victory of Mycale was gained, and of Agariste, the great grand- daughter of Cleisthenes, tyrant of Sicyon, and niece of Cleis- thenes, the founder of the later Athenian con- stitution. (Herod, vi. 131 ; comp. Cleisthenes.) Both Herodotus {I. c.) and Plutarch have thought the story, that before his birth his mother dreamed that she gave birth to a lion, of sufficient interest to deserve recording. Pericles belonged to the deme Cholargos in the tribe Acamantis. The date of his birth is not known. The early period of his life was spent in retirement, in the prose- cution of a course of study in which his noble genius found the most appropriate means for its cultivation and expansion ; till, on emerging from his obscurity, his unequalled capabilities rapidly raised him to that exalted position which thence- forwards he maintained throughout the whole of his long and brilliant career till his death. His rank and fortune enabled him to avail himself of the instructions of all those who were most eminent in their several sciences and professions. Music, which formed so essential an element in the educa- tion of a Greek, he studied under Pythocleides (Aristot. ap. Plut- Per. 3 ; Plat. Alcib. p. 118. c.) The musical instructions of Damon were, it is said, but a pretext ; his real lessons having for their sub- ject political science. Pericles was the first states- man who recognised the importance of philoso- phical studies as a training for his future career ; he devoted his attention to the subtleties of the Eleatic school, under the guidance of Zeno of Elea. But the philosopher who exercised the most important and lasting influence on his mind, and to a very large extent formed his habits and cha- racter, was Anaxagoras. [Anaxagoras.] With this great and original thinker, the propounder of the sublimest doctrine which Greek philosophy had yet developed, that the arrangements of the uni- verse are the dispositions of an ordering intelli- gence, Pericles lived on terms of the most intimate friendship, till the philosopher was compelled to retire from Athens. From him Pericles was be- PERICLES. lieved to have derived not only the cast of his mind, but the character of his eloquence, which, in the elevation of its sentiments, and the purity and loftiness of its style, was the fitting expression of the force and dignity of his character and the grandeur of his conceptions. Of the oratory of Pericles no specimens remain to us, but it appears to have been characterised by singular force and energy. He was described as thundering and lightening when he spoke, and as carrying the weapons of Zeus upon his tongue (Plut. Moral. p. 118, d. ; Diod. xii. 40; Aristoph. Acharn. 503 ; Cic. de Oral iii. 34 ; Quintil. x. 1. § 82.) The epithet Olympius which was given to him was generally understood as referring to his elo- quence. By the unanimous testimony of ancient authors his oratory was of the highest kind. (Plat. Phaedr. p. 269, e.) His orations were the result of elaborate preparation ; he used himself to say that he never ascended the bema without pray- ing that no inappropriate word might drop from his lips. (Quintil. xii. 9. § 13.) According to Suidas (s. r. UepiKX.), Pericles was the first who committed a speech to writing before delivery. The influence of Anaxagoras was also traced in the deportment of Pericles, the lofty bearing and calm and easy dignity of which were sustained by an almost unrivalled power of self-command. The most annoying provocation never made him forsake his dignified composure. His voice was sweet, and his utterance rapid and distinct ; in which respect, as well as in his personal appearance, he resembled Peisistratus. His figure was graceful and majestic, though a slight deformity in the disproportionate length of his head furnished the comic poets of the day with an unfailing theme for their pleasantry, and procured him the nicknames of fTxivoK€<paKos and KecpaArjyfpeTrjS. In his youth he stood in some fear of the people, and, aware of the resemblance which was dis- covered in him to Peisistratus, he was fearful of exciting jealousy and alarm ; but as a soldier he conducted himself with great intrepidity. How- ever, when Aristeides was dead,Themistocles ostra- cised, and Cimon much engaged in military expe- ditions at a distance from Greece, he began to take a more active part in the political movements of the time. In putting himself at the head of the more democratical party in the state, there can be no question that he was actuated by a sincere pre- dilection. The whole course of his political career proves such to have been the case. There is not the slightest foundation for the contrary suppo- sition, except that his personal character seemed to have greater affinities with the aristocratical portion of the community. If he ever entertained the slightest hesitation, his hereditary preposses- sions as the grand-nephew of Cleisthenes would have been quite sufficient to decide his choice. That that choice was determined by selfish mo- tives, or political rivalry, are suppositions which, as they have nothing to rest upon, and are con- tradicted by the whole tenor of his public life, are worth absolutely nothing. As his political career is stated to have lasted above forty years (Plut. Cic. I.e.), it must have been somewhat -before B, c. 469 when he first came forward. He then devoted himself with the greatest assiduity to public affairs ; was never to be seen in the streets except on his way to the place of assembly or the senate j and withdrew

