Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/530

Rh 618 PRAXILLA. when the temples of Athena at Athens, and of Zeus at Olympia, were being adorned by Pheidias and his disciples. (Comp. PHEIDIAS, p. 248, b. ; POLY- GNOTUS, p. 467, b.; and Müller, Phid. pp. 28, 29.) The sculptures themselves are described by Pausanias (l.c.) very briefly as consisting of Arte- mis and Leto, and Apollo and the Muses, and also the setting sun and Dionysus and the women called Thyiades. In all probability, the first col- lection of statues, those connected with the ge- nealogy of Apollo, occupied the front pediment, and the other pediment was filled with the remaining sculptures, namely those connected with the kin- dred divinity Dionysus, the inventor of the lyre and the patron of the dithyramb. As the temple was one of the largest in Greece, it is likely that there were, in each pediment, other figures subor- dinate to those mentioned by Pausanias. (Welcker, die Vorstellungen der Giehelfelder und Metopen an dem Tempel zu Delphi, in the Rheinisches Museum, 1842, pp. 1—28). 2. A vase-painter, whose name appears on one of the Canino vases, on which the education of Achilles is represented. The name, as reported by M. Orioli, the discoverer of the vase, is Πραχίας, FPA + IA^, a proper name, so totally unknown, as to raise a strong suspicion that the name has either been miswritten or misread, and that it ought to be nPA-l-^IA^. There is a similar diversity in the name of the vase- painter Exechias. (Raoul- Rochette, Leilre a M. Schorn, p. 67. Comp. pp. 44, 45, and De Witte, in the Revue de Philoloqie^ 1847, vol. ii. p. 422.) [P. S.]

PRAXI'DAMAS (Πραξιδάμας). 1. A writer on poetry or music, probably the latter. Suidas is the only author who expressly mentions him (s. v. φιάξειν). Harpocration (s. v. Μουσαιος) seems to allude to memoirs of Praxidamas, written by Aristoxenus. He must, therefore, have lived between the time of Democritus, 460, and that of Aristoxenus,  320. (See Jonsius, de Script. Hist. Phil. i. 14. 8, &c.)

2. The first athlete who erected a statue of himself at Olympia (Ol. 59, b. c. 544), to commemorate his victory with the cestus. (Paus. vi. 18; Pindar. Nem. vi. 27, &c.) [W. M. G.]

 PRAXI'DICE (npa^tSt'/cr?), i. e. the goddess who carries out the objects of justice, or watches that justice is done to men. When Menelaus arrived in Laconia, on his return from Troy, he set up a statue of Praxidice near Gytheium, not far from the spot where Paris, in carrying off Helen, had founded a sanctuary of Aphrodite Migonitis ( Pans. iii. 22. § 2). Near Haliartus, in Boeotia, we meet with the worship of Praxidicae, in the plural (ix. 33. § 2), who were called daughters of Ogyges, and their names are Alalcomenia, Thel- xinoea, and Aulis (ix. 33. § 4 ; Suid. s. v. ; Steph. Byz. s. V. Tpe/XiAr]). Their images consisted merely of heads, and their sacrifices only of the heads of animals. With the Orphic poets Praxi- dice seems to be a surname of Persephone. (Orph. Arqon. 31, Hymn. 28. 5 ; comp. Miiller, Orchom. p. 122, 2d edit.) [L.S.]

 PRAXILLA (🇬🇷), of Sicyon, a lyric poetess, who flourished about Ol. 82. 2, 450, and was one of the nine poetesses who were distinguished as the Lyric Muses (Suid. s. v. ; Euseb. Chron. s. a.; Antip.Thess. Ep. 23; Brunck, Anal. vol. ii. p. 114, Anth. Pal. ix. 26.) Her scolia were among the most celebrated compositions of that species. (Ath. xv. p. 694, a.) She was believed by some to be the author of the scolion preserved by Athenaeus (p. 695, c), and in the Greek Anthology (Brunck, Anal. vol. i. p. 157), which was extremely popular at Athens (Paus. ap. Eustath. ad Il. ii.711 ; Aristoph. Vesp. 1231, et Schol.). She also composed dithyrambs (Hephaest. 9, p. 22, ed. Gaisf.)

This poetess appears to have been distinguished for the variety of her metres. The line of one of her dithyrambs, which Hephaestion quotes in the passage just referred to, is a dactylic hexameter : it must not, however, be inferred that her dithyrambs were written in heroic verse, but rather that they were arranged in dactylic systems, in which the hexameter occasionally appeared. One species of logaoedic dactylic verse was named after her the Praxilleian (Πραξίλλειον), namely. as in the following fragment : —

ω δια των θυπίδων καλον εμβλέποισα

παρθένε ταν κεφαλαν, τα δ' ενερθε νύμφα

which only differs from the Alcaic by having one more dactyl. (Hephaest. 24, p. 43 ; Hermann, Elem. Doct. Metr. p. 231.) Another verse named after her was the Ionic a Majore trimeter brachycatalectic. (Hephaest. 36, p. 63.)

The few fragments and references to her poems, which we possess, lead to the supposition that the subjects of them were chiefly taken from the erotic stories of the old mythology especially as connected with the Dorians. In one of her poems, for example, she celebrated Carneius as the son of Zeus and Europa, as educated by Apollo and Leto, and as beloved by Apollo (Pans. iii. 13. § 3, s. 5 ; Schol. ad Theocr. v. 83) : in another she represented Dionysus as the son of Aphrodite (Hesych. s. v. Βάκχυυ Διώνης) : in one she sang the death of Adonis (Zenob. Prov. iv. 21), and in another the rape of Chrysippus by Zeus. (Ath. xiii. p. 603, a.) She belongs decidedly to the Dorian school of lyric poetry, but there were also traces of Aeolic influence in her rhythms, and even in her dialect. Tatian (adv. Graec. 52, p. 1 1 3, ed. Worth) mentions a statue of her, which was ascribed to Lysippus. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. pp. 136, 137 ; Müller, Hist, of Greek Lit. vol. i. pp.188, 189; Bode, Gesch. d. Hellen. Dichtkunst, vol. ii, pt. 2. p. 11 . n. 120, f.) [P. S.]

 PRAXION (Upa^iwu), a Greek writer, on the history of Megara (Suidas, Harpocrat. and Phot. s. V, 'XKipov ; Schol. ad Aristoph. Eccles. 18.)

 PRAXIPHANES (npa^iduvs). 1. A Peri- patetic philosopher, was a native either of Mytilene (Clem. Alex. i. p. 365, ed. Potter), or of Rliodes (Strab. xiv. p. 655). He lived in the time of De- metrius Poliorcetes and Ptolemy Lagi, and was a pupil of Theophrastus, about B. c. 322 (Proclus, i. i?i Timaeum ; Tzetzes, ad Hesiod. Op. et Dies, 1.) He subsequently opened a school himself, in which Epicurus is said to have been one of his pupils (Diog. Laert. x. 13). Praxiphanes paid especial attention to grammatical studies, and is hence named along with Aristotle as the founder and creator of the science of grammar (Clemens Alex. I. c. ; Bekker, Anecdot. ii. p. 229, where Tlpa^Kpauovs should be read instead of 'EirKpauovs). Of the writings of Praxiphanes, which appear to have been numerous, two are especially mentioned, a Dialogue Περι 