Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/912

Rh 900 STASIOECUS. his daughter's marriage portion ; manifestly an at- tempt to reconcile the two different accounts, which ascribed it to Homer and Stasinus (Proc. I. c. ; Aelian. V. H. ix. 15). We are also told that the poem was named from its author's native place ; but critical analogies suggest the doubt whether the country of the alleged author was not in- vented to account for the title. Other passages, which might be quoted from the grammarians and scholiasts, leave the question much in the same state. Even the number of books of which the poem consisted is doubtful ; for the only authority for the common statement, that it contained eleven books, is a quotation of Athenaeus from the eleventh book (xv. p. 682, e.). From these statements it may be judged whether there is sufficient foundation for the opinion of Miiller and other writers, that the poem may be safely assigned to Stasinus, whose date they fix as about contemporary with Arctinus of Miletus. Considering the immense range of mythological stories which we know the poem to have embraced, there is much probability in the opinion of Bernhardy, that it was a work of many times and many hands. Its title may be explained by the conspicuous part which Aphrodite has in the general action ; a circumstance which certainly favours the idea that the author of the general plan of the poem was "a Cyprian. The Cypria was the first, in the order of the events contained in it, of the poems of the Epic Cycle relating to the Trojan War. It embraced the period antecedent to the beginning of the Iliad, to which it was evidently designed to form an in- troduction. From the outline given by Proclus, and from the extant fragments, a good idea may be formed of its structure and contents. The Earth, wearied with the burthen of the degenerate race of man, entreats Zeus to diminish their numbers. He grants her request, and prepares two chief agents to accomplish it, Helen and Achilles, the beauty of the former furnishing the cause of the contest, and the sword of the latter the instrument of extermination. The events succeeding the birth of Helen (or rather, for the form of the myth is varied), her being sent by Zeus to Leda to bring up, and the marriage of Peleus, down to the sailing of the expedition against Troy, were related at great length, and the incidents of the war itself much more briefly, the latter part being apparently occupied chiefly with those previous adventures of the heroes which are referred to in the Iliad. It concluded with the following somewhat clumsy contrivance to connect it with the opening of the Iliad : the war itself is not found to be murderous enough to accomplish the object prayed for by the Earth ; and in order to effect it more surely, the fresh con- tention between Achilles and Agamemnon is stirred up by Zeus. (R. J. F. Henrichsen, de Carminibus Cypriis, Havn. 1828, 8vo. ; Welcker, in the ZeU- schrift fur Altertk. 1834, Nos. 3, &c. ; Miiller, Gesch. d. GriecL Lit. vol. i. pp. 118—120, pp. 68, 69, Eng. trans. ; Bode, Gesch. d. Hellen. Dicht- kunst, vol. i. pp. 363 — 378 ; Bernhardy, Grundriss d. Griech. Lit. vol. ii. pp. 150—152 ; Clinton, F. H. vol. i. pp. 353, &c.) [P. S.] STASIOECUS (2raaioiKos), prince or dynast of Marion in Cyprus, was one of the petty princes among whom that island was divided at the period of its conquest by Ptolemy, king of Egypt. Upon that occasion Stasioecus was one of the fiirst to join STATE IRA. Seleucus, the admiral of the Egyptian fleet, and to place himself under the supremacy of Ptolemy: but in B. c. 313 he abandoned the alliance of that monarch, and, in common with several of the other princes of the island, entered into negotiations with Antigonus. Before, however, the latter could lend them any support, Ptolemy himself arrived in Cyprus with a fleet and army, took Stasioecus prisoner, and razed his city to the ground. (Died, xix. 62, 79.) ^ [E. H. B.] STASIPPUS (SToo-iTTTros), a citizen of Tegea, and the leader of the party there which was fa- vourable to Sparta, When Archidamus III. was sent, in B. c. 371, to siiccour his defeated country- men at Leuctra, Stasippus and his friends were in the height of their power, and Tegea therefore zealously assisted the Spartan king with reinforce- ments. In B. c. 370, Stasippus successfully re- sisted in the assembly the attempt of Callibius and Proxenus to change the existing relations of Tegea to Sparta, and include it in the proposed federative union of all Arcadian towns. His opponents hereupon had recourse to arms, and Stasippus defeated them in battle, but did not make as much of his victory as he might have done, through reluctance to shed the blood of his fellow-citizens. The democratic leaders were less scrupulous, and, having been reinforced from Mantineia, got Stasip- pus and many of his friends into their power, and mu«-dered them after the mockery of a trial. (Xen. Hell. vi. 4. § 18, 5. §§ 6, &c.; Val. Max. iv. 1, Ext. 5.) [Callibius, No. 2.] [E. E.J STATA MATER, a Roman divinity, whose image at one time stood in the forum, where fires were lighted every night. Subsequently, when the forum was paved, the fires were kindled in other parts of the town, in order not to spoil the stones (Fest. p. 317, ed. Miiller). In inscriptions she is sometimes called Statia Mater, and she is probably identical with Vesta. (Hartung, Die Re- lig. d. Rom. vol. ii. p. 110.) [L. S.] STATEIRA {•S.T&T^ipa). 1. Wife of Arta- xerxes II., king of Persia, was the daughter of a noble Persian named Idernes. She was married to Artaxerxes (then called Arsaces) during the lifetime of his father Ochus, and it was only by the urgent entreaties of her husband that the queen-mother Parysatis was prevailed upon to spare her life, when she put to death all her brothers and sisters on account of the revolt of their eldest brother Terituchmes (Ctesias, Pers. §§ 53— ,56 ; Plut. Artax. 2). The enmity thus ori- ginated between Parysatis and Stateira was aggra- vated by many successive circumstances. Pary- satis, while she exercised great influence ovor Artaxerxes, still preferred her son Cyrus, while Stateira was warmly attached to her husband, who appears to have requited her affection with equal ardour. Hence, when the rebellion of Cyrus be- came known, b. c. 401, Stateira was one of the loudest in the clamour raised against the queen- mother, who by her ill-timed favour to her younger son had involved the empire in these dangers. Again, after the defeat and death of Cyrus, the cruelty with which Parysatis on the one hand pursued all who had any personal share in his death, and on the other the favour shown by her to Clearchus, and her efforts to induce the king to spare his life, were bitterly reproached her by Sta- teira, who did not scruple to attribute them to their true motive, and persuaded Artaxerxes to put