Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/895

Rh doing honour to the astronomer for his candour and caution, seems to follow Pliny. (Fabric. Bibl. GroPAi. vol. iv. p. 34 ; Weidler, Histor. Astron. p. 151.) [A. De AI.]

SOSI'NUS, of Gortyna, in Crete, an artist or artificer, whose name is known by his sepulchral monument, on which he is designated , a term which has been explained in different ways. By comparing what little can be gathered respecting the word itself with the bas- relief on the monument, Bockh and Raoul-Rochette have come to the conclusion, that the word signifies a maker of bronze shields. The monument, which is in the Museum of the Louvre, has been engraved by Bouillon (Afus. des Antiq. vol. iii. Cippes, i. 3), and the inscription is published by Bbckh {Corp. Inser. No. 837). (R. Rochette, Lettre a Sc/iorn, pp. 405, 406, 2d ed. ; comp. Welcker, Sylloge., No. 3, np. 5—7.) [P. S.]

SOSI'PATER. 1. An Athenian comic poet, of the New, and perhaps also of the Middle Comedy. He is only mentioned by Athe- naeus (ix. p. 378, f.), who quotes a very long pas- sage from his Karail'euSo/ieVos, in which mention is made of the cook Chariades, to whom the comic poet Eiiphron refers as being dead. (Ath. ix. p. 379, c.) Hence it is inferred that Sosipater flou- rished shortly before Euphron. (Meineke, Fragm. Com. Graec. vol. i. p. 477, vol. iv. pp. 482 — 485 ; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. p. 495.)

2. Three epigrams are found in the Greek An- thology under the name of Sosipater ; but this is merely through an error of Salmasius. The epi- grams ought properly to be assigned to Dioscorides. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. iv. p. 495 ; Brunck, Anal. vol. i. p. 504 ; Jacobs, Anth. Graec. vol. i. p. 255, vol. vii. pp.371 406, vol. xii. p. 451, vol. xiii. p. 955.) [P. S.]

SOSPPATER and ZENON, of Soli, statuaries, known by an inscription found at Lindos as having made one of the bronze statues of the Uparevcrav- res of Athena Lindia and Zeus Polieus. There is some doubt as to the meaning of the term tepo- reiKTauTss. Ross translates it priests, R. Rochette understands it as equivalent to the sacrificantes of Pliny {H.N. xxxiv. 8. s. 19. § 34), and Welcker translates it ex-priests. (Ross, Rliein. Mus. 1846 — 1847, vol. iv. p. 168 ; Welcker, Rhein.Mus. 1848 —1849, vol. vi. pp. 382, 385.) [P. S.]

SOSI'PHANES, one of the am- bassadors whom Antiochus Epiphanes sent to Rome when he engaged in his war against Egypt for Coele-Syria. (Polyb. xxviii. 1, 18.) [P. S.]

SOSI'PHANES, the son of Sosi- cles, of Syracuse, a tragic poet, who, according to Suidas, exhibited seventy-three dramas, and ob- tained seven victories ; was one of the seven trage- dians who were called the Tragic Pleiad ; was born at the end of the reign of Philip, or, as others said, in that of Alexander ; and died in the 121 st or 124th Olympiad (adopting Clinton's correction pKo. and p«S, for piL and ptS,) ; while others stated that he flourished at one or the other of those dates. (Suid. s. V.) Clinton proposes to reduce these statements into a consistent form in the following manner : Sosiphanes was born in the reign of ] Philip, or in that of Alexander, between b. c. 340 t and B. c. 330, and exhibited tragedy in the times j of the Pleiad, 01. 121 (b. c. 296 ) or 01. 124 (b. c. 284). He is placed among the poets of the Pleiad [ by a scholiast on Hephaestion (p. 185), as well as by Suidas ; but, in the other three lists, the name of Aeantides appears instead of Sosiphanes. If the latter really belonged to the Tragic Pleiad, he must have been the oldest of the seven poets in it. Of the seventy-three plays of Sosiphanes, the only remains are one title, McXeaypos, and a very few lines from it and other plays. (Fabric. Bibl. Grace, vol. ii. pp. 318, 322 ; Clinton, F. H. vol. iii. s. aa. 278, 259, pp. 502, 504; Welcker, GriecJi. Trag'od. p. 1266 ; Wagner, Frag. Trag. Graec. in Didot's Bibliotlieca., p. 157.) [P. S.] SOSl'POLIS (Scoo-iTToAts), i. e. the saviour of the state, was the nameof a hero among the Eleans, who was represented as a boy wearing a military cloak, and carrying the horn of Amalthea in his hand. He had a sanctuary in common with Eilei- thyia at the foot of the hill of Cronos at Olympia, and no one was allowed to approach his altar ex- cept the priestess, and even she only with her head covered. Oaths in which he was called upon were considered to be particularly solemn and binding. The origin of his worship is thus re- lated : — Once when the Arcadians had invaded Elis and the Eleans had marched out to meet them, there appeared among the Eleans a woman with a boy at her breast and declaring that after she had given birth to the child she had been called upon by a vision in a dream, to offer the child as a champion to the Eleans. The com- manders of the Eleans believing the assertion, placed the child naked before tlieir ranks, and when the Arcadians began the attack, the child was metamorphosed into a serpent. Hereupon the Arcadians fled in dismay, and the Eleans pursuing them gained the victory. The Eleans hence called their saviour Sosipolis, and on the spot where he had disappeared in the form of a snake they built a sanctuary to him and his supposed mother Eileithyia. (Pans. vi. 20. § 2, iii. 25. § 4.) [L. S.] SOSIPPUS (ScifTiTrTTos), a supposed -comic poet of the New Comedy, the only mention of whom is in the following passage of Athenaeus (iv. p. 133, f.), Ai(f>ios Se ^ '2,(1)0' itriros iu 'AiroXnrovcrr}, where, since the name of Sosippus does not occur else- where, Meineke proposes to read IloadSnnros, adding, however, "quamquam ejusmodi conjecturis nihil incertius." Sosippus is the title of a comedy of Anaxandrides, which may perhaps account for the mention of the name as that of a comic poet ; such mistakes are frequent. (Meineke, f/isL Crit. Com. Graec. pp. 373, 453.) [P. S.]

SOSIS. 1. A Syracusan, who joined the expedition of the younger Cyrus with 300 mercenaries. (Xen. Anab. i. 2. § 9). 2. A Syracusan, who endeavoured to excite a popular sedition against Dion during the period when the latter having made himself master of Syracuse was besieging Dionysius in the island citadel. Sosis had purposely wounded himself, and pretended to have received these injuries from emissaries of Dion, but the fraud was discovered, and Sosis, in consequence, was put to death by the indignant populace. (Plut. Dion. 34, 35). 3. A Syracusan, originally a man of ignoble birth, and a brazier by trade (Li v. xxvi. 30), was one of the conspirators who assassinated Hierony- mus at Leontini, B. c. 215. [Hikronymus]. Af- ter that event, Sosis and Theodotus (another of the conspirators) hastened immediately to Syracuse, where they roused the people to arms, and made 3l 2