Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/254

* POLYGLOT. 216 POLYGON. the Old Testament, the Targum of Onkelos, and other Aramaic paraphrases, the Vulgate, and the Greek and a Syriac version of the, New Testa- ment. It is of no special value for purposes of historical criticism, and is rare now owing to the early loss of a great many copies by accident. (3) "The Paris Polyglot, in ten great folio vol- umes, issued between 1628 and 1645 in Paris by Antoine Vitr^ at the expense of Guy Michel le Jay. Its critical value is very sliglit. It presents the Samaritan Pentateuch, another Syriae, and an Arabic version of the Old Testament, in addition to the material contained in the Ant- werp volumes. (4) The Lotulon or Walton's Poliifilot, published in six folio volumes, from 16.54 to 1657, under the editorship-of Brian VVal- ton. The first copies were dedicated to (Jliver Cromwell, who had been personally interested in their publication and had allowed the paper on which they were printed to be imported without duty. Tlie second set was dedicated to King Charles II. and the former patron, Cromwell, is branded as 'the great Dragon.' It contains the entire Bible, or some portion of it, in Hebrew, Samaritan, Aramaic, Syriac, Arabic, Ethiopic, Persian. Greek (with a literal Latin translation of each), and Latin. This is the most valuable polyglot ever issued. The greatest scholars worked upon it. and Walton's Prolegomena is a very able work which has been republislied (Canterbury, 1828). A dictionary of all the languages represented except the Greek and Latin, called Lexicon Heptaglotton, Was pub- lished by Edmund Cartell in 1609. Of minor polyglots mention may be made of liagster's (London, 1831), which' contains the entire Bible in Hebrew, Greek, English. Latin. French. Ital- ian, Spanish, and German, with a Syriac version of the New Testament in addition. Consult Tregelles, An Account of the Printed Text of the tlreek yeir Testament (London, 1854). POL'YGNO'TUS ( Lat.. from Gk. XloXiVyvwros, PohigiiOI'is}. A (Jreek painter of the second quar- ter of the fifth century B.C. He was the son of .glaophon, and a native of the island of Thasos, where his family were artists. He seems to have come to Athens shortly after the Persian wars, and found abundant scope for his talents in the decoration of the great buildings which mark this period. Along with the Ionian Micon. and Pana-nos, brother of Phidias, he is said to have decorated the Theseum. Stoa Piecile (or painted portico), and Anakeion. or temple of the Dios- curi, with paintings from legend and recent his- tori-, though the division of the ytaintings among the artists wa.s not certain. The first building contained the battles of the Athenians with the tie of Theseus with llie Amazons, the battle of Marathon, and the victory of the .thenians and Argives over the Spartans at (Enoe, of which the second was by some attributed to Polygnotus. In the Anakeion he painted the Dioscuri carry- ing off the daughters of Leucippus. In the temple of Athena .Areia at Plata'a was a painting by hiiu representing the slaughter of the suitors by Odysseus, and some frescoes in the Propylaa at Athens were attributed to him. Most celebrated and best known from the descriptions by Pau- sanias are the great paintings in the Lesche (or porch) at Delphi, representing the departure of the Greeks .from Troy and the descent of Odys- seus to the lower world. As is clear from these subjects, Polygnotus devoted himself to extensive compositions containing many figures whose grouping and characterization required careful study. At the same time liis means were simple. Black, white, red, yellow, blue, and green were his colors, light and shade were unknown, and the strength of the artist lay in his beauty of outline and coloring, and above all in his de- lineation of character. His subjects led him to arrange his figures on various levels, and for this reason he chose when possible sloping ground, which could be easily indicated by waving lines and the partial concealment of some figures. His influence was very marked not only on painting, as is clear from a group of .ttic vases, but also on sculpture, and it is probable that the reliefs at Try.so (Gyiil-bashi) reflect his art, or that of the Ionian school, of which he was the greatest exponent. Consult Brunn. Gesehichte der grieehischen Kiinstler (Stuttgart, 18.53-59). The earlier works on the paintings of Polygnotus, tlrough of some value, are in general superseded by later investi- gations, especially those of Robert, Schone, Schreiber, and Weizsiicker: Robert. Die Nekyia des Polygnot (Halle, 1892) ; Die llivpersis des Polygnot (ib., 1893); Die Marathonsriilacht in der Poikile und Weiteres iiber Polygnot (ib., 1895) : Schone, "Zur Polygnots delphischen Bild- ern." in Jahrhuch des arcMologischen Inslituts (Berlin, 1893); Schreiber, Die Wamlbilder des Polygnot in Delphi (Leipzig. 1897) ; Weizsiicker, Poli/gnot's Genmlde in der Lesche der Knidier in Delphi (Stuttgart, 1895). For reconstructions, see Robert, and Wiener Vorlegehtiitter (Vienna, 1888). POLYGON (Lat. pohigonum. from Gk. ^o/.ii- yuviiv, polygonon. polygon, ncu. sg. of Tro^.i^uvof, polygorws, having many angles, from iroAv^. polys, much, many + yuvla, gonia, angle). If the two end-points of a broken line coincide, the figure ob- Amazons, and of the Lapithac with the Centaurs, and the descent of Theseus to Amphitrite in the depths of the sea. In the Stoa were represented the capture of Troy and the coimcil of the Greeks to judge Ajax for his outrage on Cassandra, which was certainly by Polygnotus, also the bat- tained is called a polygon, and the broken line its fterimeter. The vertices of the angles made by the various segments of the perimeter are called the vertices, of the polygon, and the segments them.selves the sides of the polygon. The peri- meter of a polygon divides the plane into two