fits of madness,
Cambyses
shot the son of Prax-
(Galen, de Uteri Dissect.
(Galen, de Uteri Dissect.
William Smith - 1844 - Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities - c
Furius Camillus.
Ambustus ; and it is said that the younger daugh-
(Liv. v. 48. )
ter of Fabius, who was married to Licinius Stolo,
5. P. VALERIUS Potitus Publicola, described urged on her husband to procure the consulship for
LL 2
## p. 516 (#532) ############################################
516
PRATINAS.
PRATINAS.
the plebeians, as she was jealous of the honours of what the poet could have done with a c
her sister's husband. Niebuhr has pointed out the Satyrs, in place of the ocean nymphs,
worthlessness and contradictions in this tale. (Liv. Prometheus Bound. The innovation of Pra
vi. 32—34, 36, 38 ; Niebuhr, Hist. of Rome, vol. once relieved tragedy of this incubus, a
iii. pp. 2, 3. )
the Satyrs a free stage for themselves ; w
PRAETEXTATUS, VETTIUS AGO'. treating the same class of subjects on w
RIUS, a senator of distinguished ability and un- tragedies were founded, in a totally differer
corrupted morals, was proconsul of Achaia in the the poet not only preserved so venerable
reign of Julian, Praefectus Urbi under Valen- pular a feature of his art as the old cho
tinian I. , and Praefectus Practorio under Theo- also, in the exhibition of tetralogies, afi
dosius. He died in the possession of the last office, wholesome relaxation, as well as a plea
when he was consul elect. (Amm. Marc. xxii. 7, version, to the overstrained minds of t
xxvii. 9, xxviii. 1 ; Zosim. iv. 3 ; Symmach. Ep. tators.
x. 26 ; Valesius, ad Amm. Marc. xxii. 7. ) It It has been suggested by some write
was at the house of this Vettius Praetextatus that Pratinas was induced to cultivate the
Macrobius supposes the conversation to have taken drama by his fear of being eclipsed by A
place, which he has recorded in his Suturnalia. in tragedy ; a point which is one of pure
(See Vol. II. p. 888. ]
ture. It is more to the purpose to obse
PRA'TINAS (Ipativas), one of the early tragic the early associations of Pratinas would v
poets who flourished at Athens at the beginning bably imbue him with a taste for that sp
of the fifth century, B. C. , and whose combined the drama ; for his native city, Phlius,
efforts brought the art to its perfection, was a neighbour of Sicyon, the home of those
native of Phlius, and was therefore by birth a choruses," on the strength of which the
Dorian. His father's name was Pyrrhonides or claimed to be the inventors of tragedy
Encomius. It is not stated at what time he went adjacent also to Corinth, where the cyclic
to Athens, but we find him exhibiting there, in of Satyrs, which were ascribed to Arion,
competition with Choerilus and Aeschylus, about long established. (Herod. v. 67; Themi
01. 70, B. C. 500—499. (Suid. s. v. , Alo xúdos, xix. ; Aristot. Poët. 3 ; Bentley, Phal. )
lipativas. ) Of the two poets with whom he then The innovation of Pratinas, like all ti
contended, Choerilus had already been twenty improvements of that age of the developmer
years before the public, and Aeschylus now ap- drama, was adopted by his contemporari
peared, for the first time, at the age of twenty- Pratinas is distinguished, as might be e
five ; Pratinas, who was younger than the former, by the large proportion of his satyric
but older than the latter, was probably in his full having composed, according to Suidas, fif
vigour at this very period.
of which thirty-two were satyric. He gained
The step in the progress of the art, which was prize. (Suid. s. v. ) Böckh, however, by an a
ascribed to Pratinas, is very distinctly stated by in the text of Suidas, 16' for 16, assigns to
the ancient writers ; it was the separation of the only twelve satyric dramas, thus leaving a :
satyric from the tragic drama (Suid. s. v. , a pÔTos number of tragedies to make three for ever
érypave Eatúpous ; Acro, ad Hor. Art. Poët. 230, drama, that is, twelve tetralogies and to
reading Pratinae for Cratini; respecting the al- plays. (Trag. Gr. Princ. p. 125. ) In a
leged share of Choerilus in this improvement, see satyric dramas of Pratinas were esteemed
CHOERILUS, Vol. I. p. 697, b. ) The change was a except only those of Aeschylus. (Paus. ii. 1
very happy one; for it preserved a highly charac- His son Aristias was also highly distingui
teristic feature of the older form of tragedy, the his satyric plays. (ARISTIAS. ]
entire rejection of which would have met with Pratinas ranked high among the lyric
serious obstacles, not only from the popular taste, as the dramatic poets of his age. He
but from religious associations, and yet preserved two species of lyric poetry, the hyporch
it in such a manner as, while developing its own the dithyramb, of which the former wa
capabilities, to set free the tragic drama from the related to the satyric drama by the jocula
fetters it imposed. A band of Satyrs, as the ter which it often assumed, the latter by it
companions of Dionysus, formed the original chorus choruses of Satyrs.
Pratinas may pei
of tragedy ; and their jests and frolics were inter- considered to have shared with his cont
spersed with the more serious action of the drama, Lasus the honour of founding the Atheni
without causing any more sense of incongruity of dithyrambic poetry. Some interesting f
than is felt in the reading of those jocose passages of his hyporchemes are preserved, especial
of Homer, from which Aristotle traces the origin siderable passage in Athenaeus (i. p. 22, :
of the satyric drama and of comedy. As however gives an important indication of the co
tragedy came to be separated more and more from supremacy, which was then going on both
any reference to Dionysus, and the whole of the poetry and music, and between the differe
heroic mythology was included in its range of of music. The poet complains that the
subjects, the chorus of Satyrs of course became the singers were overpowered by the noi
more and more impracticable and absurd, and at flutes, and expresses his desire to supplan
the same time the jocose element, which formed an vailing Phrygian melody by the Doria
essential part of the character of the chorus of impossible to say how much of his lyr
Satyrs, became more and more incongruous with was separate from his dramas ; in wh
the earnest spirit and thrilling interest of the from the age at which he lived, and from
bigber tragic dramas. It is easy to enter into the testimony, we know that great import
fun of the Prometheus the Fire-kindler, where assigned not only to the songs, but al
an old Satyr singes his beard in attempting to em- dances of the chorus. In the passage ;
brace the beautiful fire; but it is hard to fancy | Athenaeus mentions him as one of the i
## p. 517 (#533) ############################################
PRAXAGORAS.
517
PRAXIAS
Some parts
p. 70. )
were called dpXnotikol, from the large part which heart was the source of the nerves (an opinion
the choral dances bore in their dramas.
which he held with Aristotle), and that the raini-
(Casaub. de Satyr. Poes. Graec. lib. i. c. 5; | fications of the artery, which he saw issue from
Näke, Choeril. p. 12 ; Müller, Dorier, vol. ii. pp. the heart, were ultimately converted into nerves,
334, 361, 362, 2nd ed. , Gesch. d. Griech. Lit. vol. ii. as they contracted in diameter (Galen, de Hippocr.
p. 39, Eng. trang. vol. i. p. 295 ; Ulrici, Gesch. d. el Plat. Decr. i. 6, vol. v. p. 187).
Hell. Dichtk. vol. ii. pp. 497, f. ; Bode, Gesch. d. of his medical practice appear to have been very
Hell. Dichik, vol. iii. pt. i. pp. 79, f. ; Welcker, bold, as, for instance, his venturing, in cases of
.
die Griech. Trag. pp. 17, 18, Nachtr. 2. Aesch. ileus when attended with introsusception, to open
Trilog. p. 276; Kayser, Hist. Crit. Trag. Gracc. the abdomen in order to replace the intestino
(P. S. ) (Cael. Aurel. de Morb. Acut. iii. 17, p. 244). He
PRAXA'GORAS (Tlpatayópas), an Athenian, wrote several medical works, of which only the
lived after the time of Constantine the Great, pro titles and some fragments remain, preserved by
bably under his sons. He wrote at the age of Galen, Caelius Aurelius, and other writers. A
nineteen, two books on the Athenian kings ; at fuller account of his opinions may be found in
the age of twenty-two, two books on the history of Sprengel's llist. de la Méd. , and Kühn's Com-
Constantine ; and at the age of thirty-one, six mentatio de Praxagora Coo, reprinted in the second
books on the history of Alexander the Great. All volume of his Opuscula Academica Medica et Philo-
these works were written in the Ionic dialect. logica, p. 128, &c. There is an epigram by Crina-
None of them has come down to us with the ex- goras, in honour of Praxagoras in the Greek
ception of a few extracts made by Photius, from Anthology. (Anth. Plan. 273. ) [W. A. G. ]
the history of Constantine. In this work Praxa- PRAXASPES (Ipašáorns), a Persian, who
goras, though a heathen, placed Constantine before was high in favour with king Cambyses, and acted
all other emperors. (Phot. Cod. 62. )
as his messenger. By his means Cambyses had
PRAXA'GORAS (Tlpatayopas), a celebrated his brother Smerdis assassinated. In one of his
physician, who was a native of the island of Cos.
fits of madness, Cambyses shot the son of Prax-
(Galen, de Uteri Dissect. c. 10, vol. ii. p. 905, et aspes with an arrow through the heart, in the
alibi. ) His father's name was Nicarchus* (Galen, presence of his father. When the news of the
loco cit. ; de Facult. Nat. ii. 9, vol. ii. p. 141, de usurpation of Smerdis reached Cambyses, he pa-
Tremore, c. 1, vol. vii. p. 584), and he belonged to turally suspected Praxaspes of not having fulfilled
the family of the Asclepiadae (id. de Meth. Med. his directions. The latter, however, succeeded in
i. 3, vol. 1. p. 28). He was the tutor of Philoti- clearing himself. After the death of Cambyses,
mus (id. loco cit. ; de Aliment. Facult. i. 12, vol. vi. the Magians deemed it advisable to endeavour to
p. 509), Plistonicus (Cels. de Med. i. praef. p. 6), secure the co-operation of Praxaspes, as he was
and Herophilus (Galen, de Differ. Puls. iv. 3, the only person who could certify the death of
vol. viii. p. 723, de Meth. Med. i. 3, vol. x. Smerdis, having murdered him with his own
p. 28, de Tremore, c. 1, vol. vii. p. 585); and as hands. He at first assented to their proposals,
he was a contemporary of Chrysippus, and lived but having been directed by them to proclaim to
shortly after Diocles Carystius (Cels. de Med. i. the assembled Persians that the pretender was
praef. , p. 5; Pliny, H. N. , xxvi. 6), he may be really the son of Cyrus, he, on the contrary, de-
safely placed in the fourth century B. C. He be- clared the stratagem that was being practised,
longed to the medical sect of the Dogmatici (Galen, and then threw himself headloug from the tower
Introd. c. 4, vol. xiv. p. 683), and was celebrated on which he was standing, and so perished. (Herod.
for his knowledge of medical science in general, iii. 30, 33, 34, 62, 66, 74. ) (C. P. M. ]
and especially for his attainments in anatomy and PRAXIAS (Ipačias), artists. 1. An Athenian
physiology. He was one of the chief defenders sculptor of the age of Pheidias, but of the more
of the humoral pathology, who placed the seat of archaic school of Calamis, commenced the execution
all diseases in the bumours of the body (id. ibid. of the statues in the pediments of the great temple of
c. 9, p. 699). He is supposed by Sprengel (Hist. de Apollo at Delphi, but died while he was still en-
la Méd. , vol. i. p. 422, 3), Hecker (Gesch. der lleilk. gaged upon the work, which was completed by
vol. i. p. 219), and others, to have been the first another Athenian artist, Androsthenes, the disciple
person who pointed out the distinction between of Eucadmus. (Paus. x. 19. § 3. s. 4. )
the veins and the arteries ; but this idea is con- The date of Praxias may be safely placed about
troverted (and apparently with success) by M. Ol. 83, B. c. 448, and onwards. His master Cala-
Littré (Euvres d'Hippocr. vol. i. p. 202, &c. ), who mis flourished about B. c. 467, and belonged to the
shows that the distinction in question is alluded to last period of the archaic school, which immediately
by Aristotle (if the treatise de Spiritu be genuine), preceded Pheidias. (See Pheidias, p. 245, b. ]
Hippocrates (or at least the author of the treatise Moreover, the indications which we have of the
de Articulis, who was anterior to Praxagoras), time when the temple at Delphi was decorated by
Diogenes Apolloniates, and Euryphon. Many of a number of Athenian artists, point to the period
his anatomical opinions have been preserved, which between B. C. 448 and 430, and go to sbow that
show that he was in advance of his contemporaries the works were executed at about the very time
in this branch of medical knowledge. On the
other hand, several curious and capital errors have • As the word veūpoy sometimes signifies a liga-
been attributed to him, as, for instance, that the ment, as well as a nerve, in the ancient writers (see
note to the Oxford edition of Theophilus de Corp.
* In Galen, Comment. in Hippocr. “ Aphor. " | Hum. Fabr. p. 204, 1. 5), Sprengel and others have
i. 12, vol. xvii. pt. ii. p. 400. Nikávôpou must be supposed that the word bears this meaning in the
a mistake for Nikápxov. In some modern works passage referred to, but Kühn, with more probability
his father is called Nearchus, but perhaps without considers that the more common signification of the
any ancient authority.
word is the true one (Opusc. vol. ii. p. 140).
p
T
LL 3
## p. 518 (#534) ############################################
518
PRAXILLA.
PRAXIPILANES.
when the temples of Athena at Athens, and of Zeus species. (Ath. xv. p. 694, a. ). She was believed
at Olympia, were being adorned by Pheidias and by sonie to be the author of the scolion preserved
his disciples. (Comp. Premas, p. 248, b. ; Poly- by Athenaeus (p. 695, c. ), and in the Greek An-
ONOTUS, p. 467, b. ; and Müller, Phil. pp. 28, 29. ) thology (Brunck, Anal. vol. i. p. 157), which was
The sculptures themselves are described by extremely popular at Athens (Paus. ap. Eustath.
Pausanias (i. c. ) very briefly as consisting of Arte ad n. ii. 711 ; Aristoph. Vesp. 1231, et Schol. ).
mis and Leto, and A pollo and the Muses, and also She also composed dithyrambs (Hephaest. 9, p. 22,
the setting sun and Dionysus and the women ed. Gaisf. )
called Thyiades. In all probability, the first col- This poetess appears to have been distinguished
lection of statues, those connected with the ge- for the variety of her metres. The line of one
nealogy of Apollo, occupied the front pediment, and of her dithyrambs, which Hephaestion quotes in
the other pediment was filled with the remaining the passage just referred to, is a dactylic hexa-
sculptures, namely those connected with the kin- meter : it must not, however, be inferred that her
dred divinity Dionysus, the inventor of the lyre dithyrambs were written in heroic verse, but rather
and the patron of the dithyramb. As the temple that they were arranged in dactylic systems, in
was one of the largest in Greece, it is likely that which the hexameter occasionally appeared. One
there were, in each pediment, other figures subor species of logaoedic dactylic verse was named after
dinate to those mentioned by Pausanias. (Welcker, her the Praxilleian (rpašinecov), namely,
die Vorstellunyen der Gübel felder und Nietopen an
dem Tempel zu Delphi, in the Rheinisches Museum,
1842, pp. 1-28).
as in the following fragment :-
2. A vase-painter, whose name appears on one ώ δια των θυρίδων καλών εμβλέπουσα,
of the Canino vases, on which the education of
Achilles is represented. The name, as reported
παρθένε ταν κεφαλάν, τα δ' ένερθε νύμφα,
by M. Orioli, the discoverer of the vase, is paxlas, which only differs from the Alcaic by having one
[! PA + IAS, a proper name, so totally unknown, as more dactyl. (Hephaest. 24, p. 43; Hermann,
to raise a strong suspicion that the name has either Elem. Doct.
(Liv. v. 48. )
ter of Fabius, who was married to Licinius Stolo,
5. P. VALERIUS Potitus Publicola, described urged on her husband to procure the consulship for
LL 2
## p. 516 (#532) ############################################
516
PRATINAS.
PRATINAS.
the plebeians, as she was jealous of the honours of what the poet could have done with a c
her sister's husband. Niebuhr has pointed out the Satyrs, in place of the ocean nymphs,
worthlessness and contradictions in this tale. (Liv. Prometheus Bound. The innovation of Pra
vi. 32—34, 36, 38 ; Niebuhr, Hist. of Rome, vol. once relieved tragedy of this incubus, a
iii. pp. 2, 3. )
the Satyrs a free stage for themselves ; w
PRAETEXTATUS, VETTIUS AGO'. treating the same class of subjects on w
RIUS, a senator of distinguished ability and un- tragedies were founded, in a totally differer
corrupted morals, was proconsul of Achaia in the the poet not only preserved so venerable
reign of Julian, Praefectus Urbi under Valen- pular a feature of his art as the old cho
tinian I. , and Praefectus Practorio under Theo- also, in the exhibition of tetralogies, afi
dosius. He died in the possession of the last office, wholesome relaxation, as well as a plea
when he was consul elect. (Amm. Marc. xxii. 7, version, to the overstrained minds of t
xxvii. 9, xxviii. 1 ; Zosim. iv. 3 ; Symmach. Ep. tators.
x. 26 ; Valesius, ad Amm. Marc. xxii. 7. ) It It has been suggested by some write
was at the house of this Vettius Praetextatus that Pratinas was induced to cultivate the
Macrobius supposes the conversation to have taken drama by his fear of being eclipsed by A
place, which he has recorded in his Suturnalia. in tragedy ; a point which is one of pure
(See Vol. II. p. 888. ]
ture. It is more to the purpose to obse
PRA'TINAS (Ipativas), one of the early tragic the early associations of Pratinas would v
poets who flourished at Athens at the beginning bably imbue him with a taste for that sp
of the fifth century, B. C. , and whose combined the drama ; for his native city, Phlius,
efforts brought the art to its perfection, was a neighbour of Sicyon, the home of those
native of Phlius, and was therefore by birth a choruses," on the strength of which the
Dorian. His father's name was Pyrrhonides or claimed to be the inventors of tragedy
Encomius. It is not stated at what time he went adjacent also to Corinth, where the cyclic
to Athens, but we find him exhibiting there, in of Satyrs, which were ascribed to Arion,
competition with Choerilus and Aeschylus, about long established. (Herod. v. 67; Themi
01. 70, B. C. 500—499. (Suid. s. v. , Alo xúdos, xix. ; Aristot. Poët. 3 ; Bentley, Phal. )
lipativas. ) Of the two poets with whom he then The innovation of Pratinas, like all ti
contended, Choerilus had already been twenty improvements of that age of the developmer
years before the public, and Aeschylus now ap- drama, was adopted by his contemporari
peared, for the first time, at the age of twenty- Pratinas is distinguished, as might be e
five ; Pratinas, who was younger than the former, by the large proportion of his satyric
but older than the latter, was probably in his full having composed, according to Suidas, fif
vigour at this very period.
of which thirty-two were satyric. He gained
The step in the progress of the art, which was prize. (Suid. s. v. ) Böckh, however, by an a
ascribed to Pratinas, is very distinctly stated by in the text of Suidas, 16' for 16, assigns to
the ancient writers ; it was the separation of the only twelve satyric dramas, thus leaving a :
satyric from the tragic drama (Suid. s. v. , a pÔTos number of tragedies to make three for ever
érypave Eatúpous ; Acro, ad Hor. Art. Poët. 230, drama, that is, twelve tetralogies and to
reading Pratinae for Cratini; respecting the al- plays. (Trag. Gr. Princ. p. 125. ) In a
leged share of Choerilus in this improvement, see satyric dramas of Pratinas were esteemed
CHOERILUS, Vol. I. p. 697, b. ) The change was a except only those of Aeschylus. (Paus. ii. 1
very happy one; for it preserved a highly charac- His son Aristias was also highly distingui
teristic feature of the older form of tragedy, the his satyric plays. (ARISTIAS. ]
entire rejection of which would have met with Pratinas ranked high among the lyric
serious obstacles, not only from the popular taste, as the dramatic poets of his age. He
but from religious associations, and yet preserved two species of lyric poetry, the hyporch
it in such a manner as, while developing its own the dithyramb, of which the former wa
capabilities, to set free the tragic drama from the related to the satyric drama by the jocula
fetters it imposed. A band of Satyrs, as the ter which it often assumed, the latter by it
companions of Dionysus, formed the original chorus choruses of Satyrs.
Pratinas may pei
of tragedy ; and their jests and frolics were inter- considered to have shared with his cont
spersed with the more serious action of the drama, Lasus the honour of founding the Atheni
without causing any more sense of incongruity of dithyrambic poetry. Some interesting f
than is felt in the reading of those jocose passages of his hyporchemes are preserved, especial
of Homer, from which Aristotle traces the origin siderable passage in Athenaeus (i. p. 22, :
of the satyric drama and of comedy. As however gives an important indication of the co
tragedy came to be separated more and more from supremacy, which was then going on both
any reference to Dionysus, and the whole of the poetry and music, and between the differe
heroic mythology was included in its range of of music. The poet complains that the
subjects, the chorus of Satyrs of course became the singers were overpowered by the noi
more and more impracticable and absurd, and at flutes, and expresses his desire to supplan
the same time the jocose element, which formed an vailing Phrygian melody by the Doria
essential part of the character of the chorus of impossible to say how much of his lyr
Satyrs, became more and more incongruous with was separate from his dramas ; in wh
the earnest spirit and thrilling interest of the from the age at which he lived, and from
bigber tragic dramas. It is easy to enter into the testimony, we know that great import
fun of the Prometheus the Fire-kindler, where assigned not only to the songs, but al
an old Satyr singes his beard in attempting to em- dances of the chorus. In the passage ;
brace the beautiful fire; but it is hard to fancy | Athenaeus mentions him as one of the i
## p. 517 (#533) ############################################
PRAXAGORAS.
517
PRAXIAS
Some parts
p. 70. )
were called dpXnotikol, from the large part which heart was the source of the nerves (an opinion
the choral dances bore in their dramas.
which he held with Aristotle), and that the raini-
(Casaub. de Satyr. Poes. Graec. lib. i. c. 5; | fications of the artery, which he saw issue from
Näke, Choeril. p. 12 ; Müller, Dorier, vol. ii. pp. the heart, were ultimately converted into nerves,
334, 361, 362, 2nd ed. , Gesch. d. Griech. Lit. vol. ii. as they contracted in diameter (Galen, de Hippocr.
p. 39, Eng. trang. vol. i. p. 295 ; Ulrici, Gesch. d. el Plat. Decr. i. 6, vol. v. p. 187).
Hell. Dichtk. vol. ii. pp. 497, f. ; Bode, Gesch. d. of his medical practice appear to have been very
Hell. Dichik, vol. iii. pt. i. pp. 79, f. ; Welcker, bold, as, for instance, his venturing, in cases of
.
die Griech. Trag. pp. 17, 18, Nachtr. 2. Aesch. ileus when attended with introsusception, to open
Trilog. p. 276; Kayser, Hist. Crit. Trag. Gracc. the abdomen in order to replace the intestino
(P. S. ) (Cael. Aurel. de Morb. Acut. iii. 17, p. 244). He
PRAXA'GORAS (Tlpatayópas), an Athenian, wrote several medical works, of which only the
lived after the time of Constantine the Great, pro titles and some fragments remain, preserved by
bably under his sons. He wrote at the age of Galen, Caelius Aurelius, and other writers. A
nineteen, two books on the Athenian kings ; at fuller account of his opinions may be found in
the age of twenty-two, two books on the history of Sprengel's llist. de la Méd. , and Kühn's Com-
Constantine ; and at the age of thirty-one, six mentatio de Praxagora Coo, reprinted in the second
books on the history of Alexander the Great. All volume of his Opuscula Academica Medica et Philo-
these works were written in the Ionic dialect. logica, p. 128, &c. There is an epigram by Crina-
None of them has come down to us with the ex- goras, in honour of Praxagoras in the Greek
ception of a few extracts made by Photius, from Anthology. (Anth. Plan. 273. ) [W. A. G. ]
the history of Constantine. In this work Praxa- PRAXASPES (Ipašáorns), a Persian, who
goras, though a heathen, placed Constantine before was high in favour with king Cambyses, and acted
all other emperors. (Phot. Cod. 62. )
as his messenger. By his means Cambyses had
PRAXA'GORAS (Tlpatayopas), a celebrated his brother Smerdis assassinated. In one of his
physician, who was a native of the island of Cos.
fits of madness, Cambyses shot the son of Prax-
(Galen, de Uteri Dissect. c. 10, vol. ii. p. 905, et aspes with an arrow through the heart, in the
alibi. ) His father's name was Nicarchus* (Galen, presence of his father. When the news of the
loco cit. ; de Facult. Nat. ii. 9, vol. ii. p. 141, de usurpation of Smerdis reached Cambyses, he pa-
Tremore, c. 1, vol. vii. p. 584), and he belonged to turally suspected Praxaspes of not having fulfilled
the family of the Asclepiadae (id. de Meth. Med. his directions. The latter, however, succeeded in
i. 3, vol. 1. p. 28). He was the tutor of Philoti- clearing himself. After the death of Cambyses,
mus (id. loco cit. ; de Aliment. Facult. i. 12, vol. vi. the Magians deemed it advisable to endeavour to
p. 509), Plistonicus (Cels. de Med. i. praef. p. 6), secure the co-operation of Praxaspes, as he was
and Herophilus (Galen, de Differ. Puls. iv. 3, the only person who could certify the death of
vol. viii. p. 723, de Meth. Med. i. 3, vol. x. Smerdis, having murdered him with his own
p. 28, de Tremore, c. 1, vol. vii. p. 585); and as hands. He at first assented to their proposals,
he was a contemporary of Chrysippus, and lived but having been directed by them to proclaim to
shortly after Diocles Carystius (Cels. de Med. i. the assembled Persians that the pretender was
praef. , p. 5; Pliny, H. N. , xxvi. 6), he may be really the son of Cyrus, he, on the contrary, de-
safely placed in the fourth century B. C. He be- clared the stratagem that was being practised,
longed to the medical sect of the Dogmatici (Galen, and then threw himself headloug from the tower
Introd. c. 4, vol. xiv. p. 683), and was celebrated on which he was standing, and so perished. (Herod.
for his knowledge of medical science in general, iii. 30, 33, 34, 62, 66, 74. ) (C. P. M. ]
and especially for his attainments in anatomy and PRAXIAS (Ipačias), artists. 1. An Athenian
physiology. He was one of the chief defenders sculptor of the age of Pheidias, but of the more
of the humoral pathology, who placed the seat of archaic school of Calamis, commenced the execution
all diseases in the bumours of the body (id. ibid. of the statues in the pediments of the great temple of
c. 9, p. 699). He is supposed by Sprengel (Hist. de Apollo at Delphi, but died while he was still en-
la Méd. , vol. i. p. 422, 3), Hecker (Gesch. der lleilk. gaged upon the work, which was completed by
vol. i. p. 219), and others, to have been the first another Athenian artist, Androsthenes, the disciple
person who pointed out the distinction between of Eucadmus. (Paus. x. 19. § 3. s. 4. )
the veins and the arteries ; but this idea is con- The date of Praxias may be safely placed about
troverted (and apparently with success) by M. Ol. 83, B. c. 448, and onwards. His master Cala-
Littré (Euvres d'Hippocr. vol. i. p. 202, &c. ), who mis flourished about B. c. 467, and belonged to the
shows that the distinction in question is alluded to last period of the archaic school, which immediately
by Aristotle (if the treatise de Spiritu be genuine), preceded Pheidias. (See Pheidias, p. 245, b. ]
Hippocrates (or at least the author of the treatise Moreover, the indications which we have of the
de Articulis, who was anterior to Praxagoras), time when the temple at Delphi was decorated by
Diogenes Apolloniates, and Euryphon. Many of a number of Athenian artists, point to the period
his anatomical opinions have been preserved, which between B. C. 448 and 430, and go to sbow that
show that he was in advance of his contemporaries the works were executed at about the very time
in this branch of medical knowledge. On the
other hand, several curious and capital errors have • As the word veūpoy sometimes signifies a liga-
been attributed to him, as, for instance, that the ment, as well as a nerve, in the ancient writers (see
note to the Oxford edition of Theophilus de Corp.
* In Galen, Comment. in Hippocr. “ Aphor. " | Hum. Fabr. p. 204, 1. 5), Sprengel and others have
i. 12, vol. xvii. pt. ii. p. 400. Nikávôpou must be supposed that the word bears this meaning in the
a mistake for Nikápxov. In some modern works passage referred to, but Kühn, with more probability
his father is called Nearchus, but perhaps without considers that the more common signification of the
any ancient authority.
word is the true one (Opusc. vol. ii. p. 140).
p
T
LL 3
## p. 518 (#534) ############################################
518
PRAXILLA.
PRAXIPILANES.
when the temples of Athena at Athens, and of Zeus species. (Ath. xv. p. 694, a. ). She was believed
at Olympia, were being adorned by Pheidias and by sonie to be the author of the scolion preserved
his disciples. (Comp. Premas, p. 248, b. ; Poly- by Athenaeus (p. 695, c. ), and in the Greek An-
ONOTUS, p. 467, b. ; and Müller, Phil. pp. 28, 29. ) thology (Brunck, Anal. vol. i. p. 157), which was
The sculptures themselves are described by extremely popular at Athens (Paus. ap. Eustath.
Pausanias (i. c. ) very briefly as consisting of Arte ad n. ii. 711 ; Aristoph. Vesp. 1231, et Schol. ).
mis and Leto, and A pollo and the Muses, and also She also composed dithyrambs (Hephaest. 9, p. 22,
the setting sun and Dionysus and the women ed. Gaisf. )
called Thyiades. In all probability, the first col- This poetess appears to have been distinguished
lection of statues, those connected with the ge- for the variety of her metres. The line of one
nealogy of Apollo, occupied the front pediment, and of her dithyrambs, which Hephaestion quotes in
the other pediment was filled with the remaining the passage just referred to, is a dactylic hexa-
sculptures, namely those connected with the kin- meter : it must not, however, be inferred that her
dred divinity Dionysus, the inventor of the lyre dithyrambs were written in heroic verse, but rather
and the patron of the dithyramb. As the temple that they were arranged in dactylic systems, in
was one of the largest in Greece, it is likely that which the hexameter occasionally appeared. One
there were, in each pediment, other figures subor species of logaoedic dactylic verse was named after
dinate to those mentioned by Pausanias. (Welcker, her the Praxilleian (rpašinecov), namely,
die Vorstellunyen der Gübel felder und Nietopen an
dem Tempel zu Delphi, in the Rheinisches Museum,
1842, pp. 1-28).
as in the following fragment :-
2. A vase-painter, whose name appears on one ώ δια των θυρίδων καλών εμβλέπουσα,
of the Canino vases, on which the education of
Achilles is represented. The name, as reported
παρθένε ταν κεφαλάν, τα δ' ένερθε νύμφα,
by M. Orioli, the discoverer of the vase, is paxlas, which only differs from the Alcaic by having one
[! PA + IAS, a proper name, so totally unknown, as more dactyl. (Hephaest. 24, p. 43; Hermann,
to raise a strong suspicion that the name has either Elem. Doct.
