Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/474

Rh 462 POLYGNOTUS. statuaries in bronze who made atJiletas et armalos et venatores sacrifica7itesque. (//. N. xxxiv. 8. s. 19. § 34.) [P.S.] POLYEIDES (noAt/elSTjs), a Greek physician who must have lived in or before the first century after Christ, as he is quoted by Celsus* {De Med. V. 20. § 2, 26. § 23, vi. 7. § 3, pp. &1, 100, 127) and Andromachus (ap. Gs. De Compos. Me- dicam. sec. Gen. v. 12, vol. xiii. p. 834). He ap- pears to have written a pharmaceutical work, as his medical formulae are several times referred to by Galen {De Meth. Med. v. 6, vi. 3, vol. x, pp. 330, 405, Ad Glauc. de Meth. Med. ii. 3, 11, vol. xi. pp. 87, 137, De Shnplic. Medicam. Temper, ac Facult. x. 2. § 13, vol. xii. p. 276, De Compos. Medicam. sec. Gen. iii. 3, vol. xiii. p. 613), Caelius Aurelianus {De Morb. Acut. iii. 3, 5, pp. 186, 198), Paulus Aegineta (iv. 25, vii. 12, pp. 514, 663), Aetius (iii. 1. 48, iv. 2. 50, 58, iv. 4. 64, pp. 504, 715, 725, 809), Oribasius (Ad Eunap. iv. 128, p. 674), and Nicolaus Myrepsus (De Compos. Medicam. xli. 44, p. 788). [ W. A. G.] POLYEIDUS, artist. [Polyidus.] POLYEUCTUS {Uov€vKTos). 1. An Athe- nian orator, delivered the speech against Socrates at his trial, which, however, was composed by some one else (Diog. Laert. ii. 38). Antiphon wrote a speech against this Polyeuctus. (Bekker, Anecd. Gr. vol. i. p. 82.) 2. An Athenian orator of the demus Sphettus, was a political friend of Demosthenes, with whom he worked in resisting the Macedonian party and in urging the people to make war against Philip. Hence we find him accused along with Demosthenes of receiving bribes from Harpalus (Dinarch. c. Dem. p. 129). Polyeuctus was very corpulent, at which his adversary Phocion made himself merry (Plut. Phoe. 9), and his love of luxury was attacked by the comic poet Anaxandrides (Athen. iv. p. 166, d.). The orations of Polyeuctus are referred to by Aris- totle {Rliet. iii. 10. § 7) and Diogenes Laertius (vi. 23) ; and a fragment of his oration h,gainst De- mades is preserved by Apsines {Rliet. p. 708, ed. Aid,). For further particulars see Dem. Phiiipp. iii. p. 129 ; Plut. Dem. 10, Phoc. 5, Vilae X. Orat. pp. 841, e., 844, f., 846, c, Polit. Praec. p. 803, e. ; and among modern writers, Ruhnken, Hist. Critica Orat. Grace, pp. 80, 81 ; Westermann, Gesch. d. Griech. Beredtmmkeit^ § 53, n. 5, 6. POLYEUCTUS {UoXvevKTos), an Athenian statuary, who made the statue of Demosthenes which the Athenians set up in the Agora, after the orator's death. (Pseudo-Plut. Vit. X. Orat. p. 847, a.) [P. S.] POLYGNOTUS {Jiov^vusTos one of the most celebrated Greek painters, was a native of the island of Thasos, and was honoured with the citi- zenship of Athens, on which account he is some- times called an Athenian. He belonged to a family of artists, who had their origin in Thasos, but came to Athens, and there practised their art. They probably derived their art, like most of the painters in the islands of the Aegean, from the Ionian school. His father, Aglaophon, was also his in- structor in his art ; he had a brother, named Aris- POLYGNOTUS. tophon ; and there was, very probably, a youngei Aglaophon, the son of Aristophon, who was con- temporary with Alcibiades ; so that we have the following genealogy : — Aglaophon. bus, or Poh/bi'is ; but upon comparison of these passages with the other authors who mention him, it appears most probable that the true reading is Polygnotus Aristophon. Aglaophon, about b. c. 415. (Harpocr., Suid., Phot. s. v. UoXvyvwros ; Plat. Gorg. p. 448, b., and Schol. ; Theophrast. ap. Plin. H. N. vii. 56. s. 57 ; Plin. H. N. xxxv. 9. s. 35, 36. § 1 ; Quintil. xii. 10. § 3 ; Dio Chrysost. Orat Iv. p. 558, b. ; Simon. Ep. 76. s. 82, ap. Brunch Anal. vol. i. p. 142, Anth. Pal. ix. 700 ; Aglaophon ; Aristophon ; Sillig, Cat. Art. s. vv. Aglaophon, Aristophon, Polygnotus.) With respect to the time at which Polygnotus lived, Pliny only states indefinitely, that he flou- rished before the 90th Olympiad, b. c. 420, which is with Pliny an era in the history of the art (Plin. H. N. xxxv. 9. s. 35 : from the context of this passage it would follow that Polygnotus lived after Panaenus, which is certainly incorrect). A much more definite indication of his time is obtained from the statements of Plutarch {Cim. 4) respecting the intimacy of Polygnotus with Cimon and his sister Elpinice, which, taken in connection with the fact of Cimon's subjugation of Thasos, renders almost certain the opinion of Mliller [de Phidiae Vila, p. 7), that Polygnotus accompanied Cimon to Athens on that general's return from the expe- dition against Thasos, which is in itself one of those happy conjectures that almost carry conviction with them, even when sustained by far less direct evidence than we possess in this case.* Accord- a story told about Elpinice, would scarcely deserve attention, were it not for the importance which has been attached to it by such critics as Lessing, Biit- tiger, and others of less note. Polygnotus, we are told, fell in love with Cimon's sister, Elpinice, and placed her portrait among the Trojan women, in his picture in the Poecile (Plut. Ce?». 4). Now, not only does it appear that Elpinice must at this time have been nearly forty years old (not, cer- tainly, a very formidable objection in itself), but it is also related that, only two years later (b. c. 461), Pericles answered an appeal Avhich Elpinice made to him on behalf of her brother Cimon, by calling her an old woman ! (Plut. Cim. 14, Per^ 10.) The whole story is suspicious, for Plutarch tells it again as having happened twenty-two years later, when, certainly, the appellation would be far more appropriate {Per. 28). But, even if the story were true, it is absurd to take the sarcasm of Pe- ricles as an actual fact, and to rest upon it the argument that Polygnotus must have been in love with Elpinice when she was younger, and there- fore must have flourished at an earlier period than that at which all other indications, direct and in- direct, lead us to place him. Besides, Plutarch only mentions the story of his love for Elpinice as a rumour, and he even hints that it was a malicious nimour. The known connection of Polygnotus with Cimon is quite enough to account for his honouring his patron's sister with a place in one of his great paintings.
 * In some editions of Celsus he is called Pohj-
 * The objection against this view, derived from