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

1332 ZOPYRUS. ZOROASTER.
the preceding, revolted from the Persians, and fled A physician of this name is also mentioned in
to Athens. (Herod. iii. 160.) an old Latin inscription in Gruter's Inscript. p. 635.
3. The Thracian, a slave of Pericles, was ap- ~ 7. (See Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. xiii. p. 455,
pointed by the latter the Paedagogus of Alcibiades. ed. vet.; Sprengel's Gcsch. der Arzneik. vol. i. ed.
(Plut. Alcib. i. p. 122.) 1846.) [W. A. G.]
4. The Physiognomist, attributed many vices to ZOPYRUS, is mentioned by Pliny as one of
Socrates in an assembly of his disciples, who laughed the eminent silver chasers who flourished in the
at him and at his art in consequence; but Socrates time of Pompey the Great. Two cups of his, readmitted the truth of his remarks, and said that such presenting the trial of Orestes by the Areopagus,
were his natural propensities, but that they had were valued at twelve thousand sesterces. (Plin.
been overcome by philosophy. (Cic. Tusc. iv. 37, de H. N. xxxiii. 12. s. 55: Zopyrus, qui Areopagitas
Fato, 5; Alex. Aphrodis. de Fato, c. 6, p. 48, ed. etjudicium Orestis in duobus scyphis [caelavit] H. S.
Orelli.) XII. aestinmatis.) [P. S.]
ZOPYRUS (Znrvpos), literary. 1. Of Ta- ZOROASTER or ZOROASTRES (Zwpodrentum, a Pythagorean philosopher. (Iambl. Vit. ers'pvs), the ZARATHUSTRA of the Zendavesta, and
Pptlh. extr.) the ZERDUSHT of the Persians, was the founder of
2. Of Clazomenae, a rhetorician, was a contem- the Magian religion. The most opposite opinions
porary of Timon. (Quintil. iii. 6. ~ 3; Diog. have been held both by ancient and modern writers
Laert. ix. 114.) respecting the time in which he lived. In the
3. Of Byzantium, an historian (Plut. Parall. Zendavesta itself, as well as in the writings of the
MA'in. c. 36), was probably the author of MlXirovu Parsees, Zoroaster is said to have lived in the reign
IKCiTIS, the fourth book of which is cited by the of Vita9pa (as he is called in the Zendavesta) or
Scholiast on Homer (II. x. 274). He is perhaps the Gushtasp (as the Persians name him), whom most
same person as the Zopyrus mentioned by Marcelli- modern writers identify with Dareius Hystaspis.
mlis (Vit. Thuc. ~ 32). Stobaeus quotes two verses According to this view the system of Zoroaster
from Zopyrus (Floril. lxiii. 8), and likewise makes was not promulgated till the time of the third Peran extract from a work entitled T/heseis, also by sian monarch, and he must therefore be looked
Zopyrus, but it is impossible to determine whether upon as the reformer and not the founder of the
this Zopyrus was the same as the Byzantine, or Magian religion, which was of much higher antiwhether Stobaeus quotes from the same or from quity. This opinion was maintained by Hyde and
two different persons. There are some other persons Prideaux, who also attempted to prove that Zoroof the name. (See Vossius, de Hist. Graec. p. 511, aster was a pupil of Daniel, and learnt from the
ed. Westermann.) prophet all those parts of his system which reZOPYRUS (ZMirvpos). 1. A surgeon at Alex- semble the tenets of the Sacred Writings. But
andria, the tutor of Apollonius Citiensis and although this opinion has been adopted by AnPosidonius (Apoll. Cit. ap. Dietz, Schol. in Hippoc-r. quetil du Perron, Kleuker, Malcolm, and many other
et Gal. vol. i. p. 2) about the beginning of the first modern writers, it will be found to possess no
century B.c. He invented an antidote, which he other evidence in its favour but the identification
recommended to Mithridates, king of Pontus, and of Gushtasp with Dareius Hystaspis; for the testiwrote a letter to that king, begging to be allowed mony of the later Greek and Roman writers, who
to test its efficacy on the person of a criminal place Zoroaster at this period, is of no value in
(Galen, De Antid. ii. 8, vol. xiv. p. 150). Another such an inquiry, and is counterbalanced by the
somewhat similar composition lie prepared for one statements of other classical writers who assign to
of the Ptolemies. (Cels. v. 23. ~ 2. p. 94.) Some him a much earlier date. Moreover, while this
of his medical formulae are quoted and mentioned supposition has such a slender amount of evidence in
by various ancient authors, viz. Caelius Aurelianus its favour, it is open to the most serious objections.
(De Morb. Chron. ii. 14, v. 10. pp. 425, 592), First, Zoroaster is universally represented as the
Oribasius (Coll. Medic. xiv. 45, 50, 52, 56, 58, 61, founder of the Magian religion both by the Ori64, pp. 478, 481, 482, 483, 485, 487), Aetius (ii. entals and the Greeks, and it is unnecessary to
4. 57, iii. 1. 31, iv. 2. 74, pp. 417, 476, 732), prove that this religion was of greater antiquity
Paulus Aegineta (vii. 11, p. 660), Marcellus Em- than the commencement of the Persian empire,
piricus (De Medicarn. c. 22, p. 342), and Nicolaus and that it had been previously the national reliMyrepsus (i. 291, p. 420): and Pliny (II. N. xxiv. gion of the Medes. The first Greek writer who
87), and Dioscorides (iii. 99. vol. i. p. 446) mention mentions Zoroaster is Plato, who says that the
that a certain plant was called zopyron, perhaps Persian youths were taught the lMa(geia of Zoroafter his name. Nicarchus satirizes in one of his aster, the son of Horomazes, which he interprets
epigrams (Anthol. Gr. xi. 124), a physician named to mean the worship of the gods (5 ev, payeiEaav
Zopyrus, who appears to have lived in Egypt, and 61ticrKe'it' ZWpoarJ'pov ro6'Qpo/aouv- -ot
who may possibly be the person mentioned by bei TroVo ECaY aepamreia, Plut. Alcib. i. p. 122, a).
Apollonius Citiensis and Celsus; in which case Secondly, if Zoroaster had been the reformer of the
Nicarchus must have lived earlier than is commonly Persian religion in the reign of Dareius Hvstaspis,
supposed. [NICARCHUS.] he would certainly have been mentioned by Hero2. An acquaintance of Scribonius Largus in the dotus. The silence of the historian is a conclusive
first century after Christ (Scrib. Larg. De Compos. argument to us against Zoroaster being a contemMedicam. c. 171, p. 222), a native either of porary of Dareius. Thirdly, the king Gushtasp,
Gordium in Phrygia (Gordiensis) or of Gortyna under whom Zoroaster lived, is said in the Zendain Crete (Gorlynensis), may perhaps have been the vesta to be the son of Auravatacpa, the Lohrasp of
same physician who is introduced by Plutarch as the modern Persians, while Hystaspes, the father
one of the speakers in his Symposiaca (iii. 6) and of Dareius, was never king, and was the son of
said to have belonged to the Epicurean school of Arskama or Arsames. It would therefore seem
philosophy. that the Gushtasp, the contemporary of Zoroaster,