Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/127

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PANYASIS.
PAPIA.
115


Greece in the reign of Hadrian, whose statue he made for the Milesians. (Bockh, Corp. Inscr. vol. i. No. 339.) [P. S.l PANURGUS, the name of the slave of Fannius Chaerea, whom the latter entrusted to Roscius, the actor, for instruction in his art. [Chakreas, p. 677, b.] PANYASIS {Xiavia-ais)* 1. A Greek epic poet, lived in the fifth century before the Christian aera. His name is also written Yiavvaacris and nawuao-is, but there can be no doubt that ITaj/v- atrts is the correct way. According to Suidas (s. ■??.) he was the son of Polyarchus and a native of Hali- carnassus ; and although the historian Duris stated that he was a Samian and the son of Diodes, yet the authority of Suidas is to be preferred, at least as far as respects his birth-place, since both Pau- sanias (x. 8. § 5) and Clemens Alexandrinus (vi. 2. § 52) likewise call him a native of Halicarnassus. Panyasis belonged to one of the noblest families at Halicarnassus, and was a relation of the historian Herodotus, though the exact relationship in which they stood to one another is uncertain. One account made the poet the first cousin of the his- torian, Panyasis being the son of Polyarchus, and Herodotus the son of Lyxes, the brother of Poly- archus. Another account made Panyasis the uncle of Herodotus, the latter being the son of Rhoeo or Dryo, who was the sister of the poet (Suidas, s.v. These conflicting accounts have given rise to much dispute among modern writers, but the latter state- ment, according to which Panyasis was the uncle of Herodotus, has been usually preferred. Panyasis began to be known about b. c. 489, continued in re- putation till B. c. 467, in which year he is placed by Suidas, and was put to death by Lygdamis, the tyrant of Halicarnassus, probably about the same time that Herodotus left his native town, that is about B. c. 457 (Clinton, F.H. sub annis 489, 457). Ancient writers mention two poems by Panyasis. Of these the most celebrated was entitled Heracleia {'HpaKA^ia, Athen. xi. pp. 469, d. 498, c.) or He- racleias ('HpaK-A-etas, Suidas), which gave a detailed account of the exploits of Heracles. It consisted of fourteen books and nine thousand verses ; and it appears, as far as we can judge from the re- ferences to it in ancient writers, to have passed over briefly the adventures of the hero which had been related by previous poets, and to have dwelt chiefly upon his exploits in Asia, Libya, the Hes- perides, &c. An outline of the contents of the various books, as far as they can be restored, is given by Miiller, in an appendix to his work on the Dorians (vol. i. p. 532, Engl, transl. 1st ed.). The other poem of Panyasis bore the name of lonica ('Icoywct), and contained 7000 verses ; it related the history of Neleus, Codrus, and the Ionic colonies, probably much in the same way as otheis had described in poetry the KTiaeLS or apxaioXoyiai of different states and countries. Suidas relates that this poem was written in pentameters, but it is improbable that at so early a period a poem of such a length was written simply in pentameters ;

  • The quantity of the name is doubtful. A

late poet (Axien. Ar at. Fhaen. 175) makes the penultimate short: —

  • ' Panyasi sed nota tamen, cui longior aetas,"

but it was probably long in earlier times. still, as no fragments of it have come down lo us, we have no certain information on the subject. We do not know what impression the poems of Panyasis made upon his contemporaries and their immediate descendants, but it was probably not great, as he is not mentioned by any of the great Greek writers. But in later times his works were extensively read, and much admired ; the Alex- andrine grammarians ranked him with Homer, Hesiod, Peisander, and Antimachus, as one of the five principal epic poets, and some even went so far as to compare him with Homer (comp. Suidas, s. V. ; Dionys. de Vet. Script. Cms. c. 2, p. 419, ed. Reiske ; Quintil. x. 1. § 54). Panyasis occupied an intermediate position between the later cyclic poets and the studied efi'orts of Antimachus, who is stated to have been his pupil {s.v.'AvriiJiaxos). From two of the longest fragments which have come down to us (Athen. ii. p. 36 ; Stobaeus, xviii. 22), it appears that Panyasis kept close to the old Ionic form of epic poetry, and had imbibed no small por- tion of the Homeric spirit. The fragments of the Heracleia are given in the collections of the Greek poets by Winterton, Brunck, Boissonade, and Gaisford ; in Diintzer's Fragments of Greek epic poetry, and in the works of Tzschirner and Funcke, quoted below. (The histories of Greek literature by Bode, Ulrici, and Bernhardy ; Tzschirner, De Panyasidis Vita et Carminibus Dissertatio, Vratisl. 1836, and Frag- menta., 1842 ; Funcke, De Panyasidis Vita ac Poesi Dissert. Bonn. 1837 ; Eckstein, in Ersch and Gruber's Encyklop'ddie, art. Panyasis.) . A philosopher, also a native of Halicarnassus, who wrote two books " On Dreams" (Ilept oveipccv, Suidas, s. v.). This must be the Panyasis, whom Arteniiodorus refers to in his Oneirocritica (i. 64, ii. 35), and whom he expressly calls a Halicar- nassian. Tzschirner conjectures that the passage of Duris above referred to has reference to this Pa- nyasis ; that the poet had a son named Diodes, and that the philosopher was therefore a grandson of the poet, and was called a Samian by Duris from his residence in that island. That Suidas has con- founded the two persons, as he frequently does, seems probable from his calling the poet reparo- aKOTTos^ an epithet which would be much more appro- priate to the philosopher, who wrote upon dreams. PAPAEUS or PAPAS (nairalos or ndnas), " father," a surname of Zeus among the Scythians (Herod, iv. 59), and of Attis. (Diod. iii. 58.) [L. S.] PA'PHIA (na<pia), a surname of Aphrodite, derived from the celebrated temple of the goddess at Paphos in Cyprus. A statue of Aphrodite Paphia also stood in the sanctuary of Ino, between Oetylus and Thalamae in Laconia. (Pans. iii. 36 ; Tac" Hist. ii. 2 ; Hom. Hymn, in Ven. 59 ; Apollod. iii. 14. § 2 ; Strab. xiv. p. 683.) [L. S.] PAP H US (no^os), a son of Pygmalion and the statue into which life had been breathed by Aphrodite. From him the town of Paphus is said to have derived its name ; and Pygmalion himself is called the Paphian hero. (Ov. Met. x. 290, &c.) The father of Cinyras, the founder of the temple of Aphrodite at Paphos, is likewise called Paphus. (Hygin. Fab. 242 ; Apollod. iii. 14. § 2.) [L. S.] PA'PIA, the wife of Oppianicus. {Cic. pro Ciuent. 9.) PA'PIA GENS, plebeian, was originally a Samnite family. In the Samnite wars a Papius I 2