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

POLYCLEITUS. POLYCLEITUS. 4 57
Of his works in marble, the only ones which mentions a celebrated lamp, which he made for
are mentioned are his statue of Zeus Milichius at the king of Persia ( 0p. Atli. v. p. 205, e).
Argos (Paus. ii. 20. ~ 1), and those of Apollo, As an architect Polycleitus obtained great celeLeto, and Artemis, in the temple of Artemis Or- brity by the theatre, and the circular building
thisa, on the summit of Mt. Lycone in Argolis. (tholus), which he built in the sacred enclosure ot
(Paus. ii. 24. ~ 5.) Aesculapius at Epidaurus: the former Pausanias
But that which he probably designed to be the thought the best worth seeing of all the theatres,
greatest of all hisworks was his ivory and gold statue whether of the Greeks or the Romans. (Paus ii.
of Hera in her temple between Argos and Mycenae. 27. ~~ 2, 5.)
This work was executed by the artist in his old 2. Of the younger Polycleitus of Argos very
age (see above), and was doubtless intended by little is known, doubtless because his fame was
him to rival Pheidias's chryselephantine statues of eclipsed by that of his more celebrated namesake,
Athena and of Zeus, which, in the judgment of and, in part, contemporary. The chief testimony
Strabo (viii. p. 372), it equalled in beauty, though respecting him is a passage of Pausanias, who says
it was surpassed by them in costliness and size. that the statue of Agenor of Thebes, an Olympic
According to the description of Pausanias (ii. 17. victor in the boys' wrestling, was made by " Poly~ 4), the goddess was seated on a throne, her cleitus of Argos, not the one who made the statue
head crowned with a garland, on which were of Heera, but the pupil of Naucydes" (Paus. vi. 6. ~
worked the Graces and the Hours, the one hand 1. s. 2). Now Naucydes flonrished between B. C.
holding the symbolical pomegranate, and the other 420 and 400; so that Polycleittls must be placed
a, sceptre, surmounted by a cuckoo, a bird sacred about B. C. 400. With this agrees the statement
to Hera, on account of her having been once of Pausanias, that Polycleitus made the bronze
changed into that form by Zeus. From an epi- tripod and statue of Aphrodite, at Amyclae, which
gram by Parmenion (Brunck, Anal. vol. ii. p.202, the Lacedaemonians dedicated out of the spoils of
No. 5) it would seem that the figure of the god- the victory of Aegospotami (Panus. iii. 18. ~ 5. s.
dess was robed from the waist downwards. Maxi- 8); for the age of the elder Polycleitus cannot be
mus Tyrius, who compares the statue with the brought down so low as this. Mention has been
Athena of Pheidias, describes the Hera of Poly- made above of the statue of Zeus Philius, at Megacleitus as the white-armed goddess of Homer, lopolis, among the works of the elder Polycleitus.
having ivory arms, beautiful eyes, a splendid robe, a Some, however, refer it to the younger, and take it
queenlike figure, seated on a golden throne. (Dis- as a proof that he was still alive after the building
sert. xiv. 6, vol. i. p. 260, Reiske.) In this de- of Megalopolis, in B. c. 370; but this argument is
scription we clearly see the Homeric ideal of Hera, in no way decisive, for it is natural to suppose that
the white-armed, large-eyed (AeeUKoAeVos, tschrts), many of the statues which adorned Megalopolis
which Polycleitus took for the model of his Hera, were carried thither by the first settlers. To this
just as Pheidias followed the Homeric ideal of artist also we should probably refer the passage of
Zeus in his statue at Olympia. The character ex- Pausanias (ii. 22. ~ 8), in which mention is made
pressed by the epithet 83ocmrLs must have been that of a bronze statue of Hecate by him at Argos, and
of the whole countenance, an expression of open from which we learn too that Polycleitus was the
and imposing majesty; and accordingly, in a most brother of his instructor Naucydes. [NAUCYDES.]
laudatory epigram on the statue, Martial says (x. He also was probably the maker of the mutilated
89): statue of Alcibiades, mentioned by Dio Chrysostom
(Orat. 37, vol. ii. p. 122, Reiske). It would seem
" Ore nitet tanto, quanto superasset in Ida firom the passage of Pausanias first quoted (vi. 6.
Judice convictas non dubitante deas." ~ 1), that the younger Polycleitus was famous for
his statues of Olympic victors; and, therefore, it
This statue remained always the ideal model of is exceedingly probable that some, if not all, of the
Hera, as Pheidias's of the Olympian Zeus. Thus statues of this class, mentioned above under the
Herodes Atticus, when he set up at Caesareia the name of the elder Polycleitus, ought to be referred
statues of Augustus and Rome, had them made to him. Whatever else was once known of him is
on the model of these two statues respectively. now hopelessly merged in the statements respecting
(Joseph. Ant..ud. xv. 13.) Praxiteles, however, the elder artist.
ventured to make some minor alterations in Polv- Thiersch makes still a third (according to him,
cleitus's type of Hera. [PRAXITELES.] There is a fourth) statuary or sculptor of this name, Polyan excellent essay on this statue, with an explana- cleitus of Thasos, on the authority of an epigram of
tion of the allegorical signification of its parts, Geminus (Anth. Plan. iii. 30; Brunck, Anal. vol.
by Bnittiger. (Andeutungen, pp. 122-128; comp. ii. p. 279):Muller, Archiol. d. Kunst, ~ 352.) XeLp Me noAVKXEcrovu Oaelov Kdiasv, eiJIl 3' eKWEVos
It is impossible to determine which of all the 2aA1wYESs,9povra7s O's Aids aVTre/da27p, K.T.A.
existing figures and busts of Hera or Juno, and.of Roman empresses in the character of Juno, may where Grotius proposed to read IlohAv'yv'7ov for
be considered as copies of the Hera of Polycleitus; IlXvKeitv'ou, an emendation which is almost cerbut in all probability we have the type on a coin tainly correct, notwithstanding Heyne's objection,
of Argos, which is engraved in MUller's Denkmiler that the phrase Xelp KadEl' is more appropriate to a
(vol. i, pl. 30. fig. 132; comp. Battiger, 1.c. p. sculpture than a painting. There is no othermen127). tion of a Thasian Polycleitus; but it is well known
In the department of toreutic, the fame of Poly- that Polygnotus was a Thasian. The error is just
cleitus no doubt rested chiefly on the golden orna- one of a class often met with, and of which we
ments of his statue of Hera; but he also made small have a precisely parallel example in another epibronzes (sigilla), and drinking-vessels (phialue) gram, which ascribes to Polvcleitus a painting of
(Martial. viii. 51; Juvenal. viii. 102). Moschion Polyxena (A:ath. Plan. iv. 1i50; Brunck, Anal,