A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

CHERA.
rieo, and his daughter Endeis was the mother of
Peleus. (Apollod. iii. 12. ~ 6.) Cheiron is the
noblest specimen of a combination of the human
and animal forms in the ancient works of art; for
while the centaurs generally express the sensual
and savage features of a man combined with the
strength and swiftness of a horse, Cheiron, who
possesses the latter likewise, combines with it a
mild wisdom. He was represented on the Amyclaean throne of Apollo, and on the chest of Cypselus. (Paus. iii. 18. ~ 7, v. 19. ~ 2.) Some representations of him are still extant, in which young
Achilles or Erotes are riding on his back. (iMus.
Pio-Clement. i. 52; B3ttiger, Vasengemlilde, iii.
p. 144, &c.) [L. S.]
CHE'LIDON, the mistress of C. Verres, who
is said by Cicero to have given all his decisions
during his city praetorship (B. c. 74) in accordance
with her wishes. She died two years afterwards,
when Verres was propraetor in Sicily, leaving him
her heir. She is called by the Pseudo-Asconius a
plebeian female client of Verres. (Cic. Verr. i. 40,
52, v. 13, 15, ii. 47, iv. 32; Pseudo-Ascon. p. 193;
Schol. Vatic. p. 376, ed. Orelli.)
CHELIDONIS (XEXtovis), a Spartan woman
of great beauty and royal blood, daughter of Leotychides. She married Cleonymus, who was much
older than herself, and to whom she proved unfaithful in consequence of a passion for Acrotatus,
son of Areus I. It was partly on account of this
injury that Cleonymus, offended also by his exclusion from the throne, invited Pyrrhus to attempt
the conquest of Sparta in B. c. 272. Chelidonis,
alarmed for the result, was prepared to put an end
to her own life rather than fall into her husband's
hands; but Pyrrhus was beaten off from the city,
chiefly through the valour of Acrotatus. If we
may trust the account of Plutarch, the Spartans
generally of both sexes exhibited more sympathy
with the lovers than indignation at their guilt,-- a
proof of the corruption of manners, which Phylarchus (ap. Athen. iv. p. 142, b.) ascribes principally
to Acrotatus and his father. (Plut. Pyrrk. 26 -28.) [E. E.]
CHELO'NE (XFeA)t), the tortoise. When all
the gods, men, and animals were invited by Hermes
to attend the wedding of Zeus and Hera, the nymph
Chelone alone remained at home, to shew her disregard of the solemnity. But Hermes then descended from Olympus, threw Chelone's house,
which stood on the bank of a river, together with
the nymph, into the water, and changed her into
a tortoise, who had henceforth to carry her house
on her back. (Serv. ad Aen. i. 509.) [L. S.]
CHEOPS (Xeos), an early king of Egypt, godless and tyrannical, who, according to Herodotus
and Diodorus, reigned for fifty years, and built the
first and largest pyramid by the compulsory labour
of his subjects. Diodorus calls him Chembes or
Chemmis. His account agrees with that of Herodotus, except that he supposes seven generations to
have intervened between Remphis or Rhampsinitus
and Cheops. (Herod. ii. 124-127; Larcher, ad
loc.; Diod. i. 63.) [CEPHREN.] [E. E.]
CHEPHREN. [CEPHREN.]
CHERA (Xfipa), a surname of Hera, which was
believed to have been given her by Temenus, the
son of Pelasgus. He had brought up Hera, and
erected to her at Old Stymphalus three sanctuaries
under three different names. To Hera, as a maiden
previous to her marriage, he dedicated one in which

CHERSIPHRON. 693
she was called Trale; to her as the wife of Zeus, a
second in which she bore the name of rEAEsa; and
a third in which she was worshipped as the xipa,
the widow, alluding to her separation from Zeus.
(Paus. viii. 22. ~ 2.) [L. S.]
CHE'RSIPHRON (Xepo-Iqipt), or, as the name
is written in Vitruvius and one passage of Pliny,
CTESIPHON, an architect of Cnossus in Crete, in
conjunction with his son Metagenes, built or commenced building the great temple of Artemis at
Ephesus. The worship of Artemis was most probably established at Ephesus before the time of the
Ionian colonization [ARTEMIS, p. 376, a.]; and it
would seem, that there was already at that distant
period some temple to the goddess. (Paus. vii. 2. ~ 4.)
We are not told what had become of this temple,
when, about the beginning of the 6th century B. c.,
the Ionian Greeks undertook the erection of a new
temple, which was intended for the centre of their
national worship, like the temple of Hera at Samos,
which was built about the same time by the Dorian
colonies. The preparation of the foundations was
commenced about B. c. 600. To guard against
earthquakes, a marsh was chosen for the site of
the temple, and the ground was made firm by
layers of charcoal rammed down, over which were
laid fleeces of wool. This contrivance was suggested by Theodorus of Samos. [THEODORUS.]
The work proceeded very slowly. The erection of
the columns did not take place till about 40 years
later. (B. c. 560.) This date is fixed by the statement of Herodotus (i. 92), that most of the pillars
were presented by Croesus. This therefore is the
date of Chersiphron, since it is to him and to his
son Metagenes that the ancient writers attribute
the erection of the pillars and the architrave. Of
course the plan could not be extended after the
erection of the pillars; and therefore, when Strabo
(xiv. p. 640) says, that the temple was enlarged
by another architect, he probably refers to the
building of the courts round it. It was finally
completed by Demetrius and Paeonius of Ephesus,
about 220 years after the foundations were laid;
but it was shortly afterwards burnt down by
HEROSTRATUS on the same night in which Alexander the Great was born, B. c. 356. It was rebuilt with greater magnificence by the contributions of all the states of Asia Minor. It is said,
that Alexander the Great offered to pay the cost
of the restoration on the condition that his name
should be inscribed on the temple, but that the
Ephesians evaded the offer by replying, that it was
not right for a god to make offerings to gods. The
architect of the new temple was DEINOCRATES.
The edifice has now entirely disappeared, except
some remnants of its foundations. Though Pliny
(like others of the ancient writers) has evidently
confounded the two buildings, yet his description
is valuable, since the restored temple was probably
built on the same foundations and after the same
general plan as the old one. We have also descriptions of it by Vitruvius, who took his statements from a work on the temple, which was said
to have been written by the architects themselves,
Chersiphron and Metagenes. (vii. Praef. ~ 12.)
There are also medals on which the elevation of
the chief portico is represented. The temple was
Octastyle, Dipteral, Diastyle, and Hypaethral.
It was raised on a basement of 10 steps. Its
dimensions were 425 X 220 feet. The columns
were 127 in number, 60 feet high, and made of