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

928

DAEDALUS.

eyes and of the feet, which had been formerly
closed (crui4rosa, acKE'AX (rvo-CefcqKoda, the figures
of Daedalus were called utafesicOdra), and the extending of the hands, which had been formerly
placed down close to the sides (KaOeueyat m Kal Tals
rhAEvpeaic KEKOhX\7eFijeat, Diod. 1. c.; Suid. s. v.
Auaia'Aovu roiuaera). In consequence of these
improvements, the ancient writers speak of the
statues of Daedalus as being distinguished by an
expression of life and even of divine inspiration.
(Paus. ii. 4. ~ 5; Plato, passim, and particularly
lMen. p. 97, ed. Steph.; Aristot. Polit. i. 4: the
last two passages seem to refer to automata, which
we know to have been called Daedalian images:
Aristotle mentions a wooden figure of Aphrodite,
which was moved by quicksilver within it, as a
work ascribed to Daedalus, de A nicm. i. 3. ~ 9:
see further, Junius, Catal. Art. p. 64.) The difficult passage in Plato (Hipp. Maj. iii. 281, d.) is
rightly explained by Thiersch, as being only comparative, and as meant not in disparagement of
Daedalus, but in praise of the artists of Plato's
time. The material in which the statues of Daedalus were made, was wood. The only exception
worth noticing is ir. the passage of Pausanias (ix.
40. 8 2),raod pTe&roVos f5 N[KvwaCoIoLs] Kcal o0 r-s
'Apideaays Xopos, ou Kal "Ocr-lpos Ev 'IAciat pce'apiv
VeroiraaTo, C edretpy/auoeEsvor ie r il Aec-KOd hAiov.
(Comp. vii. 4. ~ 5.) The passage of Homer is in
the description of the shield of Achilles (II. xviii.
590-593):
'Ev,y %opov rofictXAAe repIucAVTros 'Afeuyuvjses,
T& YiceAov olv lrol r ' ei KW c cK o E~pELly
AaiSaxos jrTc7eve cKaAreAoiccu co 'ApidpYsp.
Now thile mention of a group of dancers as a work
of Daedalus,-the material,, white stone,-the circumstance of the poet's representing Hephaestus
as copying the work of a mortal artist,-and the
absence of any other mention of Daedalus in Homer,-all this is, at the least, very suspicious. It
cannot be explained by taking yopbv to mean a
sort of dance which Daedalus invented (4oKcr-aser),
for we never hear of Daedalus in connexion with
dancing (Bottiger, Andeutungen, 46), and a sufficient
number of examples can be produced from Homer
of doaceiv meaning to make or emanmufacture. Usnless the passage be an interpolation, the best explanation is, that yoepv means simply a place fobr
dancing; and, further, it is not improbable that
aol8aXos may be nothing more than an epithet of
Hephaestus, who is the great artist in Homer, and
that the whole mythological fable in which Daedalus was personified had its origin in the misunderstanding of this very passage. At all events, the
group seen by Pausanias at Cnossus, if it really
was a group of sculpture, must have been the work
of an artist later than the Daedalian period,, or at
the very end of it.
From these statements of the ancient writers it
is not difficult to form some idea of the period inl
the history of art which the name of Daedalus represents. The name itself, like the others which
are associated with it, such as Eupalamus, implies
skill.
The earliest works of art, which were attributed
to the gods, were called ealahaa. Passing from
mythology to history, we find sculpture taking its
rise in idolatry; but the earliest idols were nothing
more than blocks of wood or stone, which were
worshipped under the name of some gods. (Paus.

DAEDALUS.
vii. 22. ~ 3.) The next effort was to express the
attributes of each particular divinity, which was
at first done only by forming an image of the head,
probably in order to denote purely intellectual attributes: hence the origin of terminal busts, and
the reason for their remaining in use long after the
art of sculpturing the whole figure had attained to
the highest perfection. But there were some deities for the expression of whose attributes the bust
was not sufficient, but the whole human figure
was required. In the earliest attempts to execute
such figures, wood would.naturally be selected as
the material, on account of the ease of working it.
They were ornamented with real drapery and
bright colours. It was to such works especially,
that the name SailaXha was applied, as we are informed by Pausanias (ix. 3. ~ 2), who adds, that
they were so called before Daedalus was born at
Athens. The accuracy and the expression of such
imnages was restricted not only by the limited skill
of the artist, but also, as we see so strikingly in
Egyptian sculpture, by the religious laws which
bound him to certain forms. The period represented by the name of Daedalus was that in which
such forms were first broken through, and the attempt was made to give a natural and lifelike expression to statues, accompanied, as such a development of any branch of art always is, by a great
improvement in the mechanics of art. The period
when this development of art took place, and the
degree of foreign influence implied in the fables
about Daedalus, are very difficult questions, and
cannot be discussed within the limits of this article. The ancient traditions certainly point to
Egypt as the source of Grecian art. (See especially
Diod. i. 97.) But, without hazarding an opinion
on this point, we may refer to the Egyptian and
Etruscan and earliest Greek antiquities, as giving
some vague idea of what is meant by the Daedalian style of sculpture. The remains called Cyclopean give a similar notion of the Daedalian architecture. The Daedalian style of art continued to
prevail and improve down to the beginning of the
fifth century B. c., and the artists of that long period were called Daedalids, and claimed an actual
descent from Daedalus, according to the well-known
custom by which art was hereditary in certain families. This genealogy was carried down as late
as the time of Socrates, who claimed to be a Daedalid. The most important of the Daedalids, besides his son Icarus, and his nephew Talus or
Perdix, were Scyllis and Dipoenus, whom some
made the sons of Daedalus (Paus. ii. 15. ~ 1),
Endoeus of Athens (Paus. i. 26. ~ 5), Learchus of
Rhegium (Paus. iii. 17. ~ 6), and Onatas of Aegina.
(Paus. v. 25. ~ 7.) All these, however, lived long
after the period in which Daedalus is placed.
Besides Icarus, Daedalus was said to have had a
son, Japyx, who founded lapygae. (Strab. vi. p.
279; Eustath. ad Dionys. Perieg. 379.)
A Srjjos of the Athenian KEv\C) KeKpo'rls bore
the name of AuiSaXitae. (Meurs. de Att. Pop. s. v.)
Feasts called AmcsaAeta were kept in different
parts of Greece.
2. Of Sicyon, a statuary in bronze, the son and
disciple of Patrocles, who is mentioned by Pliny
among the artists of the 95th Olympiad. Daedalus erected a trophy for the Eleians in the Altis
after a victory over the Lacedaemonians in the war
whichl lasted B. c. 401-399. Besides this trophy,
Daedalus made several statues of athletes, and