Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/267

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loc cit.
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PHEIDIPPIDES. unanimous. It is superfluous to quote those tes- timonies, which will be found in the works already- referred to, and in the other standard writings upon ancient art, and which may be summed up in the declaration of Welcker, that "the British Museum possesses in the works of Pheidias a trea- sure with which nothing can be compared in the whole range of ancient art " {Class. Mus. vol. ii. p. 368) ; but it is of importance to refer to Cicero's recognition of the ideal character of tlie works of Pheidias {Orat. 2) : — " Haque et PMdiae simulaa-is, quibus nihil in illo genere perfectius videmus, et his picluris, quas nominavi, cogitare tamen possuinus pul- chriora. Nee vero ille arti/ex, quumfaceret Jovisfor- inatn, aut Minervae, contemplahatur aliquem, e quo similitudinem duceret ; sed ipsius in inente insidebat species pulchritudinis eximia quaedam., quam intitens in eaque dejixus., ad illius similitudinem uriem et ma- num dirigebat.' It was the universal judgment of antiquity that no improvement could be made on his models of divinities. (Quintih xii. 10. § 3.) It is sometimes mentioned, as aproof of Pheidias's perfect knowledge of his art, that in his colossal statues he purposely altered the right proportions, making the upper parts unnaturally large, in order to compensate for their diminution in perspective. This notion, however, which is derived from a pas- sage in Plato (Sophist, p. 235, f. ; comp. Tzetz. Chil. xi. 381), does not seem to be sufficiently well founded ; all that we know of the ancient colossal statues leads rather to the idea that the parts were all in due proportion, and that the breadth and boldness of the masses secured the proper impression on the eye of the spectator. As a proof of Pheidias 's knowledge of the anatomical department of his art, it is affirmed by Lucian that from the claw of a lion he calculated the size of the whole animal. {Hermotim. 54, vol. i. 795.) The chief modern authorities on the subject, in addition to the histories of art by Winckelmann, Meyer, Miiller, Hirt, Kugler, &c., are the follow- ing : — Miiller, de PMdiae Vita et Operibus Com- 7nentatio?ies ires, Gotting. 1827 ; David, in the Biographic Universelle ; Volkel, Ueber den grossen Tempel tend die Statue des Jupiter zu Olympia^ Leipz. 1794 ; Siebenkees, Ueber den Tempel und dicBild- s'dule des Jupiter zu Olpnpia, Niirnb. 1795 ; Qua- tremere de Quincy, Jupiter Oli/mpien, ^'c. ; Schorn, Ueber die Studien der Griechischen Kilnstler ; Preller, in Ersch and Gruber's Encyklop'ddie. 2. A son of the great Pheidias, made, with his brother Ammonius, the colossal statue of a sitting ape, of a sort of basalt, which is at Rome, in the Capitoline Museum. On the base is the inscription

  • IAIAC KAI AMMONIOC AM<JOTEPOI
  • IAIOT EnOIOTN.

(Winckelmann, Wei'ke, vol. v. pp. 275, foil. vol. vii. p. 248.) [P. S.] PHEIDI'PPIDES («l»6iSi7r7rtS7?$), a courier, was sent by the Athenians to Sparta in B. c. 490, to ask for aid against the Persians, and arrived there on the second day from his leaving Athens. The Spartans declared that they were willing to give the required help, but unable to do so immediateh% as religious scruples prevented their marching from home before the full moon (see Diet, of Ant. s.v. Carneia). On the return of Pheidippides to Athens, he related that, on his way to Sparta, he liud fallen in with Pan, on Mount Parthenium, near Tegea, and that the god had bid him ask the PHEIDON. 255 Athenians why they paid him no worship, though he had been hitherto their friend, and ever would be so. In consequence of this revelation, they de- dicated a temple to Pan, after the battle of Mara- thon, and honoured him thenceforth with annual sacrifices and a torch-race (Herod, v. 105, 106; Paus. i. 28, viii. 54 ; Corn. Nep. Milt. 4 ; Diet, of Ant. s. V. Lampadephoria). In Pausanias and Cor- nelius Nepos the form of the name is Philippides, Avhich we also find as a various reading in Hero- dotus. [E. E.] PHEIDIPPUS (^etStTTTTos), a son of Thessalus, the Heracleid, and brother of Antiphos, led the Avarriors of the Sporades in thirty ships against Troy. (Horn. Jl. ii. 678 ; Strab. x. p. 444.) [L. S.] PHEIDIPPUS, a vase-painter, whose name appears on a vase in the Canino collection. (R. Ro- chette, Lettre a M. Schorn., p. 65, 2nd ed.) [P. S.J PHEIDON (4>€t5coi'). 1. SonofAristodamidas, and king of Argos, was the tenth, according to Ephorus, but, according to Theopompus, the sixth in lineal descent from Temenus, Temenus himself being, reckoned as the fifth from Hercules. Having broken through the limits which had been placed on the authority of his predecessors, Pheidon changed the government of Argos to a despotism. He then restored her supremacy over Cleonae, Phlius, Sicyon, Epidauru?, Troczen, and Aegina, the cities of her confederacy, " which had before been so nearly dissolved as to leave all the mem- bers practically independent." And this, as Mr. Grote observes, is the meaning of what Ephorus tells us in mythical language, that Pheidon reco • vered " the whole lot of Temenus " (jilv Xij^iv qv,v r-qv Triixkvov), after it had been torn asunder into several parts. He appears next to have attacked Corinth, and to have succeeded in reducing it under his dominion. Not content however with this, and wishing to render his power there more secure, he sent to require of the Corinthians, for military service, 1000 of their most warlike citizens, in- tending to make away with them ; but Abron, one of Pheidon's friends, frustrated the design by revealing it to Dexander, who had been appointed to command the body of men in question. We hear further, that Pheidon, putting forward the title of his legendary descent, aimed at the exten- sion of his supremacy over all the cities which Hercules had ever taken, — a claim that reached to the greater part of the Peloponnesus. It seems to have been partly as the holder of such supremacy, and partly as the representative of Hercules by lineal descent, that the Pisans invited him, in the 8th Olympiad, to aid them in excluding the Eleiaus from their usurped presidency at the Olympic games, and to celebrate them jointly with them- selves. The invitation quite fell in with the am- bitious pretensions of Pheidon, who succeeded in dispossessing the Eleiaus ; but the latter, not long after, defeated him, with the aid of Sparta, and re- covered their privilege. Thus apparently fell the power of Pheidon ; but as to the details of the struggle we have no information. He did not fall, however, without leaving some very striking and permanent traces of his influence upon Greece. It may have been, as bishop Thirlwall suggests, in prosecution of his vast plans, that he furnished his brother Caranus with the means of founding a little kingdom, Avhich became the core of the Ma- cedonian monarchy. And a more undoubted and memorable act of his was his introduction of coppei