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

SOSIPHANES. - SOSIS. 883
doing honour to the astronomer for his candour by Suidas; but, in the other three lists, the name
and caution, seems to follow Pliny. (Fabric. Bibl. of Aeantides appears instead of Sosiphanes. If the
Graec. vol. iv. p. 34; Weidler, Ilistor. Astron. latter really belonged to the Tragic Pleiad, he must
p. 151.) [A. De M.] have been the oldest of the seven poets in it.
SOSItNUS (1weivos), of Gortyna, in Crete, an Of the seventy-three plays of Sosiphanes, the
artist or artificer, whose name is known by his only remains are one title, MEXeaaypos, and a very
sepulchral monument, on which he is designated few lines from it and other plays. (Fabric. Bib!.
XaXtc0rTrn's, a term which has been explained in Graec. vol. ii. pp. 318, 322; Clinton, F. H. vol.
different ways. By comparing what little can be iii. s. aa. 278, 259, pp. 502, 504; Welcker, Grieclh.
gathered respecting the word itself with the bas- Tragyd. p. 1266; Wagner, Frag. Trag. Graec. in
relief on the monument, Bbckh and Raoul-Rochette Didot's Bibliotheca, p. 157.) [P. S.]
have come to the conclusion, that the word signifies SOSI'POLIS (UwahfroXls), i. e. the saviour of
a maker of bronze shields. The monument, which the state, was the name of a hero among the Eleans,
is in the Museum of the Louvre, has been engraved who was represented as a boy wearing a military
by Bouillon (Mus. des Antiq. vol. iii. Cippes, i. 3), cloak, and carrying the horn of Amalthea in his
and the inscription is published by Bickh (Corp. hand. He had a sanctuary in common with EileiInscr. No. 837). (R. Rochette, Lettre a Scheorn, thyia at the foot of the hill of Crones at Olympia,
pp. 405, 406, 2d ed.; comp. Welcker, Sylloge, No. and no one was allowed to approach his altar ex3, pp. 5-7.) [P. S.] cept the priestess, and even she only with her
SOS'PATER (:wUorrarpos). 1. An Athenian head covered. Oaths in which he was called upon
comic poet, of the New, and perhaps also of the were considered to be particularly solemn and
Middle Comedy. He is only mentioned by Athe- binding. The origin of his worship is thus renaeus (ix. p. 378, f.), who quotes a very long pas- lated:-Once when the Arcadians had invaded
sage from his KaraCev&otze'os, in which mention Elis and the Eleans had marched out to meet
is made of the cook Chariades, to whom the comic them, there appeared among the Eleans a woman
poet Euphron refers as being dead. (Ath. ix. p. with a boy at her breast and declaring that
379, c.) Hence it is inferred that Sosipater flou- after she had given birth to the child she had
rished shortly before Euphron. (Meineke, Fragm. been called upon by a vision in a dream, to offer
Com. Graec. vol. i. p. 477, vol. iv. pp. 482-485; the child as a champion to the Eleans. The comFabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. p. 495.) manders of the Eleans believing the assertion,
2. Three epigrams are found in the Greek An- placed the child naked before their ranks, and
thology under the name of Sosipater; but this is when the Arcadians began the attack, the child
merely through an error of Salmasius. The epi- was metamorphosed into a serpent. Hereupontllt
grams ought properly to be assigned to Dioscorides. Arcadians fled in dismay, and the Eleans pursuing
(Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. iv. p. 495; Brunck, them gained the victory. The Eleans hence
Anal. vol. i. p. 504; Jacobs, Anth. Graec. vol. i. p. called their saviour Sosipolis, and on the spot
255, vol. vii. pp. 371 406, vol. xii. p. 451, vol. where he had disappeared in the form of a snake
xiii. p. 955.) [P. S.] they built a- sanctuary to him and his supposed
SOSI'PATER and ZENON, of Soli, statuaries, mother Eileithyia. (Paus. vi. 20. ~ 2, iii. 25.
known by an inscription found at Lindos as having ~ 4.) [L. S.]
made one of the bronze statues of the iepnareoav'- SOSIPPUS (ciasr7aros), a supposed comic poet
~-Es of Athena Lindia and Zeus Polieus' There of the New Comedy, the only mention of whom is
is some doubt as to the meaning of the term lepa- in the following passage of Athenaeus (iv. p. 133,'reveoavres. Ross translates it priests, R. Rochette f.), Am'epXos a8 ): oWo'tr7ros iv'A7roXLroo7', where,
understands it as equivalent to the sacrificantes of since the name of Sosippus does not occur elsePliny (H.lN. xxxiv. 8. s. 19. ~ 34), and Welcker where, Meineke proposes to read Ilo-rei&r7ros,
translates it ex-priests. (Ross, Rhein. Mus. 1846- adding, however, "qulamquaan ejusmodi conjecturis
1847, vol. iv. p. 168; Welcker, Rltein. MuAs. 1848 nihil incertius." Sosippus is the title of a comedy
-1849, vol. vi. pp. 382, 385.) [P. S.] of Anaxandrides, which may perhaps account for
SOSI'PHANES (wtrpdcYr/s), one of the am- the mention of the name as that of a comic poet;
bassadors whom Antiochus Epiphanes sent to Rome such mistakes are frequent. (Meineke, Hist. Crit.
when he engaged in his war against Egypt for Corn. Gra-ec. pp. 373, 453.) [P. S.]
Coele-Syria. (Polyb. xxviii. 1, 18.) [P. S.] SOSIS (:Ulos). 1. A Syracusan, who joined
SOSI'PHANES (,foi(rpdvms), the son of Sosi- the expedition of the younger Cyrus with 300
cles, of Syracuse, a tragic poet, who, according to mercenaries. (Xen. Anab. i. 2. ~ 9).
Suidas, exhibited seventy-three dramas, and ob- 2. A Syracusan, who endeavoured to excite a
tained seven victories; was one of the seven trage- popular sedition against Dion during the period
dians who were called the Tragic Pleiad; was when the latter having made himself master of
born at the end of the reign of Philip, or, as others Syracuse was besieging Dionysius in the island
said, in that of Alexander; and died in the 121st citadel. Sosis had purposely wounded himself,
or 124th Olympiad (adopting Clinton's correction and pretended to have received these injuries from
pod and pOa, for pd. and pi3,); while others stated emissaries of Dion, but the fraud was discovered,
that he flourished at one or the other of those dates. and Sosis, in consequence, was put to death by
(Suid. s. v.) Clinton proposes to reduce these the indignant populace. (Plut. Dion. 34, 35).
statements into a consistent form in the following 3. A Syracusan, originally a man of ignoble
manner: Sosiphanes was born in the reign of birth, and a brazier by trade (Liv. xxvi. 30), was
Philip, or in that of Alexander, between B. c. 340 one of the conspirators who assassinated Hieronyand B. c. 330, and exhibited tragedy in the times mnns at Leontini, B. C. 215. [HIERONYMUs]. Afof the Pleiad, 01. 121 (B. c. 296) or 01. 124 (B. c. ter that event, Sosis and Theodotus (another of
284). He is placed among the poets of the Pleiad the conspirators) hastened immediately to Syracuse,
by a scholiast on Hephaestion (p. 115), as well as where they roused the people to arms, and made
3L 2