308 pltnt's natfeal histobt. [Book XXXVT. 



CHAP. 4. (4.) — THE riEST ARTISTS TVHO EXCELLED IN THE SCULPTURE 

 OF MAEBLE, AND THE YAEIOUS PERIODS AT WHICH THEZ 

 FLOURISHED. THE MAUSOLEUM IN CAEIA. THE MOST CELE- 

 BEATED SCULPT0E8 AND WORKS IN MAEBLE, TWO HUNDEED AND 

 TWENTY-FIVE IN NUMBER. 



The first artists who distinguished themselves in the sculp- 

 ture of marble, were Dipoenus'^ and Scyllis, natives of the Isle 

 of Crete. At this period the Medians were still in power, and 

 Cyrus had not begun to reign in Persia ; their date being about 

 the fiftieth Olympiad. They afterwards repaired to Sicyon, a 

 state which for a length of tirae^^ was the adopted country of 

 all such pursuits as these. The people of Sicyon had made a 

 contract with them for the execution of certain statues of the 

 gods ; but, before completing the work, the artists complained 

 of some injustice being done them, and retired to ^tolia. Im- 

 mediately upon this, the state was afflicted with sterility and 

 famine, and dreadful consternation was the result. Upon 

 enquiry being made as to a remedy for these evils, the Pythian 

 Apollo made answer, that Dipoenus and Scyllis must complete 

 the statues of the gods ; an object which was attained at the 

 cost of great concessions and considerable sums of money. 

 The statues were those of Apollo/^ Diana, Hercules, and 

 Minerva; the last of which was afterwards struck by 

 lightning. 



(5.) Before these artists were in existence, there had already 

 appeared Melas, a sculptor of the Isle of Chios; and, in succes- 

 sion to him, his son Micciades, and his grandson Archermus;^* 

 whose sons, Bupalus and Athenis, afterwards attained the highest 

 eminence in the art. These last were contemporaries of the 

 poet Hipponax, who, it is well known, lived in the sixtieth 

 Olympiad. JS'ow, if a person only reckons, going upwards 

 from their time to that of their great-grandfather, he will find 



^^ These two artists are invariably mentioned together. Pausanias, B. 

 ii. c. 14, and B. iii. c. 17, speaks of them as the pupils or sons of Daeda- 

 lus ; only intimating thereby, as Sillig thinks, that they were the first 

 sculptors worthy of being associated with the father of artists. Pausanias, 

 B. ii. c. 22, mentions ebony statues by them. 



'2 In the time of the Telchines, before the arrival of Inachusin Argolis, 



^3 Pausanias says that this statue was completed by their pupils. Cle- 

 mens Alexandrinus mentions other works of theirs. 



^* Another reading is " Anthermus." Of many of these sculptors, no 

 further particulars are known. 



