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

THEODORUS. THEODORUS. 1059
sician;but not receiving fromthe prince tle welcome there purposely taken at random. The blundering
he expected, he went on to Armenia, to the court account of Athenagoras (Legat.pro Cilrist. 14. p. 60,
of Constantine the father of King Hritem, and ed. Dechair), that Theodorus of Miletus, in conafterwards to one of the Latin emperors of Con- junction with Daedalus, invented the arts of statuary
stantinople. Here he was loaded with riches and and modelling (avpraaTroTortoKlV Kaj 7aTrXaO-TKICv)
honours; but after a time he was seized with a scarcely deserves to be mentioned, except that it
great desire to revisit his- friends and native coun- may perhaps be regarded as involving a tradition of
try, and requested permission to return home. This some value, because it indicates the coast of Asia
was refused, so Theodorus took an opportunity of Minor as one scene of the artistic activity of
leaving the city by stealth, while the emperor was Theodorus. We proceed therefore to the positive
absent, and set sail for Acre. He was, however, testimonies respecting these artists.
compelled by stress of weather to put into a port The most definitely chronological of these testiwhere the emperor then happened to be, which had monies are the passages in which Herodotus mensuch an effect upon Theodorus that he poisoned tions Theodorus as the maker of the silver crater
himself. (Abd-l-Faraj, Iiist. Dynast. p. 341; which Croesus sent to Delphi (i. 51), and of the
D'Herbelot, Bibl. Orient.) celebrated ring of Polycrates (iii. 41). Now we
Haller by some confusion makes two physicians learn from Herodotus that the silver crater was
out of this last Theodorus. (Bibl. Med. Pract. already at Delphi when the temple was burnt, in
vol. i. pp. 311, 406.) [W. A. G.] 01. 58. 1, B.c. 548; and Polycrates was put to
THEODO'RTTS (Oei3orpos), artists. This death in 01. 64. 3, B. c. 522. Again, with respect
name occurs in several passages of the ancient to his identity, for this, as well as his date, is a
authors, in such a manner as to give rise to great point to be ascertained; in both passages Herododifficulties. There existed, at an early period in tus makes Theodorus a Samian, and in the latter
the history of Grecian art, a school of Samian he calls him the son of Telecles; in both it is imartists, to whom various works and inventions are plied that he was an artist of high reputation; and,
ascribed in architecture, sculpture, and metal-work, in the former, Herodotus expressly states that he
and whose nanmes are Rloecus, Telecles, and T/leo- believed the tradition which ascribed the crater
dorus. The genealogical table of the succession of to Theodorus, because the work did not appear to
these artists, according to the views of Miller, given be of a common order (rvyrvxOdv). Pausanias
under RHOEcvs, may be referred to as a key to (viii. 14. ~ 5. s. 8) also mentions the ring of Polythe ensuing discussion of the ancient testimonies, crates as the work of Theodorus, whom he also
which is necessary in order to make the subject at calls a Samian and the son of Telecles, and to
all intelligible. whom, in conjunction with Rhoecus, the son of
First of all, a manifest error must be cleared Philaeus, he ascribes the first invention of the art
away. Thiersch (Epochen, p. 50), following Heyne of fusing bronze or copper, and casting statues
and Quatremdre de Quincy, places this family (LEiXeaV B' Xahxlbv,rpWTOIL al a'ydayAara eXwvev6of artists at the very beginning of the Olympiads, toavro). There appears here to be a difficulty as
that is, in the eighth century, B. C. The sole au- to the distinct specific meaning of the two verbs:
thority for this date is a passage of Pliny which, be- but the true meaning is, that Rhoecus and Theosides being quite vague, contains a decided mistake. dorus invented the art of casting figures, and at
(H. N. xxxv. 12. s, 43.) He says that " some the same time made improvements in the process of
relate that the first who invented the plastic art mixing copper and tin to form bronze; as we learn
(plasticen) were Rhoecus and Theodorus, in Samos, from another passage (x. 38. ~ 3. s. 6), in which
long before the Bacchiadae were expelled from Co- Pausanias states that he has already, in a former
r'inth," an event which is supposed to have occurred part of his work (that is, in the passage just cited)
about the 30th Olympiad, B. c. 660; and he then mentioned Rhoecus, the son of Philaeus, and Theo.
proceeds to relate how, when Demaratus fled from dorus, the son of Telecles, as those who invented
that city into Italy, he was accompanied by the the process of melting bronze more accurately, and
modellers (fictores) Eucheir and Eugrammus, and who first cast it (rdobssmPlv-as eapdra bv aK s b
so the art was brought into Italy. Now, in the XKPL9~E'0-epov -rleat' Kal EXcvEurraav o05To0 wpr-rOT).
whole of this passage, Pliny is speaking of plastice In still another passage (iii. 12. ~ 8. s. 10) he
in the literal sense of the word, modelling in clay, makes the statement respecting the fusing and
not in the secondary sense, which it often has in casting of metal, but in a slightly different form;
the Greek writers, of casting in metal; but it is namely, that Theodorus of Samos was the first
quite in accordance with his mode of using his who discovered the art of fusing iron, and of
authorities, that he should have understood the making statues of it (bys rptrrons LaXEal lanrnpoe,
statements of those writers who ascribed to Rhoe- edpe Kal Iay catara dir' aVTroD rxha'cat). Here
cus and Theodorus the invention of plastice in the nothing is said of Rhoecus, nor of Telecles; and it
latter sense, as if they had been meant in the is also worth while to observe that we have here
former. Having thus fallen into the mistake of an example of the use of wrxAdral in the sense which
making these artists the inventors of modelling, he we supposed above to have misled Pliny.
was compelled to place them considerably earlier There is another set of passages, in which various
than Eucheir and Eugrammus, by whom that art architectural works are attributed to those artists.
was said to have been brought into Italy. Even Herodotus (iii. 60), speaking of the temple of Hera
if this explanation be doubted, the statement of at Samos as the greatest known in his time, states
Pliny cannot be received, inasmuch as it is incon- that its architect was Rhoecus, the son of Phileas,
sistent with other and better testimonies, and is a native of the island; and Vitruvius (vii. Praef.
entirely unconfirmed; for the passage in which ~ 12), mentions Theodorus as the author of a work
Plato mentions Theodorus in common with Dae- on the same temple. Pliny (H. N. xxxvi. 13.
dalus (Ion, p. 533, a.) has no chronlological refer- s. 19. ~ 3), in describing the celebrated Lenlinan
ence at all, but the names of eminent artists are labyrinth, says that its architects were Smilis,
3Y 2