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

STESICHORUS. STESICLES. 909
His own namle is said to have been at first Tisas, with Alcman, at the head of one branch of the
which was changed to Stesichorus, because he first lyric art, the choral poetry of the Dorians; for,
established a chorus for singing to the harp. (Suid. although he lived fifty years later than Alcman,
s. v.'EKcOn se 7'1O'(rLXdpOT, O't 7WrpT0os KLOap~ga4 yet the improvements made by the Himeraean poet
Xopby &TErfT'iev, E-rei rot 7rpdTepov Ttoaia icasKAero.) on the chorus were so distinct from, and so far in
The meaning of this statement will be examined pre- advance of, those, introduced by the Spartan, that
sently. Of the events of his life we have only a few he well deserves to share the honour, which some
obscure accounts. Like other great poets, his birth is indeed, as we have seen, ascribed to him exclufiabled to have been attended by an omen; a night- sively, of being the inventor of choral poetry. He
ingale sat upon the babe's lips, and sung a sweet was the first to break the monotony of the strophe
strain. (Christod. Ecphr. ap. Jacobs, Anth. Graec. and antistrophe by the introduction of the epode,
vol. i. p. 42; Plin.L N. x. 29.) He is said to and his metres were much more varied, and the
have been carefully educated at Catana, and after- structure of his strophes more elaborate, than those
wards to have enjoyed the friendship of Phalaris, of Alcman. His odes contained all the essential
the tyrant of Agrigentum. The latter statement elements of the perfect choral poetry of Pindar and
rests on no better authority than the spurious letters the tragedians. For an analysis of his metres, see
of Phalaris; but there is nothing to prevent its Kleine, sect. xi.
being true, since it is clear that Phalaris and Stesi- The subjects of his poems were chiefly heroic;
chorus were contemporaries. Many writers relate he transferred the subjects of the old epic poetry
the fable of his being miraculously struck with to the lyric form, dropping, of course, the contiblindness after writing an attack upon Helen, and nuous narrative, and dwelling on isolated advenrecovering his sight when he had composed a Pa- tures of his heroes. He also composed poems on
linodia. (Pans. iii. 19. 11, &c.; Kleine, Dissert. other subjects. His extant remains are classified
sect. vii.) The statement that he travelled in by Kleine under the following heads. 1. MythiGreece appears to be supported by some passages cal Poems, of which we have the following titles:
in the fragments of his poems, by the known usage "AOAa, r7pvuovs, Kipkepos, KvrKvos,,c6AAa, Zvoof the early Grecian poets, and by the confused Oijpat, Eip'reea,'IaXov re'ports, No-rToL,'Opesr-eLa.
tradition preserved by Suidas, that he came to 2. Hymns, Encomia, Epithalamia, Paeans: among
Catana as an exile from Pallantium in Arcadia. which were, IIaAts'3ioga eis'E4v'av, and'E7rtOaXaFor his connection with Catana, and his burial LtLov'EAe'vas. 3. Erotic Poems, and Scolia: titles,
there, we have several testimonies. Suidas says KaXi'Ka,'PaSlvd. 4. A pastoral poem, entitled
that he was buried by a gate of the city, which adqcis. 5. Fables:'17rros cal EiAapos, recwpybs
was called after him the Stesichoreian gate, and ical &eTrd, Els AdKcpovS 7rapaive-tis. 6..Elegies.
that a splendid octagonal monument was erected The dialect of Stesichorus was Dorian, with ail
over his tomb, having eight pillars and eight sets intermixture of the epic. His nomes were mostly
of steps and eight angles; whence, according to in the Dorian, but somletinmes also in the Phrygian
some was derived the name:r-noiXopos liptp01os,'mode.
applied to the throw " all eight" in gaming. (Suid. The fragments of Stesicliorus have been printed
s. v. 7rdvTa OKTCd; Pollux, ix. 7; Eustath. ad Hosm. with the editions of Pindar published in 1560,
pp. 1229, 1397.) 1566, 1567, 1586, 1598, 1620, and in the collecThere are extant two ancient epitaphs on Stesi- tions of the Greek poets published in 1568 and
chorus, the one in Greek, by Antipater (Jacobs, 1569, and recently in the collections of SchneideAntls. Graec. vol. i. p. 328), the other in Latin win and Bergk. They have also been edited by
(Ferrett. Mus. Lapidar. v. 36, p. 354). The peo- Suchfort, Guitting. 1771, 4to.; by Blomfield, in
ple of Thermae, the town which succeeded l-ilhera, the M.11useum Criticum, vol. ii. pp. 256-272, 340
had a bronze statue of the poet, which Cicero de- -358, 504, 607, and in Gaisford's Poetae Mlinores
scribes as statua senilis, incurva, curn libro, sumno Graeci; and by Fr. Kleine, Berol. 1828, 8vo. Tile
ut putant artificio facts ( Verr. ii. 35). This or last mentioned is by far the most useful edition of
another statue formed afterwards one of the trea- the fragments, and the authorities respecting the
sures of the gymnasium of Zeuxippus at Byzantium. life and writings of the poet are collected and dis(Christod. Ecphlr.. c.) There is also a bronze cussed in a dissertation prefixed to the fragments.
medal of Himera, bearing on the reverse a man (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. pp. 151-157; Miiller,
standing, holding a crown in his right hand and a Hist. of Lit. of Anc. Greece, pp. 197-203; Bernlyre in his left, which some suppose to have been hardy, Grundriss d. Griech. Litt. vol. ii. pp. 471struck in honour of Stesichorus. 477; Kleine, as above quoted.) [P. S.]
Among the ancient writers who celebrated his STESICLEIDES ( /rtlslcsvAs7s) an Athenian,
praises were Cicero (I. c.), Aristeides (Orat. vol. i. wrote a catalogue of the archons and victors in the
p. 152, ed. Steph.), Dionysius (de Comp. Verb. Olympic games. (Diog. Laert. ii. 56.)
vol. ii. p. 28, ed. Sylb.), Longinus (xiii. 3), Dio STE'SICLES (:'rtoTKAjS), an Athenian, was
Chrysostom (p. 559, d. ed. Morell.), and Synesius sent in B. c. 373 with a force of somle 6(10 tar(Insom. p. 158, b. ed. Paris. 1612), nearly all of geteers to aid the democratic party at Corcyra
whom compare him to Homer in character and against the Lacedaemonians under Mnasippus. A
style. Quintilian's testimony is, in general, to the more effective armament of 60 ships, with Timosame effect, but he blames the language of Stesi- theus for commander, was to follow as soon as it
chorus as diffuse (x. i. 62). Hermogenes, on the could be got ready. Meanwhile, Stesicles, with
contrary, says that his numerous epithets add sweet- the assistance of Alcetas I., king of Epeirus,
ness to his style (de Form. Orat. ii. p. 409, ed. effected an entrance into the town under cover of
Laurent.). For other testimonies see Kleine, inight. Here he reconciled the dissensions of the
sect. ix. democratic party, united them against the common
Stesichorus was one of the nine chiefs of lyric enemy, and conducted that series of successful
poetry recognized by the ancients He stands, operations, which ended in the defeat and death of