Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/929

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
loc cit.
loc cit.

CYNAEGEIRUS. the MSS. of the Anthology, KcuWiviou, KvWivlov, KvAATji'fou, KvW-qyiov UfTidvov. (Jacobs, Arith. (.'nuc vol. xiii. p. 878.) [P. S.] CYLON (KuAwf), an Athenian of noble family and commanding presence, won the prize for the double course (Si'auXos) at the Olympic games, in B. c. 640, and married the daughter of Theagenes, tyrant of Megara. Excited apparently and en- couraged by these advantages, and especially by his powerful alliance, he conceived the design of making himself tyrant of Athens, and having con- sulted the Delphic oracle on the subject, was tnjoined to seize the Acropolis at the principal festival of Zeus. Imagining that this must refer, not to the Athenian Aidaia (see Did. of Ant. p. 3'iS), but to the Olympic games, at which he had so distintjuishcd himself, he made the attempt during the celebration of the latter, and gained possession of the citadel with his partizans, who were very numerous. Here, however, they were closely besieged, the operations against them being conducted, according to Thucydides, by the nine arch on s ; according to Herodotus, by the I'rytanes of the Naucrari. (See Diet, of Ant. p. f)33; Arnold's Thucydides., vol. i. Append, iii. p. 664.) At length, pressed by famine, they were driven to take refuge at the altar of Athena, whence they were induced to withdraw by the archon Megacles, the Alcmaeonid, on a promise that their lives should be spared. But their enemies put them to death as soon as they had them in their power, some of them being murdered even at the altar of the Eumenides. Plutarch relates besides that the suppliants, by way of keeping themselves under the protection of Athena, fastened a line to her statue and held it as they passed from her shrine. When they had reached the temple of the Eumenides the line broke, and !Megacles and his colleagues seized on the accident as a proof that the goddess had rejected their supplication, and that they might therefore be massacred in full accordance with religion. Thucydides and the Scholiast on Aristophanes {Eq. 443) tell us, that Cylon himself escaped with his brother before the surrender of his adherents. According to Suidas, he was dragged from the altar of the Eumenides, where he had taken refuge, and was murdered. Herodotus also implies that he was slain with the rest. His party is said by Plutarch to have re- covered their strength after his death, and to have continued the struggle with the Alcmaeonidae up to the time of Solon. The date of Cylon's attempt is uncertain. Corsini gives, as a conjecture, B. c. 612; while Clinton, also conjecturally, assigns it to 620. (Herod, v. 71 ; Thucyd. i. 126 ; Suid. s.v. KvXwveLov fiyos ; Plut. Sol. 12 ; Paus. i. 28, 40, vii. 25.) [E. E.l CYNA. [Cynane.] CYNAEGEl'RUS (Kuj/atV^pos), son of Eu- phorion and brother of the poet Aeschylus, distin- guished himself by his valour at the battle of Marathon, b. c. 490. According to Herodotus, when the Persians had fled and were endeavour- ing to escape by eea, Cynaegeinis seized one of their ships to keep it back, but fell with his right hand cut off. The story lost nothing by transmis- sion. The next version related that Cynaegeirus, on the loss of his right hand, grasped the enemy's Tessel with his left ; and at length we arrive at the acme of the ludicrous in the account of Justin. Here the hero, having successively lost both his CYNOSURA. fill hands, hangs on by his teeth, and even in his mu- tilated stiite fights desperately with the last men- tioned weapons, " like a . rabid wild beast ! " (Herod, vi, 114; Suid. s.v. Kwaiyeipos ; Just. ii. 9 ; Val. Max. iii. 2. § 22 ; comp. Sueton. Ju/. 68.) [E. E.] CYNAETHUS. [Cinaethu».] CYNA'NE, CYNA, or CYNNA (Kwdi^, Kuva, Kuwa), was half-sister to Alexander the Great, and daughter of Philip by Audata, an Illyrian woman. Her father gave her in marriage to her cousin Amyntas, by whose death she was left a widow in B. c. 336. [Amyntas, No. 3. ) In the following year Alexander promised her hand, as a reward for his services, to Langarns, king of the Agrianians, but the intended bride- groom was carried off by sickness. Cynane con- tinued unmarried, and employed herself in the education of her daughter, Adea or Eurydice, whom she is said to have trained, after the manner of her own education, to martial exercises. When Arrhidaeus was chosen king, b. c. 323, Cynane determined to marry Eurj'dice to him, and crossed over to Asia accordingh'. Her influence was pro- bably great, and her project alanned Perdiccas and Antipater, the former of whom sent her brother Alcetas to meet her on her way and put her to death. Alcetas did so in defiance of the feelings of his troops, and Cynane met her doom with an undaunted spirit. In B.C. 317, Cassander, after defeating Olympias, buried Cynane with Eurj-^dice' and Arrhidaeus at Aegae, the royal burying- place. (Arr. Anab. i. 5, ap. Pliot. p. 70, ed. Bekk. ; Satyr. op. Athen. xiii- p. 557, c. ; Diod. xix. 52; Polyaen. viii. 60 ; Perizon. ad Ael. V. H. xiii. 36.) [E.E.] CYNISCA (Kwi'tWa), daughter of Archidamus II, king of Sparta, so named after her grandfather Zeuxidamus, who was also called Cyniscus. (Herod, vi. 71.) She was the first woman who kept horses for the games, and the first who gained an Olym- pian victory. (Paus. iii. 8. <S 1.) Pausanias men- tions an epigram by an unknown author in her honour, which is perhaps the same as the inscrip- tion he speaks of (vi. 1. § 2) in his account of her monument at Olympia. This was a group of sculpture representing Cynisca with a chariot, charioteer, and horses, — the work of Apellas. [Apellas.] There were also figures of her horses in brass in the temple of Olympian Zeus (Paus. v. 12. § 3), and at Sparta she had near the gym- nasium, called the Platanistas, an heroum. (iii. 15. U.) [A. H. C] CYNO. [Cyrus.] CYNOBELLI'NUS, one of the kings of Britain in the reign of Claudius, the capital of whose kingdom was Camalodunum. (Colchester or Mal- don.) He was the father of Caractacus, Togo- dumnus, and Adminius. (Dion Cass. Ix. 20, 21 ; Suet. Cal. 44 ; Oros. vii. 5.) CYNORTES or CYNORTAS {yivv6^i]s a son of Amyclas by Diomede, and brother of Hya- cinthus. After the death of his brother Argalus, he became king of Sparta and father of Oebalus or of Perieres. His tomb was shewn at Sparta not far from the Scias. (Paus. iii. 1. § 3, 13. § 1 ; Apollod. iii. 10. § 3; Schol. ad Eurip. Orest, 447.) [L. S.] CYNOSU'RA (Kwoo-oypo), an Idaean nymph and one of the nurses of Zeus, who placed her among the stars. (Hygin. Poet. Astr. ii. 2 ; Arat. Flaien. 35 ; Scrv. ad' Virg. Geovg. i. 246 ) [L.S.j