II 



JMOTO& 



ttoritaof him an derived from a ' Lif.,' 

 lacuooof FabUa, bearing tb* nan* of 

 i Oaaetoaltocpolitaa monk, about the 

 Thai contain* a distorted vl*w of tb* 

 l.i -k <mi h *mU SA he known, uiixe.1 



AETIC8. 



tl 



of confe*ting hi* wit and acuteneat 



a* totaQy unworthy of credit. Thar* b no allusion to the** pereo 

 aataliaritii* to any rti*alt*.l antbor, and etroog negative reaton* have 

 bean urt*d for believing tbat non* tuch existed. So* Bentiey't 

 DtoMrtation upon flfann. tnVJnlntil to that upon Pbalaria. 



Tb* pita* of kit birth, like thai of Homer, it matter of qnortion ; 

 Samoa, flaroia, CotitMun to Phrygia, and lloMmbria ia Thrace, laying 

 claim aba* to that honour, the early part of hi* life wat tpent to 

 aad th* name* of thre* of hi* nutter* have been preserved : 



, AthraUa, ia wboM sci-rioe be ia said to bar* acquired a 

 oorrt and pui knowledge of Greek ; Xanthns. a SamUo, who flgura* 

 In riaaude* M philosopher ; and ladmoo, or Idmon, aootber Samian, 

 by whom be waa enfranchi^d. Ha acquired a bigh reputation in 

 time* for tbat tp*d*t of composition which, after him, wai called 

 ia oooaaqiMoo* wat toliciied by CroMus to take op bii 



ahod* at th* Lydian court. Hera be i* (aid to have met Solon, and 

 to haw nbuktd tb* tag* for hi* nnconrtly way of inculcating moral 



I* aaid to Uav* vUted Athena during the usurpation of 

 Piaittrataa, and to bav* eompoetd th* fable of 'Jupiter and the Frogs' 

 far tb* tottrneUon of th* dtuann. (Phaxlnu, i. 1) Being charged 

 by Cretan* with an *mba**y to Del | hi. to the course of which he waa 

 to dieti Ihato a torn of money to every Delphian, a quarrel arose between 

 Urn and tb* uilltaas, to contoquano* of which he returned the money 

 to bit patron, alleging that those for whom it was meant were unworthy 

 of iL Th* disappointed party in return got up a charge of sacrilege, 

 upon which Ibejr put him to death. A pestilence which ensued waa 

 attributed to tbl* crime, and to consequence they made proclamation 

 at all tb* public a-embliet of the Grecian nation, of their willingness 

 lo make eomptnaallnn for -taop't death to any on* who thould appear 

 to claim it A grandson of hi* matter ladmon at length claimed and 

 received it, no parson more cloeely connected with the lufferer baring 

 appeared. Thi* ingular tale rette on the authority of Herodotus. 



The time of .Kaup't death it uncertain. Some place it as early at 

 In* 6Jrd Olympiad, about B.C. 665. If however then be any truth 

 to tb* tcmtterrd notions which we have combined, he wai at Athent 

 daring tb* ntnrpatten of Piaittratua, and met with hit death in the 

 errricc of Cromu, and therefore before the capture of Sardia and fall 

 of the Lydian kingdom. This, according to Newton's chronology, 

 would Ax hi* death in th* 67th or 68th Olympiad, between the year* 

 sxc. 640 and 664. Tb* Athenian* erected to hi* honour a statue from 

 the hand of tb* celebrated sculptor Lysippus. 



There it abundant proof that fabl** patting under the name of .-Ksop 

 wan current and popular to Athens during the moat brilliant period 

 of ita literary bbtory, and not much more than a century after the 

 death of th* suppoatd antbor. Th* ' drolleries of ,*op ' (AlfmwuA 

 >XMal are moaUoMd by ArUtophane* in terms which lead u* to 

 sfpOM that they won commonly repntUd at convivial partiei. 

 Bon-ate*, to priton, tunw.l into veree those tbat he knew ;" and 

 Plato, who hanlsat* the action* of Homer from hia ideal republic, 

 >of the tendency of thoee of .Eeop. Demetrius 



a collection of JUop.an fable* ; and w* hear of two 

 metrical veraioas of thorn of still later date, one by an anonymous 

 utt,/, tb* other by Ilabrina. PbaHrus published a collection of 

 fahie* to Latin v*rw to tb* Urn* of Tibtriua, tb* u.ateriuls of which 

 b* prafitatt to bav* taken from S*a\> ; and it ia not improbable that 

 the nearest approach to tb* tnbatanc* of the original apologue* may 

 there b, bund. Another collection wat written to elegia?vri*, in 

 tb* 4tb otatury, by A vicuna. 



Ther* I, no ground whatever for blUving that th* Greek prate 

 thlea which pa* under tb* turn* of X*>\> are really of hit COUIIH>- 

 aWa~at toaai, tbat they cam* from hi* band* in their prevnt state. 

 Tbos* which are mbttenlially the tamo with the fabl.t of Pbttdrut, 

 the *U*.t to which w* aw aign certain dale, may be believed, for 

 eon* alreadjr .tjsgntrf. to have originally emanated from the 

 number of them it about 200 or 300, and 





i.. 

 to aaaiber 144, 



contain internal eridenoe that, aa 

 > fc V rt date, an,i probably 



Lj^hHT^^i ** * ** *** ananmcripte couteto* th* fable* 



I bf Plaaudee; and that th* editor expreti.t bit belief that 



H-T. " k k of dJbreat band*. 8om* b. attribute* to the 



toaaa, Btatuti tt*y ooatata aUation* to tb* monastic lif*. which I* 



at Uatt toBciagt evidonc* of tbtsr late date. Tbl. edition, wUd 



?.*?? *7 **?** /'*"'. "ootetot 897 fable* aacribtd to ,*op and 



40 of th* )** Ankllimlna I.,. li._l 1. "H. >uu 



**t n * M iwiHi* wuu tivtu In ins 3rd CMULIIPV * 



. i , w v^ wu.urT , 



Ulaal vtiMiiiii to Ortek and Latin. 

 rVeoMteTB pbilotoplwr and fabutitt Lokmaa U vppoaid by many 



to bar* b**a the earn* peraon aa .Kop. The former, by the Mohaiu- 

 medaa anthoritiea, ia mad* eontomporary with David and Solomon ; 

 but bia hiatory it too uncertain for ut to (peculate upon it The name 

 fable* are to be found current under the namea of each, and the cor- 

 raepondenoe between their peraonal hittorie*, at commonly told, ia too 

 dote to be entirely accidental (BABBIUS ; LonuM.] Many tranala- 

 tiooa of the (able* attributed to j&top bar* been made in mott modern 

 languaget : th* moat recent English translation U by the Her. Thomas 

 Jamea. 



ACTION CAcrfer), a celebrated Greek painter, and, according to 

 Lucian, on* of the beat ancient colourUts. That writer mentions 

 Action, Aprllea, Euphranor, and Polygnotut, at the mott successful 

 of the ancient Greek painters in the mixing and laying on of colour*. 

 Action'* exact time it uncertain, although, from the manner in which 

 he it mentioned by Luciau, notwithstanding the Dame* he ia associated 

 with, be lired probably in Lucian's own time, or at most very shortly 

 before him. He tpeakt of him aa the most distinguished painter of 

 hit time, and describe* a very celebrated picture by him of the marriage 

 of Alexander and Roxana, which the painter exhibited at the Olympic 

 games, and which pleated Proxenidaa, one of the judges, so much that 

 he gave Aiition hia daughter in marriage. " It may be asked," lays 

 Lucian, " what wai there to marvellous in that painting, aa should 

 indue a man of such high rank to reward the painter, who withal 

 was a stranger, by bestowing on him his daughter ? The picture U 

 "till in Italy, and I am able to speak of it from personal inspection. 

 It repratente an extremely magnificent bed-chamber with a nu;>ti.il 

 bed. In it U teen sitting Uoxana, the most beautiful virgin that can 

 be conceived. Her eye* are modestly fixed on the ground bcfuro 

 Alexander, standing near her. She ia surrounded by several smiling 

 Cupids. One of them behind her lifts up the bridal veil from her 

 forehead, and shows it to the bridegroom. Another, in the attitude 

 of a slave, it officiously employed in drawing off her shoes, that she 

 may no longer be detained from lying down. A third has bold of 

 Alexander's robe, pulling him with all hia might towards Roxaiia. 

 The king presents the maiden with a crown, and betide him stands 

 HepbiMtion at a bridcman, holding a lighted torch in his hand, sup- 

 ported by a wonderfully fine youth, whom I guess to represent the 

 god of marriage, for the name it not beneath. On the other side of 

 the piece are drawn several more Cupids, playing with the arms of 

 Alexander. Two of them carry his spear, and teem almost ov rlmr- 

 deued with the weight of it. Another couple take his buckler, with a 

 figure like the king stretched upon it, trailing it along by the handles. 

 Another creeps backwards into the coat of mail, where he seems to 

 lurk in order to frighten the two little porters as they coma on." 

 " These collateral incident*," continues Lucian, " are by no means 

 the mere wantonness and idle sport of the artist's fancy ; they arc to 

 show the martial disposition of the bridegroom, and timt bin lore for 

 Roxana had not effaced his passiou for arms and military glory." 

 (Tooke'a Translation.) 



From this description Raphael is aaid to have made a design, of 

 which there are duplicate* or copies, and it wot executed in ft 

 the to-called Villa of Raphael, in the garden of the Villa liorghese at 

 Rome ; but the competition ia puerile, and does not at all inn-it the 

 praises which Lucian hat given to the ancient performance of Ai-tiou : 

 it hat been several timet etched or engraved by J. Caraglio, Volpato, 

 and other*. 



Lucian in the above description remarks, that he guesses a fine 

 youth to represent the god of marriage, as "the name is not beneath." 

 He alludes to an ancient custom which prevailed among the Greeks, 

 of attaching the names in their pictures to the figures represented ; 

 the name* in mott cases were probably written below the feet of the 

 figure. In the picture* on vases we find the name sometimes written 

 by the aide of the figure, but the practice was not universal. In thi - 

 case, from Lucian's remark, it would seem that tome of the figures 

 had name* attached to them, as be speaks of the other characters with 

 certainty, and guesses only at the god of marriage, because there was 

 no name attached. It was a practice however seldom if at all had 

 recourse to in later times, and in case of ita employment the name was 

 probably to placed as not to disturb the pictorial effect. SoinctiuicH 

 sentences were inscribed on pictures, as for instance Zeuxis wrote 

 upon his picture of Helen three lines from Homer, celebrating her 

 extraordinary beauty. ('Iliad/ iii. 166-158; Valerius Maximum, iii. 7 

 S 8.) There are similar examples on works of the middle ages, and 

 also of much later times: inscriptions below allegories are very 

 common* 



The circumstance that Pliny hns not mentioned Action is an addi- 

 tional reason for concluding that ho lived about Luciou's own time, or 

 in the early half of the 2nd century of our era, subsequent to 1'liny. 

 Some however have supposed that the Echion of Pliny and Cicero is 

 the Action of Lucian, especially as the former was celebrated for a 

 picture of a bride distinguished for the modesty of her expression; 

 'lit this implies a great blunder in Lucian, who speaks of him as a 

 painter of hia own time, and there ia no sufficient reason for such n 

 luppoeition. 



(Ludan, Jfcrodottu or Ailio*, De Marctdt Conduct*, 412, and Jmag. 7; 

 1'liny. J/ut. Nat. xxxv. 10, 36 ; Cicero, Brutui, 18 ; Parad. v. 2.) 



AK'TIUS ('A^TIOI), of Amida in Mesopotamia, a Greek writer on 

 medicine, who probably lived about the end of the 5th and the begin- 



