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

468 POLYMELA. POLYPEMON.
One of his pieces was entitled "ATras, and in it 3. A daughter of Aeolus, was beloved by Odyshe represented Atlas as a Libyan shepherd, whom seus, but afterwards married her brother Diores.
Perseus turned into stone by showing him the (Parthen. Erot. 2.) [L. S.]
Gorgon's head; a remarkable example of the total POLYMESTOR or POLYMNESTOR. [Powant of ideal art, and of any poetical conception of LYDORUS.]
the early mythology, which characterised the dithy- POLYMNESTUS (hlloXv'YV(rTos), the father
rambic poets of that period. (Tzetzes, Schol. ad of Battus, the founder of Cyrene. [BATTUS, p.
Lycophr. 879, Exeg. Iliad. p. 132. 18; Etyin.Mag. 476, a.]
p. 104. 20; Meineke, Hist. Crit. Corn. Graec. POLYMNESTUS, or POLYMNASTUS
p. 239, n.) (IoAvllVa'Tos), the son of Meles of Colophon, was
There are also two remarkable references in the an epic, elegiac, and lyric poet, and a musician. He
Poetic (16, 17) of Aristotle to the Iphigenein of flourished not long after Thaletas, in honour of
Polyidus, where Aristotle is mentioning examples whom he made a poem at the request of the Sparof dvayvdoplso. But here it seems from the con- tans (Paus. i. 14. ~ 3), and earlier than Alcman,
text that a tragic poet is referred to; besides which who mentioned him (Plut. liaus. p. 1133, a). It
it is improbable, Miiller argues, that Aristotle seems, therefore, that he was in part contemporary
would speak of the celebrated dithyrambic poet, as with both these poets, and the period during which
le does in the first of these passages, by the name he flourished may be roughly stated at B. C. 675of IoAveoiov roU arooP(to'rov. On the other hand, 644. lie belongs to the school of Dorian music,
there is the critical canon, which forbids us to assume which flourished at this time at Sparta, where he
an unknown person of the same name as one well carried on the improvements of Thaletas. He culknown, if any other probable explanation can be tivated the orthian nomes, and invented a new
suggested. Perhaps, in this case, the best solution kind of auloedic nome, which was named after him,
of the difficulty is the conjecture of Welcker, that IleAoevtuGr-Lo, (Plut. de AlMus. pp. 11] 32-1135
Poli'dus was a sophist, who took a pride in Said. s. v.; Hesych. s. v. rIoAXvulSo'rtov 43ELv).
cultivating several different branches of art and The Attic comedians attacked his poems for their
literature, and who thus was at once a painter, a erotic character. (Aristoph. Equit. 1287; Cratidithyrambic poet, and a tragedian. There are three nus, ap. Schol. ibid.) As an elegiac poet, he may
iambic trimeter lines in Stobaeus (Serm. xciii.) be regarded as the predecessor of his fellow-counwhich appear at first sight to settle the point as to tryman, Mimnermus. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii.
there having been a tragic poet of this name; but p. 135; Bode, Gesch. d. Hellen. Dichtk. vol. ii. pt. l,
it is easily shown that these lines are a quotation, not passim; Ulrici, Geschl. d. Hell. Diclhtk. vol. ii. pp.
from a poet named Poly'idus,but from the Polyidus of 291, 292, et alib.; Clinton, F. H. vol. i. s. a. 665,
Euripides. (Miiller, Gesch. d. Griech. Litt. vol. ii. 657, 644, and p. 365.) [P. S.]
p. 287, or vol. ii. p. 59, Eng. trans.; Ulrici, Gescl. d. POLYMNESTUS, a statuary, whose name
Hell. DicOtk. vol. ii. pp. 610, fol.; Bode, Gesch. d. was first made known by the discovery of an inHell. Dichtk. vol. ii. pt. 2. p. 323, vol. iii. pt. 1, scription on a base in the Acropolis at Athens, in
p. 562; Schmidt, Diatrib. in Ditlhyramb. pp. 121 1840, by Ross, who has thus restored it, [II]OAT-124; Kayser, HIist. Chit. Tray. Graec. pp. 318 MNH~TOI KEN[XPAMJI] EIIOIH:AN. From
-322; Welcker, die Griechl. Trag. pp. 1043, the formr of the letters, Ross supposes the inscrip1044; Bartsch, de Cliaeremone, p. 14; Bernhardy, tion to be of abou- the time of Praxiteles or LysipGrundriss d. Gesch. d. Griech. Lit{. vol. ii. pp. 554, pus. The only reason for the restoration of the
555.) [P. S.] name of the second of these artists, is the mention
POLYI'DUS, artists. 1. Besides the painter in Pliny (H. N. xxxiv. 8. s. 19. ~ 27) of a statuary
and dithyrambic poet (see above), Vitruvius men- named Cenchramis, among those who made cometions the two following artists of this name, who dians and athletes. (Raoul-Rochette, Lettre a M'.
may, however, very possibly have been one and the Schorn, p. 390.) [P. S.]
same person, since military engineers were often also POLY'MNIA or POLYHY'MNIA (rIoxvyarchitects. via), a daughter of Zeus, and one of the nine
2. Of Thessaly, a military engineer, who made Muses. She presided over lyric poetry, and was
improvements in the covered battering-ram (testudo believed to have invented the lyre. (Hes. Tlteog.
arietaria) during Philip's siege of Byzantium, B. c. 78; Schol. ad Apollon. Rlhod. iii. 1.) By Oeagrus
340. His pupils were Diades and Chaereas, who she became the mother of Orpheus. (Schol. 1. c.
served in the campaigns of Alexander. (Vitruv. x. i. 23.) In works of art she was usually represented
19. s. 13. ~ 3, Schneider.) in a pensive attitude. (Hirt, JMythol. Bilderb.
3. An architect, who wrote on the proportions p. 209; comp. MvsAE.) [L. S.]
of the orders (praeeepta syminetriaerum, Vitruv. vii. POLYNEICES (IovXvvei'Kcs), the son of OePraef. ~ 14). [P. S.] dipus and Iocaste, and brother of Eteocles and
POLYME'DE (rIIo;xuv/J81), a daughter of Au- Antigone. (Hom. II. iv. 377; ADRASTUS.) [L. S.]
tolycus, was married to Aeson, and by him became POLYPHANTAS (rloAmhpavTas), a general in
the mother of Iason. (Apollod. i. 9. ~ 16; Tzetz. the service of Philip V. king of Macedonia,
ad Lye. 175.) Apollonius Rhodius (i. 233) calls during the war against the Romans and Aetolians.
her Alcimede. (Comp. IASON.) [L. S.] In B. C. 208 he was left together with Menippus
POLYME'LA (IoXvvu,7Nq). 1. A daughter in the Peloponnese to support the Achaeans with
of Peleus, and the wife of Menoetius, by whom a force of 2500 men; and the following year
she became the mother of Patroclus. (Apollod. iii. (B. c. 207) was sent with a small force to the
13. ~ 8.) In some traditions she is called Phi- assistance of the Boeotialns and Phocians. (Liv.
lomela. [PATROCLUS.] xxvii. 32, xxviii. 5; Polyb. x. 42.) [E. H. B.]
2. A daughter of Phylas, was married to Echecles, POLYPE'MON (loeArntmucoJ), the name of
hbut became by Hermes the mother of Eudorus. three mythical personages. (Hom. Od. xxiv. 305;
(Hom. II. xvi. 180, &c.) Apollod. iii. 16. ~ 2; Paus. i. 38. ~ 5). [L. S.]