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

518 PRAX ILLA. PRAX I PH AN ES.
when the temples of Athenaat Athens, and of Zeus species. (Ath. xv. p. 694, a.) She was believed
at Olympia, were being adorned by Pheidias and by some to be the author of the scolion preserved
his disciples. (Comp. PHEInIAS, p. 248, b.; POLY- by Athenaeus (p. 695, c.), and in the Greek AnGNOTUS, p. 467, b.; and Miiller, Phid. pp. 28, 29.) thology (Brunck, Anal. vol. i. p. 157), which was
The sculptures themselves are described by extremely popular at Athens (Paus. ap..Ezstath.
Pausanias (I. c.) very briefly as consisting of Arte- ad II. ii. 711; Aristoph. Vesp. 1231, et Schol.).
mis and Leto, and Apollo and the Muses, and also She also composed dithyrambs (Hephaest. 9, p. 22,
the setting sun and Dionysus and the women ed. Gaisf.)
called Thyiades. In all probability, the first col- This poetess appears to have been distinguished
lection of statues, those connected with the ge- for the variety of her metres. The line of one
nealogy of Apollo, occupied the front pediment, and of her dithyrambs, which Hephaestion quotes in
the other pediment was filled with the remaining the passage just referred to, is a dactylic hexasculptures, namely those connected with the kin- meter: it must not, however, be inferred that her
dred divinity Dionysus, the inventor of the lyre dithyrambs were written in heroic verse, but rather
and the patron of the dithyramb. As the temple that they were arranged in dactylic systems, in
was one of the largest in Greece, it is likely that which the hexameter occasionally appeared. Olle
there were, in each pediment, other figures subor- species of logaoedic dactylic verse was named after
dinate to those mentioned by Pausanias. (Welcker, her the Praxilleian (HIpa~SLX5tov), namely,
die Vorstellungen der Giebelfelder und Metopen an -
dean Temnpel zu Delphi, in the Rheinisches Museum.,
1842, pp. 1-28). as in the following fragment: —
2. A vase-painter, whose name appears on one..a 7C{'VPp8V Kaahv e, ~/ehrow'a,
of the Canino vases, on which the education of,rape,,
Achilles is represented. The name, as reported
by M. Orioli, the discoverer of the vase, is IIpaXias, which only differs from the Alcaic by having one
IPA+ IA$, a proper name, so totally unknown, as more dactyl. (Hephaest. 24, p. 43; Hermann,
to raise a strong suspicion that the name has either Elenm. Doct. Metr. p. 231.) Another verse named
been miswritten or misread, and that it ought to after her was the Ionic a Majore trimeter brachybe r.PA + SIA5. There is a similar diversity in catalectic. (Hephaest. 36, p. 63.)
the name of the vase-painter Exechias. (Raoul- The few fragments and references to her poems,
Rochette, Lettre a /l. Schorn, p. 57. Comp. pp. which we possess, lead to the supposition that the
44, 45, and De Witte, in the Revue de Philologie, subjects of them were chiefly taken from the erotic
1847, vol. ii. p. 422.) [P. S.] stories of the old mythology especially as connected
PRAXI'DAMAS (rIpatlba'uas). 1. A writer with the Dorians. In one of her poems, for example,
on poetry or music, probably the latter. Suidas is she celebrated Carneius as the son of Zeus and
the only author who expressly mentions him (s. v. Europa, as educated by Apollo and Leto, and as
4a/Ldev). Harpocration (s. v. MovaaZos) seems beloved by Apollo (Paus. iii. 13. ~ 3, s. 5; Schol.
to allude to memoirs of Praxidamas, written by ad Theocr. v. 83): in another she represented DioAristoxenus. He must, therefore, have lived be- nysus as the son of Aphrodite (Hesych. s. v.
tween the time of Democritus, B. C. 460, and that Ba'KXov AL''y71S): in one she sang the death of
of Aristoxenus, B. C. 320. (See Jonsius, de Script. Adonis (Zenob. Preyov. iv. 21), and in another the
Hist. Phil. i. 14. 8, &c.) rape of Chrysippus by Zeus. (Ath. xiii. p. 603, a.)
2. The first athlete who erected a statue of him- She belongs decidedly to the Dorian school of lyric
self at Olympia (01. 59, B. C. 544), to commemo- poetry, but there were also traces of Aeolic influence
rate his victory with the cestus. (Paus. vi. 18; in her rhythms, and even in her dialect. Tatian
Pindar. Neem. vi. 27, &c.) [W. M. G.] (adv. Graec. 52, p. 113, ed. Worth) mentions a
PRAXI'DICE (1IpaLtK77), i. e. the goddess statue of her, which was ascribed to Lysippus.
who carries out the objects of justice, or watches (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. pp. 136, 137; Muller,
that justice is done to men. When Menelaus Hist. of Greek Lit. vol. i. pp. 188, 189; Bode,
arrived in Laconia, on his return from Troy, he set Gesch. d. Hellen. Dichtkunst, vol. ii. pt. 2. p. 1]. n.
up a statue of Praxidice near Gytheium, not far 120, f.) [P. S.]
from the spot where Paris, in carrying off Helen, PRAXION (Irpatlwv), a Greek writer, on the
had founded a sanctuary of Aphrodite Migonitis history of Megara (Suidas, Harpocrat. and Phot.
(Paus. iii. 22. ~ 2). Near Haliartus, in Boeotia, s. v. Ktipov,; Schol. ad Aristoph. Eccles. 18.)
we meet with the worship of Praxidicae, in the PRAXI'PHANES (Ilpafdavcs{). 1. A Periplural (ix. 33. ~ 2), who were called daughters of patetic philosopher, was a native either of Mytilene
Ogyges, and their names are Alalcomenia, Thel- (Clem. Alex. i. p. 365, ed. Potter), or of Rhodes
xinoea, and Aulis (ix. 33. ~ 4; Suid. s. v.; Steph. (Strab. xiv. p. 655). He lived in the time of DeByz. s. v. TpepAi?7). Their images consisted metrius Poliorcetes and Ptolemy Lagi, and was a
merely of heads, and their sacrifices only of the pupil of Theophrastus, about B. C. 322 (Proclus,
heads of animals. With the Orphic poets Praxi- i. in Timaezuin; Tzetzes, ad fIesiod. Op. et Dies, 1.)
dice seems to be a surnanmie of Persephone. (Orph. He subsequently opened a school himself, in which
Argon. 31, 11ylzn. 28. 5; comp. Muller, Orchowz. Epicurus is said to have been one of his pupils (Diog.
p. 122, 2d edit.) [L. S.] Lahrt. x. 13). Praxiphanes paid especial attention
PRAXILLA (IlpadtXha), of Sicyon, a lyric to grammatical studies, and is hence named along
poetess, who flourished about 01. 82. 2, B. C. 450, with Aristotle as the founder and creator of tilhe
and was one of the nine poetesses who were dis- science of grammar (Clemens Alex. 1. c.; Bekker,
tinguished as the Lyric Muses (Suid. s. v.; Euseb. Anecdot. ii. p. 229, where npaepd,'vovs should be
Cthron. s. a.; Antip. Thess. Ep. 23; Brunck, Anal. read instead of'E7rtndovs). Of the writings of
vol. ii. p. 114, Anth. Pal. ix. 26.) Her scolia were Praxiphanes, which appear to have been numerous,
among the most celebrated compositions of that two are especially smentioned, a Dialogue Ilepl