Listed 25 sub titles with search on: Biographies for wider area of: "PAROS Municipality KYKLADES" .
Arcesilaus of Paros, was, according to Pliny (xxxv. 39), one of the first encaustic painters, and a contemporary of Polygnotus (about 460 B. C.).
Eumaridas, of Paros, a Pythagorean philosopher, who is mentioned by Iamblichus (Vit. Pyth. 36); but it is uncertain wether the reading is correct, and whether we ought not to read Thymaridas, who is known as a celebrated Pythagorean. (Iambl. l. c. 23)
Archilochus, (Archilochos). A Greek lyric poet, especially eminent as a writer of lampoons. Born at Paros, he was the son of Telesicles by a slave-woman, but was driven by poverty to go with a colony to Thasos in B.C. 640 or 650. From Thasos he was soon driven by want, and by the enmities which his unrestrained passion for invective had drawn upon him. He seems to have roamed restlessly from place to place, until, on his return to Paros, he was slain in a fight by the Naxian, Calondas. Long afterwards, when this man visited the Delphian temple, the god is said to have driven him from his threshold as the slayer of a servant of the Muses, and refused to admit him until he had propitiated the soul of the poet at his tomb--a story which expresses the high value set on his art by the ancients, who placed him on a level with Homer, Pindar, and Sophocles; for Archilochus had an extraordinary poetical genius, which enabled him to invent a large number of new metres, and to manipulate them with the ease of a master. He brought iambic poetry, in particular, to artistic perfection. The many misfortunes of his stormy life had bred in his irritable nature a deeply settled indignation, which in poems perfect in form and alive with force and fury, vented itself in bitter mockery even of his friends, and in merciless, unpardonable abuse of his foes. Such was the effect of his lampoons that Lycambes, who had first promised and then refused him his daughter Neobule, hanged himself and his family in the despair engendered by the poet's furious attacks. Of his poems, which were written in the Old-Ionic dialect, and taken by Horace for his model in his epodes, only a number of short fragments are preserved. The best text of these will be found in the collection of Bergk.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
708 - 628
Archilochus (Archilochos), of Paros, was one of the earliest Ionian lyric poets,
and the first Greek poet who composed Iambic verses according
to fixed rules. He flourished about 714-676 B. C. (Bode, Geschichte der Lyr. Dichtk.
i. pp. 38, 47.) He was descended from a noble family, who held the priesthood
in Paros. His grandfather was Tellis, who brought the worship of Demeter into
Thasos, and whose portrait was introduced by Polygnotus into his painting of the
infernal regions at Delphi. His father was Telesicles, and his mother a slave,
named Enipo. In the flower of his age (between 710 and 700 B. C.), and probably
after he had already gained a prize for his hymn to Demeter (Schol. in Aristoph.Av.
1762), Archilochus went from Paros to Thasos with a colony, of which one account
makes him the leader. The motive for this emigration can only be conjectured.
It was most probably the result of a political change, to which cause was added,
in the case of Archilochus, a sense of personal wrongs. He had been a suitor to
Neobule, one of the daughters of Lycambes, who first promised and afterwards refused
to give his daughter to the poet. Enraged at this treatment, Archilochus attacked
the whole family in an iambic poem, accusing Lycambes of perjury, and his daughters
of the most abandoned lives. The verses were recited at the festival of Demeter,
and produced such an effect, that the daughters of Lycambes are said to have hung
themselves through shame. The bitterness which he expresses in his poems towards
his native island (Athen. iii. p. 76, b.) seems to have arisen in part also from
the low estimation in which he was held, as being the son of a slave. Neither
was he more happy at Thasos. He draws the most melancholy picture of his adopted
country, which he at length quitted in disgust (Plut. de Exil. 12.; Strabo, xiv,
viii.; Eustath. in Odyss. i.; Aelian, V. H. xii. 50). While at Thasos, he incurried
the disgrace of losing his shield in an engagement with the Thracians of the opposite
continent but, like Alcaeus under similar circumstances, instead of being ashamed
of the disaster, he recorded it in his verse. Plutarch (Inst. Lacou) states, that
Archilochus was banished from Sparta the very hour that he had arrived there because
he had written in his poems, that a man had better throw away his arms than lose
his life. But Valerius Maximus (vi. 3, ext. 1) says, that the poems of Archilochus
were forbidden at Sparta because of their licentiousness, and especially on account
of the attack on the daughters of Lycambes. It must remain doubtful whether a
confusion has been made between the personal history of the poet and the fate
of his works, both in this instance and in the story that he won the prize at
Olympia with his hymn to Heracles (Tzetzes, Chil. i. 685), of which thus much
is certain, that the Olympic victors used to sing a hymn by Archilochus in their
triumphal procession (Pindar, Olymp. ix. 1). These traditions, and the certain
fact that the fame of Archilochus was spread, in his lifetime, over the whole
of Greece, together with his unsettled character, render it probable that he made
many journeys of which we have no account. It seems, that he visited Siris in
Lower Italy, the only city of which he speaks well (Athen. xii.). At length he
returned to Paros, and, in a war between the Parians and the people of Naxos,
he fell by the hand of a Naxian named Calondas or Corax. The Delphian oracle,
which, before the birth of Archilochus, had promised to his father an immortal
son, now pronounced a curse upon the man who had killed him, because "he had slain
the servant of the Muses" (Dion Chrysost. Orat. 33).
Archilochus shared with his contemporaries, Thaletas and Terpander,
in the honour of establishing lyric poetry throughout Greece. The invention of
the elegy is ascribed to him, as well as to Callinus; and though Callinus was
somewhat older than Archilochus, there is no doubt that the latter was one of
the earliest poets who excelled in this species of composition. Meleager enumerates
him among the poets in his Corona (38).
But it was on his satiric iambic poetry that the fame of Archilochus
was founded. The first place in this style of poetry was awarded to him by the
consent of the ancient writers, who did not hesitate to compare him with Sophocles,
Pindar, and even Homer -meaning, doubtless, that as they stood at the head of
tragic, lyric, and epic poetry, so was Archilochus the first of iambic
satirical writers; while some place him, next to Homer, above all other
poets (Dion Chrysost.; Longin. xiii. 3; Velleius, i. 5; Cicero, Orat. 2; Heracleitus,
ap. Diog. Laet. ix. 1). The statues of Archilochus and of Homer were dedicated
on the same day (Antip. Thessal. Epigr. 45), and two faces, which are thought
to be their likenesses, are found placed together in a Janus-like bust (Visconti,
Icon. Gree. i.). The emperor Hadrian judged that the Muses had shown a special
mark of favour to Homer in leading Archilochus into a different department of
poetry (Epig. 5).
The Iambics of Archilochus expressed the strongest feelings in the
most unmeasured language. The licence of Ionian democracy and the bitterness of
a disappointed man were united with the highest degree of poetical power to give
them force and point. In countries and ages unfamiliar with the political and
religious licence which at once incited and protected the poet, his satire was
blamed for its severity; and the emetion accounted most conspicuous in his verses
was "rage," as we see in the line of Horace (A. P. 79): "Archilochum proproi rabies
armavit iambo", and in the expression of Hadrian, lussontas iambous; and his bitterness
passed into a proverb. Archilochou pateis. But there must have been something
more than mere sarcastic power, there must have been truth and delicate wit, in
the sarcasms of the poet whom Plato does not hesitate to call "the very wise",
(tou sophotatou, Repub. ii.). Quintilian (x. 1.60) ascribes to him the greatest
power of expression, displayed in sentences sometimes strong, sometimes brief,
with rapid changes (quum validae, tum breves vibrantesque sententiae), the greatest
life and nervousness plurimum sanguinis atque nervorum, and considers that whatever
blame his works deserve is the fault of his subjects and not of his genius. In
the latter opinion the Greek critics seem to have joined (Plut. de Aud. 13). Of
modern writers, Archilochus has been perhaps best understood by Muller, who says,
"The ostensible object of Archilochus' Iambics, like that of the later comedy,
was to give reality to caricatures, every hideous feature of which was made more
striking by being magnified. But that tllese pictures, like caricatures from the
hand of a master, had a striking truth, may be inferred from the impression which
Archilochus' iambics produced, both upon contemporaries and posterity. Mere calumnies
could never have driven the daughters of Lycambes to hang themselves,--if, indeed,
this story is to be believed, and is not a gross exaggeration. But we have no
need of it; the universal admiration which was awarded to Archilochus' iambics
proves the existence of a foundation of truth; for when had a satire, which was
not based on truth, universal reputation for excellence? When Plato produced his
first dialogues against the sophists, Gorgias is said to have exclaimed "Athens
has given birth to a new Archilochus !" This comparison, made by a man not unacquainted
with art, shows at all events that Archilochus must have possessed somewhat of
the keen and delicate satire which in Plato was most severe where a dull listener
would be least sensible of it" (History of the Literature of Greece).
The satire of preceding writers, as displayed for example in the Margites,
was less pointed, because its objects were chosen out of the remote world which
furnished all the personages of epic poetry; while the iambics of Archilochus
were aimed at those along whom he lived. Hence their personal bitterness and sarcastic
power. This kind of satire had already been employed in extemporaneous effusions
of wit, especially at the festivals of Demeter and Cora, and Dionysus. This raillery,
a specimen of which is preserved in some of the songs of the chorus in Aristophanes'
Frogs, was called iambus; and the same name was applied to the verse which Archilochus
invented when he introduced a new style of poetry in the place of these irregular
effusions. For the measured movement of the heroic hexameter, with its arsis and
thesis of equal lengths, he substituted a movement in which the arsis was twice
as long as the thesis, the light tripping character of which was admirably adapted
to express the lively play of wit. According as the arsis followed or preceded
the thesis, the verse gained, in the former case, strength, in the latter, speed
and lightness, which. are the characteristics respectively of the iambus and of
the trochee. These short feet he formed into continued systems, by uniting every
two of them into a pair (a metre or dipodia), in which one arsis was more strongly
accentuated than the other, and one of the two theses was left doubtful as to
quantity, so that, considered with reference to musical rhythm, each dipod formed
a bar. Hence arose the great kindred dramatic metres, the iambic trimeter and
the trochaic tetrameter, as well as the shorter forms of iambic and trochaic verse.
Archilochus was the inventor also of the epode, which was formed by subjoining
to one or more verses a shorter one. One form of the epode, in which it consists
of three trochees, was called the ithyphallic verse (ithuphallos. He used also
a kind of verse compounded of two different metrical structures, which was called
asynartete. Some writers ascribe to him the invention of the Saturnian verse (Bentley's
Dissertation on Phalaris). Archilochus introduced several improvements in music,
which began about his time to be applied to the public recitations of poetry.
The best opportunity we have of judging of the structure of Archilochus' poetry, though not of its satiric character, is furnished by the Epodes of Horace, as we learn from that poet himself (Epist. i. 19. 23) :
" Parios ego primum iambos
Ostendi Latio, numeros animosque secutus
Archilochi, non res et agentia verba Lycamben."
Some manifest translations of Archilochus may be traced in the Epodes. The fragments
of Archilochus which remain are collected in Jacobs' Anthol. Graec., Gaisford's
Poet. Graec. Min., Bergk's Poet. Lyrici Graec., and by Liebel, Archilochi Reliquiae,
Lips. 1812.
Fabricius discusses fully the passages in which other writers of the name are
supposed to be mentioned.
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Lycambes: A Theban who promised his daughter to Archilochus, and afterwards refused her; for which he was pursued by the poet with such bitter sarcasm that he hung both himself and his daughter
Epodos (Επωδός): a form of lyric metre invented by Archilochus, in which a longer verse is followed by a shorter one, not including the elegiac distich. So in Roman literature, the Epodi of Horace
Dialects: A dialect, in the usual acceptance of the word, is a form of speech used by a limited number of people, or within a limited region, and differing from the language of the main branch of the race by reason of local usages due to separation and special conditions. The term also denotes any of the divisions of a linguistic family. It sometimes happens that those who use a particular dialect of a language come to be politically the most powerful branch, with greater wealth, refinement, and literary cultivation. Their dialect then ultimately becomes the standard form of the language, while the other variations of it sink to a subordinate position, and are then spoken of as dialects, and the first, which was originally of no more authority, is accepted as the normal form of speech. . .The New Ionic dialect is found in the writings of the iambic elegiac poets Archilochus . . .
Lyric poetry: Archilochus of Paros, whose lifetime probably fell in the early seventh century, became famous for his range of poems on themes as diverse as friends lost at sea, mockery of martial valor, and love gone astray. The bitter power of his poetic invective reportedly caused a father and his two daughters to commit suicide when Archilochus ridiculed them in anger after the father had put an end to Archilochus's affair with his daughter Neobule. Some modern literary critics think the poems about Neobule and her family are fictional, not autobiographical, and were meant to display Archilochus's dazzling talent for "blame poetry", the mirror image of lyric as the poetry of praise.
Other types of poetry besides epic also flourished in Greece from time immemorial. The first "lyric poet" (i.e., someone who wrote songs that were to be sung accompanied by music of the lyre) whose work survives to us, Archilochus of Paros, became a celebrity in ancient times: his poetry fascinated his audience both because of its quality and because of what it revealed (or purported to reveal) about his personal life.
But critics are in dispute in regard to the terms "Hellas," "Hellenes," and "Panhellenes." For Thucydides says that the poet nowhere speaks of barbarians, "because the Hellenes had not as yet been designated by a common distinctive name opposed to that of the barbarians." And Apollodorus says that only the Greeks in Thessaly were called Hellenes: "and were called Myrmidons and Hellenes." He says, however, that Hesiod andArchilochus already knew that all the Greeks were called, not only Hellenes, but also Panhellenes, for Hesiod, in speaking of the daughters of Proteus, says that the Panhellenes wooed them, and Archilochus says that
"the woes of the Panhellenes centered upon Thasos."
Thasos colonized by the Parians, B.C. 708, and among the colonists was the poet Archilochus
Similarly, in order to prove that men of talent are everywhere honored, Alcidamas said: "The Parians honored Archilochus, in spite of his evil-speaking; the Chians Homer, although he had rendered no public services; the Mytilenaeans Sappho, although she was a woman; the Lacedaemonians, by no means a people fond of learning, elected Chilon one of their senators; the Italiotes honored Pythagoras, and the Lampsacenes buried Anaxagoras, although he was a foreigner, and still hold him in honor.
Euboeus, (Euboios) of Paros, a very celebrated writer of parodies, who lived about the time of Philip of Macedonia. In his poems, which seem to have been written in the style of Homer, he ridiculed chiefly the Athenians. Euboeus and Boeotus are said to have excelled all other parodists. In the time of Athenaeus a collection of his Parodies in four books was still extant, but all of them are lost with the exception of a few short fragments. (Athen. xv.; comp. Weland, Dissert. de Parodiar. Homeric. Scriptoribus)
Evenus, (Euenos). In the Greek Anthology there are sixteen epigrams under this
name, which are, however, the productions of different poets. (Brunck, Anal. vol.
i.; Jacobs, Anth. Graec vol. i.) In the Vatican MS. some of the epigrams are headed
Euinou, the 7th is headed Euenou Askalonitou, the 12th Euinou Athenaiou, the 14th
Euenou Sikeliotou, and the last Euenou grammatikou. The best known poets of this
name are two elegiac poets of Paros, mentioned by Eratosthenes (ap. Harpocrat.
s. v. Euenos), who says that only the younger was celebrated, and that one of
them (he does not say which) was mentioned by Plato. There are, in fact, several
passages in which Plato refers to Evenus, somewhat ironically, as at once a sophist
or philosopher and a poet. (Apolog. Socr., Phaed., Phaedr.) According to Maximus
Tyrius (Diss. xxxviii. 4. ), Evenus was the instructor of Socrates in poetry,
a statement which derives some countenance from a passage in Plato (Phaed. l.
c.), from which it may also be inferred that Evenus was alive at the time of Socrates's
death, but at such an advanced age that lie was likely soon to follow him. Eusebius
(Chron. Arm.) places him at the 30th Olympiad (B. C. 460) and onwards. His poetry
was gnomic, that is, it formed the vehicle for expressing philosophic maxims and
opinions. The first six of the epigrams in the Anthology are of this character,
and may therefore be ascribed to him with tolerable certainty. Perhaps, too, the
fifteenth should be assigned to him.
The other Evenus of Paros wrote Erotika, as we learn from the express
testimony of Artemidortus (Oneirocr. i. 5), and from a passage of Arrian (Epictet.
iv. 9), in which Evenus is mentioned in conjunction with Aristeides. A few other
fragments of his poetry are extant. Among them is a line which Aristotle (Metaphys.
iv. 5, Eth. Eudem. ii. 7) and Plutarch (Moral. ii.) quote by the name of Evenus,
but which is found in one of the elegies of Theognis (vv. 467-474), whence it
is supposed that that elegy should be ascribed to Evenus. There are also two hexameters
of Evenus. (Aristot. Eth. Nicom. vii. 11.)
None of the epigrams in the Anthology are expressly assigned to this
Evenus; but it is not unlikely that the 12th is his. If the 8th and 9th, on the
Cnidian Aphrodite of Praxiteles, and the 10th and 11th, on Myron's cows, are his,
which seems not improbable, then his date would be fixed. Otherwise it is very
difficult to determine whether he lived before or after the other Evenus. As he
was certainly less famous than the contemporary of Socrates, the statement of
Eratosthenes that only the younger was celebrated, would imply that lie lived
before him : and this view is maintained, in opposition to the general opinion
of scholars, in the Zeitschrift fur die Allerthumswissenschaft, 1840, p. 118.
Of the other poets of this name next to nothing is known beyond the
titles, quoted above, in the Palatine Anthology. Jacobs conjectures that the Sicilian
and the Ascalonite are the same, the name Sikeliotou being a corruption of Askalonitou,
but he gives no reason for this conjecture. The epigrams of one of these poets,
we know not which, were in the collection of Philip, which contained chiefly the
verses of poets nearly contemporary with Philip himself.
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
Sculptor and architect from the island of Paros.
He worked on the Mausoleum in Halicarnassus,
depicting the hunt of the Caledonian swine on the east side. Some of the building
has survived, as well as parts of a temple of Athena in Tegea.
Characteristic of Scopas' sculptures is their heads with half-open
mouths and deep-set eyes.
Scopas was together with Praxiteles e leader of the Attic school.
This text is cited Sept 2003 from the In2Greece URL below.
First-century Delian inscriptions record restoration work by Aristandros
of Paros, son of Skopas; if the sequence holds, the Aristandros of Paros active
around 400 thus becomes the great Skopas' father. Skopas' recorded works, all
marbles but for no. 1, are:
Divinities
1. Aphrodite Pandemos riding a goat, at Elis
2. Aphrodite and Pothos, in Samothrace
3. Aphrodite, later in Rome
4. Apollo Kitharoidos at Rhamnous, taken to Rome by Augustus
5. Apollo Smintheus and a mouse, at Chryse in the Troad
6. Ares, seated and colossal, later in Rome
7. Artemis Eukleia at Thebes
8. Asklepios and Hygieia at Gortys in Arkadia
9. Asklepios and Hygieia at Tegea
10. Athena at Knidos
11. Athena Pronaos at Thebes
12. Dionysos at Knidos
13. Hekate at Argos
14. Hermes (a herm)
15. Hestia, later in Rome
16. Leto and Ortygia with the babies Apollo and Artemis, at Ephesos
Others
17. Two Erinyes (Furies) flanking another by Kalamis, at Athens
18. Eros, Himeros and Pothos, grouped with the Peitho and Paregoros of Praxiteles
around the ancient Aphrodite Praxis at Megara
19. Herakles at Sikyon
20. Basket-bearer ('kanephoros') and two pillars, later in Rome
21. A Maenad
Architectural sculpture
22. Poseidon, Thetis, Achilles, and their train, later in the Circus Flaminius
at Rome
23. Reliefs on one of the columns of the temple of Artemis at Ephesos
24. East side of the Mausoleum at Halikarnassos
25. Temple of Alea Athena at Tegea
Uncertain or spurious
26. The dying children of Niobe, later in Rome (also given to Praxiteles)
27. 'Janus' taken by Augustus from Alexandria to Rome (ditto)
28. Eros/Alkibiades with a thunderbolt, later in Rome (ditto)
29. Artemis, supposedly in an Athenian private collection ca. A.D. 150
The Mausoleum apart (24), none of these is exactly datable, and the
floruit of Pliny (N.H.
35.49-52) is clearly wrong. What other information we have tends to cluster
in the 340s and 330s. The old temple at Tegea (25) was burnt in 395, but it now
seems that Skopas's replacement postdates the Mausoleum (Norman 1986), with which
it shares the same foot-module. A relief with Ada, Idrieus, and Zeus Stratios
found at the site and dated to 345 was presumably dedicated by a worker he brought
back with him from Halikarnassos. The Temenos at Samothrace, probably the location
of (2) and provided with coffer reliefs in the style of the Tegea heads (25) was
built in the 330s. (7) and (11), on the other hand, must predate the destruction
of Thebes in 335. Finally, (23) was also begun around 340, to replace the temple
burnt in 356.
Skopas' career is thus only documented from ca. 360 to ca. 335, though
most studies assume that it began in the 370s, and make him an exact contemporary
of Praxiteles. In fact, Praxiteles apparently collaborated on (18) and was a rival
candidate for (26)-(28); elsewhere, the two are often paired by Greek and Roman
writers, Pliny included:
"Scopas rivals these [Praxiteles and his sons] in merit. He made the Venus
and Pothos which are worshipped with the most solemn ritual in Samothrace, also
the Palatine Apollo, the seated and much-praised Vesta in the Gardens of Servilius,
two turning-posts beside her (duplicated in Asinius [Pollio's] collection, where
his Basket-bearer is also to be found). But most highly esteemed are those works
in the shrine of Cn. Domitius in the Circus Flaminius: Neptune himself, Thetis,
Achilles, Nereids seated on dolphins, sea-dragons, or sea-horses, Tritons, the
chorus of Phorcys, swordfish and many other sea-creatures, all carved by the same
hand, a magnificent achievement, even if it had taken his whole life. As it is,
apart from the works just mentioned and those unknown to us, there is furthermore
the colossal seated Mars by the same artist in the temple of Brutus Callaecus,
also in the Circus, and especially a nude Venus, that surpasses the one by Praxiteles
and would have brought fame to anywhere else but Rome. (Pliny N.H. 36.25-6)
Given the limitations of ancient connoisseurship (Dionysios
of Halikarnassos, Demosthenes 50), some caution is necessary, but such a consistent
pattern of association may shed unexpected light on Skopas' style, at least in
those genres where their work overlapped.
Of the 25 secure works, fragments of only (25) and perhaps (9) and
(22) can be recognized in the original, thanks to unusually detailed accounts
in the literature:
" [The old temple at Tegea] was completely destroyed by a sudden fire when
Diophantos was archon at Athens, in the 2nd year of the 96th Olympiad, when Eupolemos
of Elis won the foot-race [395]. The present temple is far superior to all other
temples in the Peloponnese on many grounds, but particularly as regards its embellishment
and size. The first colonnade is Doric, and the one after that is Corinthian;
also [in]side the temple stand Ionic columns. I learnt that its architect was
Skopas of Paros, who made the images in many places in ancient Greece, and some
besides in Ionia and Caria.
Concerning the pedimental sculptures, on the front is the Hunt of the Kalydonian
Boar. The boar stands right in the center, and on one side are Atalante, Meleager,
Theseus, Telamon and Peleus, Polydeukes, and Iolaos -- Herakles' companion in
most of his Labors -- and the sons of Thestios and brothers of Althaia, Prothoos
and Kometes. On the other side of the boar comes [. . . lacuna? . . .], Epochos
supporting Ankaios who is now wounded and has dropped his axe, then Kastor, Amphiaraos
son of Oikles, then Hippothous son of Kerkyon, son of Agamedes, son of Stymphalos.
The last figure is Peirithous. On the rear pediment is the battle between Telephos
and Achilles on the plain of Kaikos." (Pausanias 8.45)
"The ancient image of Alea Athena was carried off by the Roman emperor Augustus,
together with the tusks of the Kalydonian boar, after he defeated Antony and his
allies , among whom were all the Arcadians except the Mantineans . . . . It is
in the Forum of Augustus, right in the entrance, . . . made throughout of ivory,
the work of Endoios." (Pausanias 8.46)
"The present image at Tegea was brought from the deme of Manthyrenses, and
was surnamed by them "Hippia" . . . On one side of it stands Asklepios, on the
other Hygieia, works of Skopas of Paros in Pentelic marble. Of the votives in
the temple the following are the most notable..." (Pausanias 8.47)
On the Tegea sculptures: head of Telephos (Tegea Museum 60), head
of a warrior from the west pediment (Athens, NM 180), head supposedly from Tegea
(Malibu 79.AA.1); the Getty head (Stewart 1982b; Hafner 1984) is a fake. The Grimani
Triton in Berlin is a likely survivor from (22), whose base is often thought to
be the so-called 'Ahenobarbus Ara' (marriage of Poseidon and Amphitrite (Munich
239), census, with Mars looking on (Louvre MA 975; Stewart 1990, figs. 843-46),
though the arguments deployed in support are both tortuous and ultimately unconvincing.
P.W. Lehmann 1973 and P.W. Lehmann1982 adds the Samothracian coffer reliefs, together
with the architecture of the propylon to the Temenos itself.
As to copies, replicas of (2) or (18), (4), (19), and (21) have been
identified with varying degrees of certainty, and the Lansdowne-type Herakles
(Malibu 70.AA.109) and Meleager (Vatican 490) added to the list. Most secure among
these is the Maenad (21), thanks once again to an extended description:
"Skopas, as if moved by some inspiration, imparted to the making of his statue
the divine frenzy that possessed him. Why should I not describe to you from the
beginning the inspiration of this work of art?
The statue of a Maenad, wrought from Parian marble, has been transformed into a real Maenad. For the stone, while retaining its own nature, yet seemed to depart from the law which governs stone; what one saw was really an image, but art carried imitation over into actual reality. You would have seen that, hard as it was, it became soft to resemble the feminine, though its vigor corrected the femininity, and that, though it lacked the power to move, it knew how to dance in Bacchic frenzy, responding to the god as he entered within.
When we saw her face we stood speechless, so clear upon it was the evidence of sense perception, though perception was not present; so clear was the intimation of Bacchic divine possession stirring Bacchic frenzy, though no such possession aroused it; and as many signs of passion that a soul goaded by divine madness displays, these blazed out from it, fashioned by art in fashion indescribable. The hair fell free to be tossed by the wind, and was divided to show the glory of each strand; this most of all transcended reason, since, stone though the material was, it obeyed the lightness of hair and yielded to imitation of its tresses, and though void of life's vitality it was vital withal.
Indeed you might say that art has harnessed the impulses of growth, so unbelievable
is what you see, so visible is what you do not believe. It actually even showed
hands in motion -- for it was not waving the Bacchic thyrsos, but carried a victim
as if crying "Euoi"! -- sign of a more poignant madness. And the figure of the
kid was livid in color, and the stone took on the appearance of dead flesh; and
though the material was one and the same, it severally imitated life and death
. . (Kallistratos, Descriptions 2.1-4)
Finally, as well as (19), (1) and perhaps (5) are pictured on coins.
. .
Yet it is here if anywhere that the heroic manner of the extant marbles would
be most muted and his rivalry with Praxiteles would be most intense. Together,
Pliny
N.H. 36.25-6 and the copies of the Pothos might confirm this if only we could
be sure that his work in this most Praxitelean of subjects was typical. His major
concerns -- and with them, his relationship to the great Athenian -- still remain
tantalizingly beyond our grasp.
This extract is from: Andrew Stewart, One Hundred Greek Sculptors: Their Careers and Extant Works. Cited July 2003 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains extracts from the ancient literature, bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
Scopas (Skopas). A distinguished sculptor, a native of Paros, who appears to have belonged to a family of artists in that island. He flourished from B.C. 395 to 350. He was probably somewhat older than Praxiteles, with whom he stands at the head of that second period of perfected art which is called the Later Attic School (in contradistinction to the Earlier Attic School of Phidias), and which arose at Athens after the Peloponnesian War. Scopas was an architect and a statuary as well as a sculptor. He was the architect of the Temple of Athene Alea at Tegea, in Arcadia, which was commenced soon after B.C. 394. He was one of the artists employed in executing the bas-reliefs that decorated the frieze of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus in Caria. A portion of these bas-reliefs are now deposited in the British Museum. Among the single statues and groups of Scopas, the best known in modern times is his group of figures representing the destruction of the sons and daughters of Niobe. In Pliny's time the statues stood in the Temple of Apollo Sosianus. The remaining statues of this group, or copies of them, are all in the Florence Gallery, with the exception of the so-called Ilioneus at Munich, which some suppose to have belonged to the group. There is a head of Niobe in the collection of Lord Yarborough, which has some claim to be considered as the original. But the most esteemed of all the works of Scopas, in antiquity, was his group which stood in the shrine of Cn. Domitius in the Flaminian Circus, representing Achilles conducted to the island of Leuce by the divinities of the sea. It consisted of figures of Poseidon, Thetis, and Achilles, surrounded by Nereids, and attended by Tritons, and by an assemblage of sea monsters.
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
No absolute dates are available for Agorakritos, but his career evidently
coincided roughly with Alkamenes'. Furthermore, only three works of his are recorded
in the sources, as follows:
1. Nemesis at Rhamnous in Attica, of Parian marble
2. Mother of the Gods, in the Metroon at Athens, of marble
3. Athena Itonia and Zeus/Hades at Koroneia in Boiotia, of bronze
Of these, the first two were regularly attributed to Pheidias. Pliny
attempts to explain why:
"Another of [Phidias'] pupils was Agoracritus of Paros, who pleased him also
because of his youth and beauty, so that Phidias is said to have allowed him to
put his name to several of his, the master's, own works. In any case, the two
pupils [Alcamenes and Agoracritus] competed with each other in making a Venus,
and Alcamenes won the contest not through superior skill but through the votes
of the citizenry, who favored one of their own against a foreigner. So Agoracritus
is said to have sold his statue on condition that it should not remain in Athens,
and that it should be named "Nemesis". It was set up at Rhamnus, a deme of Attica,
and Marcus Varro preferred it above all other statues"(Pliny, N.H.
36.16-17).
This passage is richer and more revealing of the strengths and weaknesses
of Greek and Roman connoisseurship than first appears, though only with Despinis's
recent rediscovery of the statue's fragments (Despinis1971) has its
full significance become clear. To help demonstrate this, two second-century A.D.
accounts of the piece (much renowned in antiquity) must be quoted first:
"About 60 stades from Marathon as you go along the coast-road
to Oropos is Rhamnous. The inhabitants live by the sea, but a little way inland
is the sanctuary of Nemesis, the most implacable of the gods towards hybristai
. It seems that the wrath of this goddess descended upon the barbarians who landed
at Marathon [490]; for thinking in their pride that no obstacle stood in the way
of their taking Athens, they brought a piece of Parian marble to make a trophy,
as if their task were already finished. It was this stone that Pheidias made into
a statue of Nemesis; on her head she wears a crown with deer and some small images
of Nike; in her left hand she holds an apple branch, and in her right an offering
dish, embellished with Ethiopians. [Pausanias now expresses puzzlement over their
presence, noting that they dwell "near Ocean" at the ends of the earth, and remarks
upon Ethiopian geography.] I must now resume. Neither this nor any of the old
statues of Nemesis have wings, not even the holiest xoana of the Smyrnaeans, but
later artists, maintaining that the goddess is wont to appear most of all after
a love-affair, gave wings to Nemesis as they do to Eros. Now I will describe the
scene on the base of the image, having made this preface for clarity's sake. The
Greeks say that Nemesis was the mother of Helen, but that Leda suckled and nursed
her; as to Helen's father, the Greeks like everyone else think it was Zeus, not
Tyndareus. Having heard this legend Pheidias represented Helen being led to Nemesis
by Leda, Tyndareus and his children, and a man called Hippeus standing by with
a horse. There are Agamemnon, Menelaos, and Pyrrhos the son of Achilles and first
husband of Helen's daughter Hermione. Orestes was omitted because of his crimes
against his mother, yet Hermione stood by him through it all and even bore him
a child. Next on the base is a man called Epochos and another youth; all I heard
about them was that they were the brothers of Oinoe, from whom the name of the
deme comes" (Pausanias 1.33).
"The Nemesis at Rhamnous. In Rhamnous there stands an image of Nemesis, ten
cubits [15 feet] in height, stone throughout, the work of Pheidias; she holds
an apple branch in her hand. Antigonos of Karystos claims that a little tablet
hangs from this, and is inscribed as follows: "Agorakritos of Paros made [me]."
Yet this is no wonder, for many others have inscribed someone else's name upon
their own work. It is likely that Pheidias conceded this to Agorakritos because
he was his lover, and was generally much excited over boys" (Zenobios
5.82).
Antigonos' careful epigraphical researches, accepted by Varro and
then Pliny must have been undertaken to counter the very tendency to give works
by Pheidias' pupils to the master himself that surfaces in Pausanias and a host
of other writers. The fact that even the normally acute Pausanias made this mistake
only reinforces one's suspicion about such attributions in genera.
The feeble rebuttal of Antigonos' conclusions may derive from the
antiquary Polemon of Ilion, who wrote a six-book polemic against him around 130
B.C. The story that Pheidias was Agorakritos' lover was either invented by Polemon
or (perhaps more likely) was already current, and he simply recognized its utility
as ammunition for his feud. Typically, Varro's synthesis of the two authors was
evidently accepted wholesale by the uncritical Pliny, who cites neither Antigonos
nor Polemon in his source-list for book 36 (N.H. 1.36) but
(in N.H. 36.16-17) repeats the gist of the rebuttal in his first sentence.
What then of the contest and the claim that the Nemesis was originally
an Aphrodite? To begin with the later point, Wilamowitz-Moellendorf 1881, was
the first to realize that this story was coined to explain the fact that Agorakritos'
statue differed from the winged type in use by the Hellenistic period (with an
even wilder account of the statue's origins); indeed, not only did the sculptor
employ the same generic schema used for Aphrodite, Kore, and other goddesses in
the fifth century, but Nemesis' apple branch was also an attribute of Aphrodite.
Antigonos, an iconographical specialist too thereby becomes this anecdote's probable
source as well.
As for the contest, though any such event would have involved maquettes
(paradeigmata), not finished statues, Paionios' inscription on his Nike (Nike
of Paionios; Olympia Museum) certifies that sculptors' competitions were held
in the fifth century. This leaves two possibilities: either that the contest is
basically historical, and only its association with the supposed "Venus"/Nemesis
was Antigonos' doing, or that he actually invented the entire affair, perhaps
working up a tradition of rivalry between the two star pupils, in order to explain
the statue's otherwise puzzling iconography. The first seems altogether more credible,
for while Antigonos was certainly apt to rationalize, outright fabrication seems
alien to his personality, at least as reconstructed by Wilamowitz and others.
Also accepting the story's basic historicity, Schlorb 1964, 14-15
further suggests that it reflects a supposed political (as well as stylistic)
polarization among Pheidias' followers, whereby Alkamenes aligned himself with
Athenian "conservatives" and Agorakritos with "radicals". Yet as argued concerning
Alkamenes this not only oversimplifies the politics but also finds no clear support
in the testimonia; indeed Pliny explicitly attributes Agorakritos' defeat to chauvinism,
not to politics.
As to the Nemesis herself (Copenhagen, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek 304a;
Stewart 1990, figs. 403-07), the base is not yet fully reconstructed (relief with
figures excerpted from the base of the Nemesis: Stockholm, Nationalmuseum Sk 150),
and new fragments are appearing occasionally in the excavations: fragment from
right side of the chiton overfold of the Nemesis (Athens, NM), corresponding area
of another reduced copy of the Nemesis (Athens, NM 3949). Preliminary reports
(B. Petrakos 1981, V. Petrakos 1986) suggest that at the least, Pausanias' account
is incomplete; see Shapiro-Lapatin 1992 for a thorough discussion and convincing
reinterpretation of the iconography. Despinis 1971 dates the statue to ca. 430,
the base ten years later, though the rather small discrepancies between them may
reflect differences in quality rather than chronology. The drapery style is certainly
novel, but Pausanias' acceptance of Pheidias as author should be a further caution
against labeling Agorakritos a "radical", rebelling against Pheidian and Alkamenean
"orthodoxy". . .
This extract is from: Andrew Stewart, One Hundred Greek Sculptors: Their Careers and Extant Works. Cited Mar 2003 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains extracts from the ancient literature, bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
Agoracritus (Agorakritos), a famous statuary and sculptor, born in the island of Paros, who flourished from about Ol. 85 to Ol. 88 (Plin. H. N. xxxvi. 5. s. 4). He was the favourite pupil of Phidias (Paus. ix. 34.1), who is even said by Pliny to have inscribed some of his own works with the name of his disciple. Only four of his productions are mentioned, viz. a statue of Zeus and one of the Itonian Athene in the temple of that goddess at Athens; a statue, probably of Cybele, in the temple of the Great Goddess at Athens (Plin. l. c.); and the Rhamnusian Nemesis. Respecting this last work there has been a great deal of discussion. The account which Pliny gives of it is, that Agoracritus contended with Alcamenes (another distinguished disciple of Phidias) in making a statue of Venus ; and that the Athenians, through an undue partiality towards their countryman, awarded the victory to Alcamenes. Agoracritus, indignant at his defeat, made some slight alterations so as to change his Venus into a Nemesis, and sold it to the people of Rhammus, on condition that it should not be set up in Athens. Pausanias (i. 33.2), without saying a word about Agoracritus, says that the Rhamnusian Nemesis was the work of Phidias, and was made out of the block of Parian marble which the Persians under Datis and Artaphernes brought with then for the purpose of setting up a trophy. This account however has been rejected as involving a confusion of the ideas connected by the Greeks with the goddess Nemesis. The statue moreover was not of Parian, but of Pentelic marble. Strabo (ix.), Tzetzes (Chiliad. vii. 154), Suidas and Photius give other variations in speaking of this statue. It seems generally agreed that Pliny's account of the matter is right in the main; and there have been various dissertations on the way in which a statue of Venus could have been changed into one of Nemesis.
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
The sculptors of the temple of Asklepios at Epidauros:
. . .Thrasymedes took up the contract for the ceiling, the cella door, and the gates between the columns, for 9,800 drs.; his guarantors were Pythokles, Theopheides, and Hagemon. . .
Thrasymedes son of Arignotos of Paros is slightly better documented, for he made the temple's chryselephantine cult statue (elsewhere inevitably attributed to Pheidias):
" The image of Asklepios is half the size of that of the Olympian Zeus at
Athens, and is made of ivory and gold. An inscription says that it was made by
Thrasymedes son of Arignotos of Paros. The god is seated on a throne and holds
a staff in one hand; his other hand is above the head of the serpent, and a dog
lies by his side. On the throne are wrought the exploits of Argive heroes: Bellerophon
against the Chimaira, and Perseus carrying off the head of Medusa" (Pausanias
2.27.2).
A new fragment of an inscription hitherto identified as the accounts for this
statue now shows that it actually refers to the incubation-building or enkoimaterion
of the sanctuary: Here Thrasymedes appears only as a hardware-supplier, but elsewhere
he emerges as an extremely versatile carpenter and metalworker, able to turn his
hand to a ceiling, a grille, a bronze statue or a chryselephantine one, as required.
Krause 1972 has identified a replica of this cult image in Copenhagen from representations
on Epidaurian coins.
This extract is from: Andrew Stewart, One Hundred Greek Sculptors: Their Careers and Extant Works. Cited Mar 2003 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains extracts from the ancient literature, bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
Colotes A sculptor from the island of Paros, who assisted Phidias in executing the colossus of Zeus at Olympia, and left several beautiful works, principally in gold and ivory, in Elis, where he seems to have lived in banishment. He appears to belong to Ol. 84, &c. (B. C. 444), and is praised for his statues of philosophers. (Strab. viii.; Plin. H. N. xxxiv. 19, xxxv. 34; Paus. v. 20.1; Eustath. ad Il. ii. 603)
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