Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/1033

THEAETETUS. represented with two boys, one black and the other white (Pans. v. 18, § 1), and at Sparta there were statues of both Death and Sleep, (iii. 18. § 1.) Both were usually represented as slumbering youths, or as genii with torches turned upside down. There are traces of sacrifices having been offered to Death (Serv. ad Jen. xi. 197; Stat. Thek iv. 528 ; Lucan, vi. 600 ; Philostr. Vit. ApolL V. 4), but no tejnples are mentioned anywhere. Comp. the excellent Treatise of Lessing, Wie die Alien den Tod gehildet. [L. S.] THARYPS or THA'RYPAS, {®dpv^>, Qapi- "jras), king of the Molossians, is mentioned by Thucydides (ii. 80) as a minor in B. c. 429. He was the father of Alcetas I., and is said to have been the first to introduce Hellenic civilization among his subjects. (Pans. i. 11 ; Plut. PyrrA. 1.) Plutarch (I. c.) calls him Tharrhytas. [E. E.] THASUS {Qdaos), a son of Poseidon, or Cilix or Agenor, was one of those who set out from Phoenicia in search of Europa, and thus founded the town of Thasos. (Herod, ii. 44, vi. 47 ; Paus. V. 25. § 7 ; Apollod. iii. 1. § 1.) [L. S.] THAU'MACUS {©avfxaKos), the father of Poas, from whom the town of Thaumacia in Mag- nesia was believed to have received its name. (Steph. Byz. s. v. Qav/xaKlai compare Horn. 11. ii. 716.) [L. S.] THAUMAS (Qavfias), a son of Pontus and Ge, and by the Oceanide Electra, the father of Iris and the Harpies. (Hes. Tkeog. 237, 265, &c. ; Callim. Ht/mn. in Del. 67 ; Ov. Met. iv. 479, xiv. 845.) There is also mention of a Centaur Thau- mas. (Ov. Met. xii. 304.) [L. S.] THEAETETUS (©eaiTiiToy), a Rhodian, who was one of the leaders of the party in his native city favourable to the Roman cause. He is first mentioned as accompanying Philophron on an em- bassy to the ten Roman deputies, who after the defeat of Antiochus settled the affairs of Asia, B. c. 189. (Polyb. xxiii. 3.) During the war be- tween the Romans and Perseus, his name is again repeatedly associated with that of Philophron: their efforts to oppose all concessions to the Mace- donian king and his partisans, have been already related. [Philophron.] Hence when the defeat of Perseus gave the decided preponderance to the Roman party, the Rhodians hastened to appoint Theaetetiis their admiral, an office of the highest rank in that naval republic, and at the same time sent him as their ambassador to Rome, to intercede in favour of his native city. But the advanced age of their deputy frustrated their intentions: Theaetetus, who was above 80 years old, dying at Rome before the senate had come to a decision concerning his countrymen. (Polyb. xxvii. 11, xxviii. 2, 14, xxix. 5, xxx. 5, 19.) [E. H. B.] THEAETETUS (0«ai'T77Tos), literary. 1. A Pythagorean philosopher, who legislated for the Locrians. (lamblich. Vit. Pyth. 30 ; Fabric. Bill. Graec. vol. i. p. 876, vol. ii. p. 38.) 2. An Athenian, the son of Euphronius of Sunium, is introduced as one of the speakers in Plato's Theaetetus and Sophistes, in which dialogues he is spoken of as a noble, courageous, and well- disposed youth; in person somewhat like Socrates; and ardent in the pursuit of knowledge, especially in the study of geometry. (Plat. T/icact. pp. 143, 144, et alib.; Sophist, passim ; Folit. pp. 257, 258, p. 266, a.) Diogenes Laertius (ii. 29) mentions him as an example of the happy effects of the THEAGENES. 1021 teaching of Socrates. Eusebius (Chron.) places " Theaetetus the mathematician" at 01. 85, b. c. 440, a date which can only be accepted as referring, not to the time when he really flourished, but when, as a mere youth, he became the disciple of Socrates. (Comp. Fabric. BiU. Graec. vol. iii. p. 78, note.) 3. A poet of the Greek Anthology, of whom we only know with certainty that he lived at or after the time of the Academic philosopher Crantor, his epitaph upon whom is preserved by Diogenes Laertius (iv. 25). Crantor ilourislied about 01. 116, B.C. 316. Six epigrams of his are contained in the Greek Anthology (Brunck, ^wa/. vol. ii. p. 251, vol. iii. p. l'd , Lection, p. 189; Jacobs, Anth. Graec. vol. ii. p. 227, vol. xiii. p. 957; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. iv. p. 496.) 4. Scholasticus, an epigrammatist of the time of Justinian, as is clearly proved by the references in his epigrams to Domninus, who was prefect of the city under Justin I. {Bp. 5), and to Julianus An- tecessor (Ep. 6). Reiske confounded him with the former epigrammatist of the same name (No. 2). The Medicean library contains a MS. tract Trepi ctTTLKwu ovoixaToov uuder the name of Theaetetus Scholasticus (Bandini, Catal. vol. ii. p. 368) ; and Suidas (s. V. OvZlv irphs Thv AiSwaop) mentions a work on Proverbs (Trepi TrapoijXLwv) by a certain Theaetetus. (Brunck, Anal. vol. ii. p. 514; Jacobs, Anth. Grace, vol. iii. p. 21 4, vol. xiii. p. 957; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. iv. p. 496.) [P. S.] THEA'GENES (0ea7ej/7}s), historical. 1. Ty- rant of Megara. He obtained his power probably about B. c. 630, having espoused the part of the commonalty against the nobles. He is said to have gained their confidence by violent aggressions on the wealthy proprietors, whose cattle he destroyed in their pastures. (Arist. Pol. v. 4, 5, Rhet. i. 2, 7.) Mr. Maiden {Hist, of Rome, p. 153, " Library of Useful Knowledge,") supposes that these weie public lands. By these outrages, and other dema- gogic arts, he gained the enthusiastic attachment of the commonalty, and by a vote of the people obtained a body of guards, by whose aid he over- threw the oligarchy, and made himself tyrant. He was, however, driven out before his death. He gave his daughter in marriage to Cylon. [Cvlon,] Pausanias (i. 40. § 1, i. 41. § 2) mentions some public works which he erected in Megara. Like most of the other tyrants, he, doubtless, found it expedient to foster industry and the arts. But from the picture which some time after Theognis gives of the state of the country, it does not seem that the people generally were permanently bene- fited by the reign of Theagenes. (Thirl wall, Hist. of Greece, vol. i. p. 428 ; Grote, Hist, of Greece^ vol. iii. p. 59.) 2. A Thasian,the son of Timosthenes, renowned for his extraordinary strength and swiftness. At the age of nine years he was said to have carried home a brazen statue of a god from the agora. As he grew up he became distinguished in every spe- cies of athletic contest, and gained numerous vic- tories at the Olympian, Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian games. Altogether he was said to have won 1300 crowns. (Paus. vi. 11. § 2, &c. ; Plut. Reip. gcrend. Praecept. p. 811.) He gained one victory at Olympia in the 75th Olympiad, a c. 480. (Paus. vi. 6. § 5.) The popular story among the Thasians was, that Hercules was his father. A curious story is told by Pausanias (vi. 11. § 6, &c.) about a statue of theagenes, which a man.