Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/1231

NYMPHIDIUS. t]iey inhabited, as Kiflatpwi/i'Se?, IlrjAiaSes, Kopu- Kiai^ &.C. (Theocrit. vii, 137 ; Virg. Aen. i. 168, 500 ; Paus. V. 6. § 6, ix. 3. § 5, x. 32. § 5 ; Aponon. Rhod. i. 550, ii, 711 ; Ov. Her. xx. 221; Virg. Eclog. vi. 56.) 3. Nymphs of forests^ groves, and glens, were be- lieved sometimes to appear to and frighten solitary travellers. They are designated by the names 'AAflTTji'Ses, 'TArjwpoi, AuAwviaSes, and NairaTat. (ApoUon. Rhod. i. 1066, 1227 ; Orph. Hym7i. 50. 7 ; Theocrit. xiii. 44 ; Ov. Met. xv. 490 ; Virg. Georg. iv. 535.) 4. Nymphs of trees, were believed to die together with the trees which had been their abode, and with which they had come into existence. They were called ApudSes, 'A^aSpyaSes or 'ASpvdSes, from S/3V?, which signifies not only an oak, but any wild-growing lofty tree ; for the nymphs of fruit trees were called MTjA^Sey, MT/AjctSes, ^Etn/xrjKiSes, or 'AfxafjLr]iSes. They seem to be of Arcadian origin, and never appear together with any of the great gods. (Paus. viii. 4. § 2 ; Apollon. Rhod. ii. 477, &c. ; Anton. Lib. 31, 32 ; Hom. Hymn, in Ven. 259, &c.) The second class of nymphs, who were connected with certain races or localities {Hvixcpai x^oviat, Apollon. Rhod. ii. 504), usually have a name de- rived from the places with which they are asso- ciated, as Nysiades, Dodonides, Lemniae. (Ov. Fast. iii. 769, Met. v. 412, ix. 651 ; ApoUod. iii. 4. § 3 ; Schol. ad Find. 01. xiii. 74.) The sacrifices offered to nymphs usually con- sisted of goats, Iambs, milk, and oil, but never of wine. (Theocrit. v. 12, 53, 139, 149 ; Serv. ad Virg. Georg. iv. 380, Eclog. v. 74.) They were worshipped and honoured with sanctuaries in many parts of Greece, especially near springs, groves, and grottoes, as, for example, near a spring at Cyrtone (Paus. ix. 24. § 4), in Attica (i, 31. § 2), at Olym- pia (v. 15. § 4, vi. 22. § 4), at Megara (i. 40. § 1), between Sicyon and Phlius (ii. 11. § 3), and other places. Nymphs are represented in works of art as beautiful maidens, either quite naked or only half-covered. Later poets sometimes describe them as having sea-coloured hair. (Ov. Met. v. 432.) [L. S.] NYMPHIDIA'NUS(Nu;u^i5iai'o's), of Smyrna, a Neo-Platonist, lived in the time of the emperor Julian, and was the brother of Maximus and Claudianus. The emperor Julian, who was greatly attached to Maximus, made Nymphidianus his in- terpreter and Greek secretary, though he was more fit to write declamations and disputations than letters. He survived his brother Maximus, and died at an advanced age. (Eunap. Vit. Soph. p. 137.) [L. S.] NYMPHFDIUS LUPUS, had served in the army, along with the younger Pliny, who warmly recommends his son to the emperor Trajan. (Plin. Fp. X. 19 or 56.) N YMPHI'DIUS SABI'NUS, was commander of the praetorian troops, together with Tigellinus, towards the latter end of Nero's reign. He took an active part in suppressing the conspiracy of Piso against Nero, a. d. 66, and was in consequence re- warded by the emperor with the consular insignia. His mother was a freed woman, who was accustomed to sell her favours to the servants of the imperial palace ; and as Caligula did not disdain such inter- course, Nymphidius claimed that emperor for his father. On the death of Nero in A. d, 68, Nym- VOL. IJ NYMPHODORUS. 1217 phidius attempted to seize the throne, but was murdered by the friends of Galba. (Tac. A7in xv, 72, Hist. i. 5, 25, 37 ; Pint. Ga/b. 8—15.) NYMPHIS {liu/x(pis), the son of Xenagoras, a native of the Pontic Heracleia, lived in the middle of the second century, B. c, and was a person of distinction in his native land, as well as an his- torical writer of some note. He was sent as ambassador to the Galatians to propitiate that people, when the inhabitants of Heracleia had offended them by assisting Mithridates, the son of Ariobarzanes, with whom the Galatians were at war. (Memnon, c. 24, ed. Orelli.) As Ariobarzanes was succeeded by this Mithridates about B. c. 240, we may refer the embassy to this year. (Clinton, F. H. sub anno.) Memnon likewise mentions (c. 11) a Nymphis, as one of the exiles in b. c. 281, when Seleucus, after the death of Lysimachus, threatened Heracleia ; but notwithstanding the remark of Clinton (sub anno 281) the interval of forty-one years between the two events just men- tioned, leads to the conclusion that the latter Nymphis was a different person from the historian, more especially as Memnon, in the former case, expressly distinguishes Nymphis by the epithet taropiKSs. Nymphis was the author of three works, which are referred to by the ancient writers : — 1. Ilepl 'AKe^dvSpov Koi rwv ACa'86x(>>v koX 'ETTiyovoif/, concerning Alexander, his successors, and tlieir descendants, in twenty-four books. This work ended at the accession of the third Ptolemy, b. c. 247. (Suid. s. v. livficpis ; Aelian, H. N. xvii. 3.) 2. Uepl 'UpaicXeias, in thirteen books, gave the history of his native city to the overthrow of the tyrants in B.C. 281. (Suid. I.e.; Athen. xii. pp. 536, a. 549, a. xiv. p. 619, e. ; Schol. ad Apoll. Rhod. ii. 650, 729, 752, iv. 247 ; Steph. Byz. s. v. "Tirios, ^pl^os ; Plut. ^VforaZ. p. 248, d. ; Schol. ad A ristoph. Av.^1^.). 3. Uipi-nXovi 'Aalas. (Athen. xiii. p. 596, e.) The fragments of Nymphis are collected by J. C. Orelli, in his edition of Memnon, Leipzig, 1816, pp. 95—102. (Voss. de Hist. Graecis, p. 140, ed. Westermanii ; Clinton, /. //. vol. iii. p. 510.) NY'MPHIUS, an Italian Greek, one of the chief men of Palaepolis, who, together with Cha- rilalis, betrayed the town to Q. Publilius Philo, the Roman proconsul, in the second Samnite war (b. c. 323), and drove out the Roman garrison. (Liv. viii. 25, 26.) NYMPHODO'RUS (l^v/^cpSSupos), a citizen of Abdera, whose sister married Sitalces, king of Thrace. The Athenians, who had previously re- garded Nymphodorus as their enemy, made him their proxenus in B. c. 431, and, through his medi- ation, obtained the alliance of Sitalces, for which they were anxious, and conferred the freedom of their city on Sadocus, Sitalces' son. Nymphodorus also brought about a reconciliation between the Athenians and Perdiccas, king of Macedonia, and persuaded them to restore to him the town of Therma, which they had taken in B. c. 432 (see Thuc. i.. 61). In b. c. 430 Nymphodorus aided in the seizure, at Bisanthe, of Aristeus and the other ambassadors, who were on their way to ask aid of the Persian king against the Athenians. (Herod, vii. 137; Thuc. ii. 29,67; comp. Arist. Ach. 145.) [E. E.] NYMPHODO'RUS (Nw^foScopos), literary. 1 . A Greek historian, of Amphipolis. The time at 4i