Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/39

 Ephor Adeimantus and others of the Macedonian party had been murdered, as having originated with Adeimantus himself. Philip, having heard Omias and his colleagues, rejected the advice of some of his counsellors, to deal severely with Sparta, and sent Petraeus, one of his friends, to accompany the commissioners back, and to exhort the Lacedaemonians to abide steadfastly by their alliance with him. (Polyb. iv. 22 — 25.) [E. E.j

O'MBRIMUS. [Obrimus.]

O'MBRIUS {'Ofxepios), i. e. the rain-giver, a surname of Zeus, under which he had an altar on Mount Hymettus in Attica. (Paus. i. 32. § 3 ; comp. Hes. Op. et Di. 587, 620.) [L. S.]

O'MPHALE i^OfxipaKri), a daughter of the Lydian king Jardanus, and wife of Tmolus, after whose death she undertook the government herself. When Heracles, in consequence of the murder of Iphitus, was ill of a serious disease, and received the oracle that he could not be released unless he served some one for wages for the space of three years, Hermes, accordingly, sold Heracles to Om- phale, by whom he became the father of several children. (Apollod. i. 9. § J 9, ii. 6. § 3, 7. § 8 ; Soph. Track, 253 ; Dionys. i. 28 ; Lucian, DiaL Deor. xiii. 2 ; comp. Heracles.) [L. S.]

OMPHA'LION f 0;U(/)oA.f«j'), painter, was ori- ginally the slave, and afterwards the disciple, of Nicias, the son of Nicomedes. He painted the walls of the temple of Messene with figures of per- sonages celebrated in the mythological legends of Messenia. (Paus. iv. 31. § 9. s. 11, 12.) [P. S.]

ONAETHUS {"Ovaidos), a statuary of un- known time and country, who, with his brother Thylacns and their sons, made the statue of Zeus, which the Megarians dedicated at Olympia. (Paus. V. 23. § 4. s. 5.) [P. S.]

ONASIAS. [Onatas.]

ONASIME'DES ('Ovacri/^TjSTjs), a statuary, who made a statue of Dionysus, of solid bronze, which Pausanias saw at Thebes. (Paus. ix. 12. § 3. s. 4). [P. S.]

ONA'SIMUS {*Ovd<niios son of Apsines, was an historian, or rather a sophist, of Cyprus or Sparta, in the time of the emperor Constantine the Great. He wrote many works, some of which, bearing on the art of rhetoric, are enumerated by Suidas. (Suid. s.vv. 'A|/^j'7js, 'Oudaifios.) [E. E.]

O'NASUS ("Opaaos), the author of a work on the Amazons, entitled 'Kfxa^ovis or ^kfxa^oviKa, which was supposed by Heyne {ad Apollod. ii. 5. § 9) and others to have been an epic poem ; but it has been observed by Welcker {Epische Cyclus^ p. 320J and Grote {Hist, of Greece, vol. i. p. 288), that we may infer from the rationalising tendency of the citation from it (Schol. ad Theocr. xiii. 46; Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. i. 1207, 1236), that it was in prose.

ONA'TAS {"OvaTas) of Aegina, the son of Micon, was a distinguished statuary and painter, contemporary with Polygnotus, Ageladas, and Hegias. From the various notices of him it may be collected that he flourished down to about 01. 80, B. c. 460, that is, in the age immediately pre- ceding that of Phidias. It is uncertain whether his father Micon was the great painter of that name. The works of Onatas are frequently described by Pausanias, who is, however, the only ancient writer who mentions him, with the exception of a single epigram in the Greek anthology. Pausanias also says that, though he called himself an Aeginetan on his works, he was inferior to none of the artists from Daedalus and the Attic school (v. 25. § 7. s. 1 3 : Tov Se ^Ovarav tovtov ojxcos, koI t^x^VS es to d7^A;itaTo oVTa Aiyivaias, ovSevds varepov i^Tjcro/xej/ rciv djr(i AaiSaKov re Kal epyaarripiov rov 'Attikov). Pau- sanias mentions the following works of Onatas : —

. A bronze statue of Heracles, on a bronze base, dedicated at Olympia by the Thasians. The statue was ten cubits high : in the right hand was a club, in the left a bow: and it bore the following in- scription (Paus. I.e.) : —

Tlds jxiv fxe Mikcopos 'Opdras elereAeo-cre;', AvTos iv Alyivri Sci/j.aTa vaieTaup.

. An Apollo at Pergamus, equally admired for its size and its art (viii. 42. § 4. s. 7). This statue was in all probability different from that of Apollo Boupais, attended by Eileithyia, on which we have an epigram by Anti pater. {Anth. FaL ix. 238 ; Brunck, Anal. vol. ii. p. 14.)

. A Hermes, carrying a ram under his wing, wearing a helmet on his head, and clad in a chiton and chlamys. It was dedicated at Olympia by the people of Pheneus in Arcadia ; and the inscription stated that it was made by Onatas the Aeginetan, in conjunction with Calliteles, whom Pausanias takes for a son or disciple of Onatas (v. 27. g 5, s. 8).

. A bronze statue of the Black Demeter with the horse's head, whose legend is related by Pausanias (viii, 42). The seat of the legend was a cave in Mount Elaeus, near Phigaleia, which the Phigaleians had consecrated to the goddess, and had dedicated in it a wooden image, like a woman, except that it had the head and mane of a horse, and figures of dragons and other wild beasts were growing out about the head : it was clothed in a tunic down to the feet ; and bore on the right hand a dolphin, and on the left a dove. This wooden image having been burnt at some un- known period, it was not only not replaced, but the worship of the goddess was neglected ; until the Phigaleians, warned by the failure of their crops, and instructed by a Pythian oracle, em- ployed Onatas to make a bronze statue of the goddess ; in the execution of which he was as- sisted somewhat by a picture or a wooden copy of the old image, but still more by dreams. (Paus. l. c.) This story is one of several indications of tlie thoroughly archaic style of the works of Onatas. Passing from the statues of gods to those of men and heroes, we have

. The bronze statues of the Grecian heroes casting lots to determine which of them should accept the challenge of Hector. (Hom. //. vii. 175 — 184.) The group was dedicated at Olympia by the Achaeans in common. It consisted ori- ginally of ten figures ; but when Pausanias saw it, there were only nine, the statue of Ulysses having been carried to Rome by Nero. The chieftains, armed with spears and shields, stood together near the great temple, and opposite to them, on a separate base, stood Nestor, holding the helmet into which the lots had been thrown. The name of Agamemnon was inscribed on his statue, in letters from right to left. The other statues bore no names ; but one, distinguished by a cock upon the shield, was taken by Pausanias for IdomeneuB ; and on the inside of the shield of this statue was the following inscription : —