Aristoclides was a painter mentioned by Pliny the Elder [1] as one of those who deserved to be ranked next to the "masters" in their art. His age and country are unknown. [2] He painted the temple of Apollo at Delphi. [3] [4] It is said that he was famous before the public of Athens, and attracted many great artists to himself. [5] [6]
There was also another Aristoclides mentioned in the third Nemean Ode of the poet Pindar, and is ostensibly the friend of Pindar to whom the ode is addressed. While it is often written in English as "Aristoclides", this person's name is more commonly transliterated from the Greek as Aristocleidas. [7] [8]
There was still another Aristoclides, this one apparently a tyrant of ancient Greek Orchomenus, whose first known reference is in the treatise on marriage and virginity called Against Jovinianus , written by Church Father Saint Jerome. The tale told of Aristoclides is that he killed the father of the virgin Stymphalides, whom he desired, and afterwards pursued her into the temple of the goddess Diana. Stymphalides clung to the statue of Diana in the temple, refusing to give herself to Aristoclides, and Aristoclides stabbed her to death. [9] It is this Aristoclides who is described as "Aristoclides of Orchomenus" in The Franklin's Tale of The Canterbury Tales of Geoffrey Chaucer, referenced by one character as an example of how women ought to behave regarding the preservation of their virginity. [10] [11] [12]
This tale is possibly a mythical retelling of the tale of Aristocrates of Orchomenus, which is similar.
Aeacus was a mythological king of the island of Aegina in the Saronic Gulf. He was a son of Zeus and the nymph Aegina, and the father of the heroes Peleus and Telamon. According to legend, he was famous for his justice, and after he died he became one of the three judges in Hades alongside Minos and Rhadamanthos. In another story, he assisted Poseidon and Apollo in building the walls of Troy.
Bacchylides was a Greek lyric poet. Later Greeks included him in the canonical list of Nine Lyric Poets, which included his uncle Simonides. The elegance and polished style of his lyrics have been noted in Bacchylidean scholarship since at least Longinus. Some scholars have characterized these qualities as superficial charm. He has often been compared unfavourably with his contemporary, Pindar, as "a kind of Boccherini to Pindar's Haydn". However, the differences in their styles do not allow for easy comparison, and translator Robert Fagles has written that "to blame Bacchylides for not being Pindar is as childish a judgement as to condemn ... Marvell for missing the grandeur of Milton". His career coincided with the ascendency of dramatic styles of poetry, as embodied in the works of Aeschylus or Sophocles, and he is in fact considered one of the last poets of major significance within the more ancient tradition of purely lyric poetry. The most notable features of his lyrics are their clarity in expression and simplicity of thought, making them an ideal introduction to the study of Greek lyric poetry in general and to Pindar's verse in particular.
Alpheus or Alpheios, was in Greek mythology a river and river god.
Antaeus, known to the Berbers as Anti, was a figure in Berber and Greek mythology. He was famed for his defeat by Heracles as part of the Labours of Hercules.
In Greek mythology, Amphiaraus or Amphiaraos was the son of Oicles, a seer, and one of the leaders of the Seven against Thebes. Amphiaraus at first refused to go with Adrastus on this expedition against Thebes as he foresaw the death of everyone who joined the expedition. His wife, Eriphyle, eventually compelled him to go.
Pindar was an Ancient Greek lyric poet from Thebes. Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved. Quintilian wrote, "Of the nine lyric poets, Pindar is by far the greatest, in virtue of his inspired magnificence, the beauty of his thoughts and figures, the rich exuberance of his language and matter, and his rolling flood of eloquence, characteristics which, as Horace rightly held, make him inimitable." His poems can also, however, seem difficult and even peculiar. The Athenian comic playwright Eupolis once remarked that they "are already reduced to silence by the disinclination of the multitude for elegant learning". Some scholars in the modern age also found his poetry perplexing, at least until the 1896 discovery of some poems by his rival Bacchylides; comparisons of their work showed that many of Pindar's idiosyncrasies are typical of archaic genres rather than of only the poet himself. His poetry, while admired by critics, still challenges the casual reader and his work is largely unread among the general public.
In Greek mythology, Cinyras was a famous hero and king of Cyprus. Accounts vary significantly as to his genealogy and provide a variety of stories concerning him; in many sources he is associated with the cult of Aphrodite on Cyprus, and Adonis, a consort of Aphrodite, is mentioned as his son. Some scholars have proposed a connection with the minor Ugaritic deity Kinnaru, the god of the lyre. The city Cinyreia on Cyprus was believed to have taken its name from Cinyras. According to Strabo, he had previously ruled in the city of Byblos in Phoenicia.
In Greek mythology, Protesilaus was a hero in the Iliad who was venerated at cult sites in Thessaly and Thrace. Protesilaus was the son of Iphiclus, a "lord of many sheep"; as grandson of the eponymous Phylacos, he was the leader of the Phylaceans. Hyginus surmised that he was originally known as Iolaus—not to be confused with Iolaus, the nephew of Heracles—but was referred to as "Protesilaus" after being the first to leap ashore at Troy, and thus the first to die in the war.
In Greek mythology, Abderus or Abderos was a divine hero, reputed by some to be one of Heracles' lovers (eromenoi), and reputedly a son of Hermes by some accounts, and eponym of Abdera, Thrace.
In Greek mythology, the Hyperboreans were a mythical people who lived in the far northern part of the known world. Their name appears to derive from the Greek ὑπέρ Βορέᾱ, "beyond Boreas", although some scholars prefer a derivation from ὑπερφέρω.
In Greek mythology, Iynx was an Arcadian Oread nymph; a daughter of the god Pan and Echo. In popular myth, she used an enchantment to cast a spell on Zeus which caused him to fall in love with Io. In consequence of this, Hera metamorphosed her into the bird called iynx.
Alala was the personification of the war cry in Greek mythology. Her name derives from the onomatopoeic Greek word ἀλαλή (alalḗ), hence the verb ἀλαλάζω (alalázō), "to raise the war-cry". Greek soldiers attacked the enemy with this cry in order to cause panic in their lines and it was asserted that Athenians adopted it to emulate the cry of the owl, the bird of their patron goddess Athena.
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The Temple of Apollo, also known as Apollonion, was a major part of the Panhellenic religious sanctuary located in Central Greece at Delphi. The temple and sanctuary at large were dedicated to one of the major Greek deities, Apollo, the god of archery, music, light, prophecy, the arts, and healing. There have been several temples built at Delphi throughout the history of the site, though the visible ruins seen in modernity are those of the temple built in the 4th century B.C.E. before its destruction under the orders of Theodosius I in 390 C.E.. During antiquity, the temple was home to the famous Greek prophetess the Pythia, or the Oracle of Delphi, making the Temple of Apollo and the sanctuary at Delphi a major Panhellenic religious site as early as the 8th century B.C.E., and a place of great importance at many different periods of ancient Greek history. References to Delphi, the sanctuary, the temple, and the prophecies of the Pythia are made throughout ancient Greek mythology and historical accounts from the periods of its use.
Diagoras of Rhodes was an Ancient Greek boxer from the 5th century BC, who was celebrated for his own victories, as well as the victories of his sons and grandsons. He was a member of the Eratidea family at Ialysos in Rhodes.
Aristocrates was a name belonging to two ancient Greek rulers in Orchomenus in Arcadia.
The Temple of Artemis or Artemision, also known as the Temple of Diana, was a Greek temple dedicated to an ancient, local form of the goddess Artemis. It was located in Ephesus. By 401 AD it had been ruined or destroyed. Only foundations and fragments of the last temple remain at the site.
The Greek lyric poet Pindar composed odes to celebrate victories at all four Panhellenic Games. Of his fourteen Olympian Odes, glorifying victors at the Ancient Olympic Games, the First was positioned at the beginning of the collection by Aristophanes of Byzantium since it included praise for the games as well as of Pelops, who first competed at Elis. It was the most quoted in antiquity and was hailed as the "best of all the odes" by Lucian. Pindar composed the epinikion in honour of his then patron Hieron I, tyrant of Syracuse, whose horse Pherenikos and its jockey were victorious in the single horse race in 476 BC.
In Greek mythology, Philyra or Phillyra was one of the 3,000 Oceanids, water-nymph daughters of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys.
Aristocleidas of Aegina was an athlete of ancient Greece. He was a noted Greek pancratiast. He was celebrated for his Nemean victories and became a subject of Pindar's ode, where he was compared to Herakles and Aeacus.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Mason, Charles Peter (1870). "Aristoclides". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology . Vol. 1. p. 303.