Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/941

This page needs to be proofread.
loc cit.
loc cit.

STUDITA. xviii. xix.) a Latin version of an Epistola ad Si- meonem Monachum, or probably of a part of it ; and Gretserus, in his collection De Cruce^ has given, with a Jjatin version and notes, Aoyos els rbu ri/xiou Kol ^woiroidv (rravpov tov 6jxoo'yr]7ov

  • IaKrrf<^ dpxi-^T^LdKoivov QeaaaAou'iKris, Oratio in

venerandam et vivificarn Crucem Con/essoris Jo- sepM Archiepiscopi T/iessaloniceTisis (Gretser. Opera^ vol. ii. p. 85, &c., fol. Ratisbon, 1734). Joseph of Thessalonica appears to have written several Ca- nones or hymns, but it is not easy to distinguish these from the Canones of the other Joseph men- tioned below (No. 2). {Acta Sanctorum.^ Apri/is, vol. i. p. 268, Julii, vol, iii. p. 710 ; Lambec. Co7n- menturius de Biblioth. Caesaraea^ vol. v. col. 564, 576, 721, ed. Kollar ; Oudin, De Scripiorihus Eccles. vol. ii. col. 24, &c. ; Le Quien, Oriens Chrislianus, vol. ii. col. 43, &c. ; Cave, IJist. Litl. ad ann. 808, vol. ii. p. 6, ed. Oxford, 1740—1743 ; Fabric. Biblioth. Graec. vol. x. p. 248, vol. xi. p. 79.) 2. JosEPHUs Hymnographus (o 'Ti^poypd- <JI)os), or Melodus, or Canonum Scriptor (o iroiTjTTjs Twu /cafoVo)^), or of Sicily. This Jo- sephus lived a little later than the preceding. He was a Sicilian by birth, the son of Plotinus or Plutinus (riAoimVos), and Agatha, persons ap- parently of some property, and of eminent piety. They were compelled, in consequence of the ra- vages of the Saracens in Sicily, to flee into the Peloponnesus ; and Joseph, fearing lest their altered circumstances would interfere with his desire of leading a monastic life, left them, and, while yet a lad, repaired to Thessalonica, and became an inmate of the convent of Latomus, where he became eminent for his ascetic practices and for the fluency and gracefulness of his utter- ance ; " so that he easily," says his biographer, '■ threw the fabled sirens into the shade." Having been ordained presbyter, he accompanied to Con- Btaniinople Gregory of Decapolis, who there became one of the leaders of the "orthodox" party, in their struggle with the iconoclastic emperor, Leo the Armenian, which began in a. D. 814. From Constantinople Joseph repaired, at the desire of this Gregory, to Rome, to solicit the support of the pope ; but falling into the hands of pirates, was by them carried away to Crete. Here he remained till the death of Leo the Armenian (a. d. 820), when he was, as his biographer asserts, miracu- lously delivered, ard conveyed to Constantinople. On his return he found his friend and leader, Gre- gory, dead, and attached himself to another leader, John, on whose death he procured that his body and that of Gregory should be transferred to the deserted churcli of St. John Chrysostom, in con- nection with which he established a monastery, that was soon, by the attractiveness of his elo- quence, filled with inmates. After this he was, for his strenuous defence of image worship, banished to Chersonae, apparently by the emperor Theophi- lu8, who reigned from A. D. 829 to 842 : but, on the death of the emperor, was recalled from exile by the empress Theodora, and obtained, through the favour of the patriarch Ignatius, the office of sceuophylax, or keeper of the sacred vessels in the great church of Constantinople. Joreph was equally acceptable to Ignatius and to his compe- titor and successor Photius [Ignatius, No. 3 ; Photius, No. 3]. He died at an advanced age, in A. D. 883. The chronology of his life has been much perplexed by the interpolation of the notices STYMPHALUS. 929 of him in some MS. of the Greek Synaxuria, by which interpolations the emperor Leo the Armenian [Leo v.], in whose reign Joseph attempted to go to Rome, has been confounded with Leo the Isau- rian [Lko III.], who reigned nearly a century before. Joseph is chiefly celebrated as a writer of Canones or Hymni^ of which several are extant in MS. ; but there is some difficulty in distinguish- ing his compositions from those of Joseph of Thes- salonica [No. 1]. His Canones in omnia Beulae Viryinis Mariae festa^ and his Tlieotocia^ hymns in honour of the Virgin, scattered through the eccle- siastical books of the Greeks, were published, with a learned commentary, and a life of Joseph, translated from the Greek of Joanyes or John tlie Deacon, by Ippolito Maracci, under the title of Maiiale S.Josephi Hymnographi, 8vo. Rome, 1661. The version of the life of Joseph was by Luigi Maracci of Lucca, the brother of Ippolito. An- other Latin version of the same life but less exact, by the Jesuit Floritus, was published among the Viiae Sanctorum Siculorum of Octavius Ciije- tanus (Ottavio Gaetano), vol. ii. p. 43, fol. Palermo 1657, and reprinted in iiQ Acta Sanctorum (vid. infra). Some writers have supposed that there was a third Joseph, a writer of hymns, mentioned in the title of a MS. Typicon at Rome, as of the Monas- tery of St. Nicolaus Casularum (twi/ KaffovKuv) : but there seerns reason to think that this Joseph was the subject of the present article ; and that the Monastery of St. Nicolaus was the one built by him, adjacent to the deserted Church of St. John Chrysostom. ( Vita S. Joscphi Hymnographi^ in the Acta Sanctorum, Aprilis, a. d. iii. vol. i. p. 269, &c., with the Commentarius Praevius of Papebroche, and Appendix, p. xxxiv. ; Fabricius, Biblioth. Graec. vol. xi. p. 79, Menologium Graecorum, jussu Basilii Imperatoris editum, a. d. iii. Aprilis, fol. Urbino, 1727. [J. CM.] STYMPHA'LIDES (2T0M(^aA/Ses), the cele- brated rapacious birds near the Stymphalian lake in Arcadia, whence they were driven by Heracles and compelled to take refuge in the island of Are- tias in the Euxine, where they were afterwards found by the Argonauts. They are described in different ways, but most commonly as voracious birds of pre}', which attacked even men, and which were armed with brazen wings, from which they could shoot out their feathers like arrows. (Apollod. ii. 5. §2; Paus. viii. 22. § 4 ; Hygin. Fab. 30 ; Schol. ad ApolloTi. Rhod. ii. 1053.) They are said to have been brought up by Ares. (Serv. ad Aen. viii. 300.) According to Mnaseas (ap. Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. ii. 1054), they were not birds, but women and daughters of Stymphalus and Ornis, and were killed by Pleracles because they did not receive him hospitably. In the temple of the Stymphalian Artemis, however, they were repre- sented as birds, and behind the temple there were white marble statues of maidens with birds' feet. (Paus. viii. 22. § 5.) [L. S.] ST'YMPHALUS (2TuV(^aAo$). 1. A son of Lycaon. (Apollod. iii. 8. § 1.) 2. A son of Elatus and Laodice, a grandson of Areas, and father of Parthenope, Agamedes, and Gortys. (Apollod. ii. 7. § 8, iii. 9. § 1 ; Paus. viii. 4. § 3, 22. § 1.) Pelops, who was unable to con- quer him in war, murdered him by stratagem, and cut his body in pieces. For this crime Greece was viwted with a famine, which however was averted 3o