Listed 20 sub titles with search on: Biographies for destination: "KOLOFON Ancient city TURKEY".
570 - 470
Xenophanes was a Greek poet and philosopher from Ionia
(Asia Minor). He traveled
to Italy and settled at Elea
in southern Italy.
Only fragments of his writings survived but one gathers that Xenophanes
was opposed to the mystical tendencies of Pythagoras. He anticipated the philosophy
of Parmenides when he said that “all is one and the one is God”.
But as regards the gods he was an emphatic free thinker. He said that
if “oxen, lions, and horses had hands wherewith they could paint images,
they would fashion gods after their own shapes .. the Ethiopians make their gods
black; the Thracians say theirs have blue eyes and red hair.”
This text is cited July 2003 from the Hyperhistory Online URL below.
Poet, philosopher and religious reformer from Asia
Minor.
After working as a travelling poet, Xenophanes founded the Eleatic
school in the Phoenician colony Elea
in southern Italy.
One of his best known pupils was the philosopher Parmenides. Xenophanes
disagreed with polytheism and thought that the Olympic gods had far too human
characters. Therefore he wanted to replace them with a single, unifying all-powerful
God. He also thought the idea of reincarnation was absurd, and disagreed with
athleticism and luxurious living sice it prevented people from achieving wisdom.
This text is cited Sept 2003 from the In2Greece URL below.
570 - 475
Presocratic philosopher. He criticized the militarism and anthropomorphism
of traditional Greek morality and religion, arguing that fundamental truth about
the world is difficult to achieve. His opposition to conventional notions earned
him the respect of later, more completely skeptical thinkers.
Parmenides and Zeno studied with Xenophanes in Sicily
before establishing their own school at Elea.
This extract is cited Sept 2003 from the Philosophy Pages URL below.
Editor’s Information:
Biography, reports and essays on Homer can be found at his birthplace the island of Ios, one of the places that claim the honour of his origin and where is his tomb. There are also other places among the claimants, which are mentioned in an epigram (Gell. III, 11), including the island of Ios: the island of Chios, Smyrna, Rhodes, Colophon, Salamis in Cyprus, Argos, Athens, Cyme in Aeolis, Pylos and Ithaca.
Pindar speaks also of a certain Polymnastus as one of the famous musicians: Thou knowest the voice, common to all, of Polymnastus the Colophonian.
A Greek poet, born at Colophon, in Asia, about B.C. 150. He was an hereditary priest of Apollo, as well as a physician, and lived a great deal in Aetolia as well as later in Pergamum. He wrote numerous works, such as those on agriculture, of which considerable fragments are still preserved, and on mythological metamorphoses (used by the Roman poet Ovid). Two of his poems, written in a dull and bombastic manner, are still extant: the Theriaka, on remedies against the wounds inflicted by venomous animals; and the Alexipharmaka, on poisons taken in food and drink, with their antidotes. These poems are edited by Schneider, and revised by Keil (1856).
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited August 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
This file forms part of A Hellenistic Bibliography, a bibliography on post-classical Greek poetry and its influence, accessible through the website of the department of Classics of the University of Leiden.
The file contains 105 titles on Nicander of Colophon; it has two sections:
All titles (listed by year/author)
Essentials (editions, etc.)
Compiled and maintained by Martijn Cuypers
Email: m.p.cuypers@let.leidenuniv.nl
Additions and corrections will be gratefully received.
Last updated: 3 july 2002
Elegiac poet.
Hermesianax, (Ermesianax). Of Colophon, a distinguished elegiac poet, the friend and disciple of Philetas, lived in the time of Philip and Alexander the Great, and seems to have died before the destruction of Colophon by Lysimachus, B. C. 302. (Paus. i. 9.8.) His chief work was an elegiac poem, in three books, addressed to his mistress, Leontium, whose name formed the title of the poem, like the Cynthia of Propertius. A great part of the third book is quoted by Athenaeus (xiii.). The poem is also quoted by Pausanias (vii. 17.5, viii. 12.1, ix. 35.1), by Parthenius (Erot. 5, 22), and by Antonins Liberalis (Metam. 39). We learn from another quotation in Pausanias, that Hermesianax wrote an elegy on the Centaur Eurytion (vii. 18.1). It is somewhat doubtful whether the Hermesianax who is mentioned by the scholiast on Nicander (Theriaca, 3), and who wrote a poem entitled Persika, was the same or a younger poet. The fragment of Hermesianax has been edited separately by Ruhnken (Append. ad Epist. Crit. ii., Opusc.), by Weston, Lond. 1784, 8vo., by C. D. Ilgen (Opusc. Var. Philol. vol. i., Erford, 1797, 8vo.), by Rigler and Axt, Colon. 1828, 16mo., by Hermann (Opusc. Acad. vol. iv.), by Bach (Philet. et Phanoc. Relig. Hal. 1829, 8vo.), by J. Bailey, with a critical epistle by G. Burgess, Lond. 1839, 8vo., and by Schneidewin (Delect. Poes. Eleg.). Comp. Bergk, De Hermesianactis Elegia, Marburgi, 1845.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
This file forms part of A Hellenistic Bibliography, a bibliography on post-classical Greek poetry and its influence, accessible through the website of the department of Classics of the University of Leiden.
The file contains ca. 70 titles on Hermesianax, arranged by year/author.
Compiled and maintained by Martijn Cuypers
Email: m.p.cuypers@let.leidenuniv.nl
Additions and corrections will be gratefully received.
Last updated: 3 july 2002
Apelles. The most celebrated of Grecian painters, born, most probably, at Colophon in Ionia, though some ancient writers call him a Coan and others an Ephesian. He was the contempora ry of Alexander the Great (B.C. 336-323), who entertained so high an opinion of him that he was the only person whom Alexander would permit to paint his portrait. We are not told when or where he died. Throughout his life Apelles laboured to improve himself, especially in drawing, which he never spent a day without practising. Hence the proverb, Nulla dies sine linea (temeron oudemian grammen egagon). Of his portraits, the most celebrated was that of Alexander wielding a thunderbolt; but the most admired of all his pictures was the "Aphrodite Anadyomene," or Aphrodite rising out of the sea. The goddess was wringing her hair, and the falling drops of water formed a transparent silver veil around her form. The original was Campaspe, a mistress of Alexander. For the painting of Alexander a sum of twenty talents (about $21,600) was paid, and the painting itself was hung in the temple of Diana of Ephesus. He painted also a horse; and, finding that his rivals in the art, who contested the palm with him on this occasion, were about to prevail through unfair means, he caused his own piece and those of the rest to be shown to some horses, and these animals, fairer critics in this case than men had proved to be, neighed at his painting alone. Apelles used to say of his contemporaries that they possessed, as artists, all the requisite qualities except one--namely, grace, and that this was his alone. On one occasion, when contemplating a picture by Protogenes, a work of immense labour, and in which exactness of detail had been carried to excess, he remarked, "Protogenes equals or surpasses me in all things but one--the knowing when to remove his hand from a painting." Apelles was also, as is supposed, the inventor of what artists call glazing. Such, at least, was the opinion of Sir Joshua Reynolds and others. The ingredients probably employed by him for this purpose are given by Jahn, in his Malerei der Alten, p. 150. Apelles was accustomed, when he had completed any one of his pieces, to expose it to the view of passengers, and to hide himself behind it in order to hear the remarks of the spectators. On one of these occasions a shoemaker censured the painter for having given one of the slippers of a figure a less number of ties by one than it ought to have had. The next day the shoemaker, emboldened by the success of his previous criticism, began to find fault with a leg, when Apelles indignantly put forth his head, and desired him to confine his decisions to the slipper, "ne supra crepidam iudicaret." Hence arose another common saying, Ne sutor ultra crepidam.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
(Apelles), We now enter definitely upon the new phase of Hellenistic life in Greece, and among the many painters of this epoch one stands unquestionably at the head, Apelles, son of Pytheas of Colophon. His father was apparently not a painter, for he was sent to receive his first instruction from Ephorus of Ephesus; at a later age, when he was already beginning to be famous, he went to Sicyon, attracted there by the fame of the teaching of Pamphilus. Under Philip of Macedon he took up his residence at Pella, and continued as court painter under Alexander; when Alexander started on his Asiatic campaigns, he returned again to Ephesus. After this we hear of him at various times in Rhodes, where he is brought into contact with Protogenes; at Alexandria, at the court of Ptolemy Soter; and possibly at Cos. The numerous anecdotes and sayings attributed to him, such as manum de tabula, nulla dies sine linea, ne sutor ultra crepidam, must be considered merely as indications of his extensive popularity rather than as detailed evidence of his style. We cannot with certainty connect any picture by him with the material that has come down to us, so that we are left to the scraps of art criticism in ancient authors for an estimate of his style. As might be expected, by far the majority of his works seem to have been in the sphere of portraiture. Pliny says that it is useless to try and enumerate the many portraits by him of Alexander and Philip: besides these we hear of a Cleitos putting on his helmet; an Archelaus in a family group; an Antigonus arranged in profile, so that his defective eye was not seen; besides many others, principally of people connected with the Macedonian court. Perhaps most characteristic of him were the series of personifications of abstract ideas of the mind, represented generally as female figures in action. Such a picture was the Calumnia, which he painted at the court of Ptolemy in Alexandria, in punishment of his detractors there, and of which we have a detailed description in Lucian. To the same category may be referred the pictures of Charis and of Tyche; and the allegorical personifications of the phenomena of nature, as Bronte (thunder), Astrape (lightning), and the thunderbolt, Keraunobolia. His mythological pieces are comparatively few; by far the most important was doubtless the Aphrodite Anadyomene painted for the people of Cos: she was seen rising from the water, a type which may be compared with numerous marbles which have come down to us. Augustus carried the picture to Rome, remitting to the Coans a hundred talents of the tribute due, as compensation; by the time of Nero it had suffered so much that it had to be restored, a work which was carried out by a certain Dorotheus. As we should expect from an artist whose bent lay in portraiture, his talent lay less in large or elaborate compositions than in refinement and the complete study of nature. The stories that we are told of him seem to point to a great dexterity and lightness of touch, with the charm and grace of manner which was the natural outcome of his period.
This extract is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Apelles, the most celebrated of Grecian painters, was born, most probably, at
Colophon in Ionia (Suidas, s. v.), though Pliny (xxxv. 36.10) and Ovid (Art. Am.
iii. 401; Pont. iv. 1. 29) call him a Coan. The account of Strabo (xiv.) and Lucian
(De Calumn. lix.2, 6), that he was an Ephesian, may be explained from the statements
of Suidas, that he was made a citizen at Ephesus, and that he studied painting
there under Ephorus. He afterwards studied under Pamphilus of Amphipolis, to whom
he paid the fee of a talent for a ten-years' course of instruction (Suidas, s.
v.; Plin. xxxv. 36.8). At a later period, when he had already gained a high reputation,
he went to Sicyon, and again paid a talent for admission into the school of Melanthius,
whom he assisted in his portrait of the tyrant Aristratus (Plut. Arat. 13). By
this course of study he acquired the scientific accuracy of the Sicyonian school,
as well as the elegance of the Ionic.
The best part of the life of Apelles was probably spent at the court
of Philip and Alexander the Great; for Pliny speaks of the great number of his
portraits of both those princes (xxxv. 36.16), and states that he was the only
person whom Alexander would permit to take his portrait (vii. 38; see also Cic.
ad Fam. v. 12.13; Hor. Ep. ii. 1. 239; Valer. Max. viii. 11.2, ext.; Arrian, Anab.
i. 16.7). Apelles enjoyed the friendship of Alexander, who used to visit him in
his studio. In one of these visits, when the king's conversation was exposing
his ignorance of art, Apelles politely advised him to be silent, as the boys who
were grinding the colours were laughing at him (Plin. xxxv. 36.12). Plutarch relates
this speech as having been made to Megabyzus (De Tranq. Anim. 12). Aelian tells
the anecdote of Zeuxis and Megabyzus (Var. Hist. ii. 2). Pliny also tells us that
Apelles, having been commissioned by Alexander to paint his favourite concubine,
Campaspe (Pankaote Aelian, Var. Hist. xii. 34), naked, fell in love with her,
upon which Alexander gave her to him as a present; and according to some she was
the model of the painter's best picture, the Venus Anadyomene. From all the information
we have of the connexion of Apelles with Alexander, we may safely conclude that
the former accompanied the latter into Asia. After Alexander's death he appears
to have travelled through the western parts of Asia. To this period we may probably
refer his visit to Rhodes and his intercourse with Protogenes. Being driven by
a storm to Alexandria, after the assumption of the regal title by Ptolemy, whose
favour he had not gained while he was with Alexander, his rivals laid a plot to
ruin him, which he defeated by an ingenious use of his skill in drawing (Plin.
xxxv. 36.13). Lucian relates that Apelles was accused by his rival Antiphilus
of having had a share in the conspiracy of Theodotus at Tyre, and that when Ptolemy
discovered the falsehood of the charge, he presented Apelles with a hundred talents,
and gave Antiphilus to him as a slave: Apelles commemorated the event in an allegorical
picture (De Calumn. lix.2-6). Lucian's words imply that he had seen this picture,
but he may have been mistaken in ascribing it to Apelles. He seems also to speak
of Apelles as if he had been living at Ptolemy's court before this event occurred.
If, therefore, Pliny and Lucian are both to be believed, we may conclude, from
comparing their tales, that Apelles, having been accidentally driven to Alexandria,
overcame the dislike which Ptolemy bore to him, and remained in Egypt during the
latter part of his life, enjoying the favour of that king, in spite of the schemes
of his rivals to disgrace him. The account of his life cannot be carried further;
we are not told when or where he died; but from the above facts his date can be
fixed, since he practised his art before the death of Philip (B. C. 336), and
after the assumption of the regal title by Ptolemy (B. C. 306). As the result
of a minute examination of all the facts, Tolken (Amalth. iii. pp. 117-119) places
him between 352 and 308 B. C. According to Pliny, he flonrished about the 112th
Olympiad, B. C. 332.
Many anecdotes are preserved of Apelles and his contemporaries, which
throw an interesting light both on his personal and his professional character.
He was ready to acknowledge that in some points he was excelled by other artists,
as by Amphion in grouping and by Asclepiadorus in perspective (Plin. xxxv. 36.10).
He first caused the merits of Protogenes to be understood. Coming to Rhodes, and
finding that the works of Protogenes were scarcely valued at all by his country-men,
he offered him fifty talents for a single picture, and spread the report that
he meant to sell the picture again as his own (Plin. ib.13). In speaking of the
great artists who were his contemporaries, he ascribed to them every possible
excellence except one, namely, grace, which he claimed for himself alone (Ib.10).
Throughout his whole life, Apelles laboured to improve himself, especially
in drawing, which he never spent a day without practising (Plin. ib.12; hence
the proverb Nulla dies sine linca). The tale of his contest with Protogenes affords
an example both of the skill to which Apelles attained in this portion of his
art, and cf the importance attached to it in all the great schools of Greece.
Apelles had sailed to Rhodes, eager to meet Protogenes. Upon landing,
he went straight to that artist's studio. Protogenes was absent, but a large panel
ready to be painted on hung in the studio. Apelles seized the pencil, and drew
an excessively thin coloured line on the panel, by which Protogenes, on his return,
at once guessed who had been his visitor, and in his turn drew a still thinner
line of a different colour upon or within the former (according to the reading
of the recent editions of Pliny, in ilia ipsa). When Apelles returnend and saw
the lines, ashamed to be defeated, says Pliny, "tertio colore lineas secuit, nullum
relinquens amplius subtilitati locum" (Ib.11). The most natural explanation of
this difficult passage seems to be, that down the middle of the first line of
Apelles, Protogenes drew another so as to divide it into two parallel halves,
and that Apelles again divided the line of Protogenes in the same manner. Pliny
speaks of the three lines as visum effugientes. The panel was preserved, and carried
to Rome, where it remained, exciting more wonder than all the other works of art
in the palace of the Caesars, till it was destroyed by fire with that building.
Of the means which Apelles took to ensure accuracy, the following
example is given. He used to expose his finished pictures to view in a public
place, while he hid himself behind the picture to hear the criticisms of the passers-by.
A cobbler detected a fault in the shoes of a figure: the next day he found that
the fault was corrected, and was proceeding to criticise the leg, when Apelles
rushed from behind the picture, and commanded the cobbler to keep to the shoes
(Plin. Ib.12: hence the proverb, Ne supra crepidam sutor: see also Val. Max. viii.
12, ext.3; Lucian tells the tale of Phidias). Marvellous tales are told of the
extreme accuracy of his likenesses of men and horses (Plin. xxxv. 36.14, 17; Lucian,
de Calumn.; Aelian, V. H. ii. 3). With all his diligence, however, Apelles knew
when to cease correcting. He said that he excelled Protogenes in this one point,
that the latter did not know when to leave a picture alone, and he laid down the
maxim, Nocere saepe nimiam diligentiam (Plin. 10; Cic. Orat. 22; Quintil. x. 4).
Apelles is stated to have made great improvements in the mechanical
part of his art. The assertion of Pliny, that he used only four colours, is incorrect
(see Colores).
He painted with the pencil, but we are not told whether he used the cestrum. His
principal discovery was that of covering the picture with a very thin black varnish
(atramentum), which, besides preserving the picture, made the tints clearer and
subdued the more brilliant colours (Plin. l. c.18). The process was, in all probability,
the same as that now called glazing or toning, the object of which is to attain
the excellence of colouring "which does not proceed from fine colours, but true
colours; from breaking down these fine colours, which would appear too raw, to
a deeptoned brightness". From the fact mentioned by Pliny, that this varnishing
could be discovered only on close inspection, Sir J. Reynolds thought that it
was like that of Correggio. That he painted on moveable panels is evident from
the frequent mention of tabulae with reference to his pictures. Pliny expressly
says, that he did not paint on walls (xxxv. 37).
A list of the works of Apelles is given by Pliny (xxxv. 36). They
are for the most part single figures, or groups of a very few figures. Of his
portraits the most celebrated was that of Alexander wielding a thunderbolt, which
was known as ho keraunophoros, and which gave occasion to the saying, that of
two Alexanders, the one, the son of Philip, was invincible, the other, he of Apelles,
inimitable (Plut. Fort. Alex. 2, 3). In this picture, the thunderbolt and the
hand which held it appeared to stand out of the panel; and, to aid this effect,
the artist did not scruple to represent Alexander's complexion as dark, though
it was really light (Plut. Alex. 4). The price of this picture was twenty talents.
Another of his portraits, that of Antigonus, has been celebrated for its concealment
of the loss of the king's eye, by representing his face in profile. He also painted
a portrait of himself. Among his allegorical pictures was one representing Castor
and Pollux, with Victory and Alexander the Great, how grouped we are not told;
and another in which the figure of War, with his hands tied behind his back, followed
the triumphal car of Alexander. "He also painted", says Pliny, "things which cannot
be painted, thunders and lightnings, which they call Bronte, Astrape, and Ceramobolia".
These were clearly allegorical figures. Several of his subjects were taken from
the heroic mythology. But of all his pictures the most admired was the "Venus
Anadyomene" (he anaduomene Aphrodite), or Venus rising out of the sea. The goddess
was wringing her hair, and the falling drops of water formed a transparent silver
veil around her form. This picture, which is said to have cost 100 talents, was
painted for the temple of Aesculapius at Cos, and afterwards placed by Augustus
in the temple which he dedicated to Julius Caesar. The lower part being injured,
no one could be found to repair it. As it continued to decay, Nero had a copy
of it made by Dorotheus (Plin.; Strab. xiv.). Apelles commenced another picture
of Venus for the Coans, which he intended should surpass the Venus Anadyomene.
At his death, he had finished only the head, the upper part of the breast, and
the outline of the figure; but Pliny says, that it was more admired than his former
finished picture. No one could be found to complete the work (Plin. xxxv. l. c.,
and 40.41; Cic. ad Fam. i. 9.4, de Off. iii. 2).
By the general consent of ancient authors, Apelles stands first among
Greek painters. To the undiscriminating admiration of Pliny, who seems to have
regarded a portrait of a horse, so true that other horses neighed at it, as an
achievement of art as admirable as the Venus Anadyomene itself, we may add the
unmeasured praise which Cicero, Varro, Columella, Ovid, and other writers give
to the works of Apelles, and especially to the Venus Anadyomene (Cic. Brut. 18,
de Orat. iii. 7; Varro, L. L. ix. 12; Colum. R. R. Praef.31; Ovid. Art. Am. iii.
401; Pont. iv. 1. 29; Propert. iii. 7. 11; Auson. Ep. 106; Anthol. Planud. iv.
178-182). Statius (Silv. i. 1. 100) and Martial (xi. 9) call painting by the name
of " Ars Apellea". Sir Joshua Reynolds says of the Greek painters, and evidently
with an especial reference to Apelles, "if we had the good fortune to possess
what the ancients themselves esteemed their masterpieces, I have no doubt but
we should find their figures as correctly drawn as the Laocoon, and probably coloured
like Titian" (Notes on Du Fresnoy, note 37); and, though the point has been disputed,
such is the general judgment of the best modern authorities. It need scarcely
be said, that not one of the pictures of Apelles remains to decide the question
by.
In order to understand what was the excellence which was peculiar
to Apelles, we must refer to the state of the art of painting in his time (see
Pictura). After the essential forms of Polygnotus had been elevated
to dramatic effect and ideal expression by Apollodorus and Zeuxis, and enlivened
with the varied character and feeling which the school of Eupompus drew forth
from direct observation of nature, Apelles perceived that something still was
wanting, something which the refinements attained by his contemporaries in grouping,
perspective, accuracy, and finish, did not supply -something which he boasted,
and succeeding ages confirmed the boast, that he alone achieved- namely, the quality
called charis, venustas, grace (Plin. xxxv. 36.10; Quintil. xii. 10; Plut. Demet.
22; Aelian, V. H. xii. 41); that is, not only beauty, sublimity, and pathos, but
beauty, sublimity, and pathos, each in its proper measure ; the expending of power
enough to produce the desired effect, and no more; the absence of all exaggeration,
as well as of any sensible deficiency; the most natural and pleasing mode of impressing
the subject on the spectator's mind, without displaying the means by which the
impression is produced. In fact, the meaning which Fuseli attaches to the word
seems to be that in which it was used by Apelles: " By grace I mean that artless
balance of motion and repose sprung from character, founded on propriety, which
neither falls short of the demands nor overleaps the modesty of nature. Applied
to execution, it means that dexterous power which hides the means by which it
was attained, the difficulties it has conquered" (Lect. 1). In the same Lecture
Fuseli gives the following estimate of the character of Apelles as an artist :
"The name of Apelles in Pliny is the synonyme of unrivalled and unattainable excellence,
but the enumeration of his works points out the modification which we ought to
apply to that superiority; it neither comprises exclusive sublimity of invention,
the most acute discrimination of character, the widest sphere of comprehension,
the most judicious and best balanced composition, nor the deepest pathos of expression:
his great prerogative consisted more in the unison than in the extent of his powers;
he knew better what he could do, what ought to be done, at what point he could
arrive, and what lay beyond his reach, than any other artist. Grace of conception
and refinement of taste were his elements, and went hand in hand with grace of
execution and taste in finish; powerful and seldom possessed singly, irresistible
when united: that he built both on the firm basis of the former system, not on
its subversion, his well-known contest of lines with Protogenes, not a legendary
tale, but a well attested fact, irrefragably proves : .... the corollaries we
may adduce from the contest are obviously these, that the schools of Greece recognized
all one elemental principle: that acuteness and fidelity of eye and obedience
of hand form precision ; precision, proportion; proportion, beauty: that it is
the `little more or less', imperceptible to vulgar eyes, which constitutes grace,
and establishes the superiority of one artist above another: that the knowledge
ledge of the degrees of things, or taste, presupposes a perfect knowledge of the
things themselves : that colour, grace, and taste, are ornaments, not substitutes,
of form, expression, and character; and, when they usurp that title, degenerate
into splendid faults. Such were the principles on which Apelles formed his Venus,
or rather the personification of Female Grace -the wonder of art, the despair
of artists". That this view of the Venus is right, is proved, if proof were needed,
by the words of Pliny (xxxv. 36.10), "Deesse iis unam Venerem dicebat, quam Graeci
Charita vocant", except that there is no reason for calling the Venus "the personification
of Female Grace"; it was rather Grace personified in a female form.
Apelles wrote on painting, but his works are entirely lost.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Dionysius. Of Colophon, a painter, contemporary with Polygnotus of Thasos, whose works he imitated in their accuracy, expression (pathos), manner (ethos), in the treatment of the form, in the delicacy of the drapery, and in every other respect except in grandeur. (Aelian. V. H. iv. 3.) Plutarch (Timol. 36) speaks of his works as having strength and tone, but as forced and laboured. Aristotle (Poet. 2) says that Polygnotus painted the likenesses of men better than the originals, Pauson made them worse, and Dionysius just like them (homoious). It seems from this that the pictures of Dionysius were deficient in the ideal. It was no doubt for this reason that Dionysius was called Anthropographus, like Demetrius. It is true that Pliny, from whom we learn the fact, gives a different reason, namely, that Dionysius was so called because he painted only men, and not landscapes (xxxv. 10. s. 37); but this is only one case out of many in which Pliny's ignorance of art has caused him to give a false interpretation of a true fact.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Dion. Of Colophon, is mentioned by Varro (de R. R. i. 1), Columella (i. 1), and Pliny among the Greek writers on agriculture; but he is otherwise unknown.
Hermotimus. A native of Colophon, a learned geometer mentioned by Proclus. (Comment. ad Euclid, lib. i., ed. Basil.) He was one of the immediate predecessors of Euclid, and the discoverer of several geometrical propositions.
Margites, the hero of a comic epic poem, which most of the ancients regarded as a work of Homer. The inhabitants of Colophon, where the Margites must have been written (see the first lines of the poem in Lindemann's Lyra, vol. i. p. 82; Schol. ad Aristoph. Av. 914) believed that Homer was a native of the place (Herod. Vit. Hom. 8), and showed the spot in which he had composed the Margites (Hesiod. et Hom. Certain. in Goettling's edit. of Hes. p. 241). The poem was considered to be a Homeric production by Plato and Aristotle (Plat. Alcib. ii. p. 147, c.; Aristot. Etthic. Nicom. vi. 7, Magn. Moral. ad Eudem. v. 7), and was highly esteemed by Callimachus, and its hero Margites as early as the time of Demosthenes had become proverbial for his extraordinary stupidity. (Harpocrat. s. v. Margites; Phot. Lex. p. 241, ed. Porson; Plut. Demosth. 23; Aeschin. adv. Ctesiph. p. 297.) Suidas does not mention the Margites among the works of Homer, but states that it was the production of the Carian Pigres, a brother of queen Artemisia, who was at the same time the author of the Batrachomyomachia. (Suid. s.v. Pigres; Plut. de Malign. Herod. 43.) The poem, which was composed in hexameters, mixed, though not in any regular succession, with Iambic trimeters (Hephaest. Enchir. p. 16; Mar. Victorin. p. 2524, ed. Putsch.), is lost, but it seems to have enjoyed great popularity, and to have been one of the most successful productions of the Homerids at Colophon. The time at which the Margites was written is uncertain, though it must undoubtedly have been at the time when epic poetry was most flourishing at Colophon, that is, about or before B. C. 700. It is, however, not impossible that afterwards Pigres may have remodelled the poem, and introduced the Iambic trimeters, in order to heighten the conic effect of the poem. The character of the hero, which was highly comic and ludicrous, was that of a conceited but ignorant person, who on all occasions exhibited his ignorance: the gods had not made him fit even for digging or ploughing, or any other ordinary craft. His parents were very wealthy; and the poet undoubtedly intended to represent some ludicrous personage of Colophon. The work seems to have been neither a parody nor a satire; but the author with the most naive humour represented the follies and absurdities of Margites in the most ludicrous light, and with no other object than to excite laughter. (Falbe, de Margite Homerico, 1798; Lindemann, Die Lyra, vol. i. p. 79, &c.; Welcker, der Ep. Cycl. p. 184, &c.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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