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

LYSIPPUS. LYSIPPUS. 871
LYSI'NUS is mentioned in the spurious letters that nature must be imitated, and not an artist
of Phalaris, as a poet who-wrote odes and tragedies (Plin. 1. c. ~' 6). It is not to be inferred, howagainst Phalaris. (See Bentley's Dissertation and ever, that he neglected the study of existing works
Answer to Boyle.) [P. S.] of art: on the contrary Cicero tells us (Brut. 86),
LYSIPPE (Avorlrw), the name of three my- that Lysippus used to call the Doryphorus of
thical personages, one a daughter of Thespius Polycleitus his master; and there can be no
(Apollod. ii. 7. ~ 8), the second a daughter of doubt that the school of Lysippus was connected
Proetus (Apollod. ii. 2. ~ 2; comp. PRORTUS), and with the Argive school of Polycleitus, as the school
the third the wife of Prolaus in Elis. (Paus. v. 2. of Scopas and Praxiteles was with the Attic school
~ 4.) [L. S.] of Phidias; there being in each case a succession
LYSIPPUS (AtMosriros), a Lacedaemonian, was of great principles, modified by a closer imitation of
left by Agis II. as harmost at Epitalium in Elis, the real, and by a preference for beauty above digwhen the king himself returned to Sparta from the nity. Perhaps the great distinction between LyEleian campaign, B. c. 400. During the summer sippus and his predecessors could not, in a few
and winter of that year Lysippus made continual words, be better expressed than by saying that lie
devastations on the Eleian territory. In the next rejected the last remains of the old conventional
year, B. C. 399, the Eleians sued for peace. (Xen. rules which the early artists followed, and which
Hell. iii. 2. ~~ 29, &c.; comp. Diod. xiv. 17; Wess. Phidias, without permitting himself to be enslaved
ad loc.; Pads. iii. 8, where he is called Lysistra- by them, had wisely continued to bear in mind, as
tus.) [E. E.] a check upon the liberty permitted by mere natural
LYSIPPUS (Aduar7ros), literary. 1. An Arca- models, and which even Polycleitus had not
dian, a comic poet of the old Comedy. His date is altogether disregarded (Varr. de Ling. Lat. ix.
fixed by the marble Didascalia, edited by Odericus, 18). In Lysippus's imitation of nature tile
at 01. lxxxvi. 2, B. c. 434, when he gained the first ideal appears almost to have vanished, or perhaps
prize with his KaraXiivaL; and this agrees with it should rather be said that he aimed to idealize
Athenaeus, who mentions him in conjunction with merely human beauty. He made statues of gods,
Callias (viii. p. 344, e.). Besides the KaTaX~ivat, it is true; but even in this field of art his favourite
we have the titles of his Ba'ICXa (Suid., Eudoc.), subject was the human hero Hercules; while his
which is often quoted, and his Ovpooo'Kors (Suid.). portraits seem to have been the chief foundation of
Vossius (de Poet. Graec. p. 227) has followed the his fame. He ventured even to depart from the
error of Eudocia, in making Lysippus a tragic proportions observed by the earlier artists, and to
poet. Besides his comedies he wrote some beau- alter the robust form (nJ e'pd-yzvoy, quadratas
tiful verses in praise of the Athenians, which are veteramn staturas) which his predecessors had used
quoted by Dicaearchus, p. 10. (Meineke, Frag. in order to give dignity to their statues, and which
Com. Graec. vol. i. p.215, vol. ii. p. 744; Fabric. Polycleitus had brought to perfection. Lysippus
Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. p. 310.) made the heads smaller, and the bodies more slender
2. Of Epeirus, wrote a icardAoyos dcdefCt, which and more compact (graciliora siccioraque), and thus.
is quoted by the scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, gave his statues an appearance of greater height.
iv. 1093. (Vossius, de Hist. Graec. p. 464, ed. He used to say that former artists made men as
Westermann; Ebert, Diss. Sicul. p. 107; Mounier, they were, but he as they appeared to be. His
de Diagora Melio, p. 41, Rotterd. 1838.) [P. S.] imitation of nature was carried out in the minutest
LYSIPPUS (Avd'rrros), artists. 1. Of Sicyon, details: " propriae hujus videntur esse argutiae
one of the most distinguished Greek statuaries, is operum, custoditae in minimus rebus," says Pliny,
placed by Pliny at 01. 114, as a contemporary of who also mentions the care which Lysippus beAlexander the Great (H. N. xxxiv. 8. s. 19). stowed upon the hair. Propertius (iii. 7. 9) speaks
We have no very clear intimation of how long he of his statues as seeming to have the breath of life
lived; but there is no doubt that the great period (animosa), and the same idea is expressed' by the
of his artistic activity was during the reign of grammarian Nicephorus Chumnus, in an interesting
Alexander; and perhaps Pliny has mentioned the but little known passage, in which he describes
114th Olympiad in particular, as being that in Lysippus and Apelles as making and painting'coras
which Alexander died., We learn from Pausanias e;Kovas ical 7rnvos tUOvls Kat Ki oivS6Eow dAroAesro(vi. 1. ~ 2) that he made the statue of the Olympic Ae'cvas. (Boissonade, Anecdot. vol. iii. p. 357.)
victor Troilus, who conquered in the 102nd Olym- The works of Lysippus are said to have amounted
piad; but there is abundant evidence that the to the enormous number of 1500; at least this is
statues of victors in the games were often made the story of Pliny, who tells us that Lysippus
long after the date of their victories. On the used to lay by a single piece of gold out of the
other hand, there is an inscription on a base found price received for each of his works, and that,
at Rome, AfevKos IlaoreA6s. Au'rslros &rolee. after his death, the number of these pieces was
Now Seleucus did not assume the title of King found to be 1500 (H. N. xxxiv. 7. s. 17). His
till OI. 117. 1. But this proves nothing; for the works were almost all, if not all, in bronze; in
addition of an inscription to a statue made long consequence of which none of them are extant.
before, was a most frequent occurrence, of which But from copies, from coins, and from the works of
we have many examples. his successors, we derive valuable materials for
Originally a simple workman in bronze (faber judging of his style. The following are the chief
aerarius), he rose to the eminence which he after- works of his which are mentioned by the ancient
wards obtained by the direct study of nature. It authors.:was to the painter Eupompus that he owed the First, those of a mythological character. 1. A
guiding principle of his art; for, having asked him colossal statue of Zeus, 60 feet high, at Tarentum,
which of the former masters he should follow, which is fully described by Pliny ([I. N. xxxiv. 7.
Eupompus replied by pointing to a crowd of men, s. 18; comp Strab. vi. p. 278; Lucil. ap. Non. s. v,
engaged in their various pursuits, and, told him Cubitus). 2. Zeus in the forum of Sicyon (Paus,
3K 4