Apollodorus
Could not find Apollodorum in Logeion dictionaries.
Apollodorum Proper-name noun: masculine genitive plural, Proper-name noun: masculine accusative singular of Apollodorus
- A distinguished rhetorician, teacher of Augustus, Suet. Aug. 89; Tac. Or. 19.— Hence, Ăpollŏdōrēi, his pupils, Quint. 2, 11, 2; 3, 1, 18 al.—
- II A distinguished grammarian of Athens, author of a work on mythology still extant, Cic. Att. 12, 23; Macr. S. 1, 13.—
- III An Academic philosopher, Cic. N. D. 1, 34, 93.—
- IV A tyrant of Cassandrea, Cic. N. D. 3, 33, 82.
- 1. uit Athene (ca. 140 v. Chr.), grammaticus, leerling v.d. stoïsche filosoof Panaetius en v.d. grammaticus Aristarchus;
- 2. uit Pergamum, redenaar, leraar v. Octavianus (de latere keizer Augustus).
(Ἀπολλόδωορος).
1. Of Acharne in Attica, son of Pasion, the celebrated banker, who died B. C. 370, when his son Apollodorus was twenty-four years of age. (Dem. pro Phorm. p. 951.) His mother, who married Phormion, a freedman of Pasion, after her husband's death, lived ten years longer, and after her death in B. C. 360, Phormion became the guardian of her younger son, Pasicles. Several years later (B. C. 350), Apollodorus brought an action against Phormion, for whom Demosthenes wrote a defence, the oration for Phormion, which is still extant. In this year, Apollodorus was archon eponymus at Athens. (Diod. 16.46.) When Apollodorus afterwards attacked the witnesses who had supported Phormion, Demosthenes wrote for Apollodorius the two orations still extant κατὰ Στεφάνου. (Aeschin. de Fals. Leg. p. 50; Plut. Dem. 15.) Apollodorus had many and very important law-suits, in most of which Demosthenes wrote the speeches for him (Clinton, Fast. Hell. ii. p. 440, &100.3d. ed.) [Demosthenes[; the latest of them is that against Neaera, in which Apollodorus is the pleader, and which may perhaps be referred to the year B. C. 340, when Apollodorus was fifty-four years of age. Apollodorus was a very wealthy man, and performed twice the liturgy of the trierarchy. (Dem. c. Polycl. p. 1208, c. Nicostr. p. 1247.)
2. Of Amphipolis, one of the generals of Alexander the Great, was entrusted in B. C. 331, together with Menes, with the administration of Babylon and of all the satrapies as far as Cilicia. Alexander also gave them 1000 talents to collect as many troops as they could. (Diod. 17.54 ; Curtius, 5.1; comp. Arrian, Arr. Anab. 7.18; Appian, de Bell. Civ. 2.152.)
3. Of Artemita, whence he is distinguished from others of the name of Apollodorus by the ethnic adjectiveἈρτεμίτας or Ἀρτεμιτηνός. (Steph. Byz. s. v. Ἀρτεμίτα.) The time in which he lived is unknown. Works On the Parthians
He wrote a work on the Parthians which is referred to by Strabo (ii. p.118, xi. pp. 509, 519, xv. p. 685), and by Athenaeus (xv. p. 682), who mentions the fourth book of his work. There are two passages in Strabo (xi. pp. 516 and 526), in which according to the common reading he speaks of an Apollodorus Adramyttenus; but as he is evidently speaking of the author of the Parthica, the word Ἀδραμυττηνὸς has justly been changed into Ἀρτεμιτηννός. History of Cardia (?)
Whether this Apollodorus of Artemita is the same as the one to whom a history of Caria is ascribed, cannot be decided. Stephanus Byzantius (s. vv. Ἀρκόνησος and Λαγινία) mentions the seventh and fourteenth books of this work.
4. An Athenian, commanded the Persian auxiliaries which the Athenians had solicited from the king of Persia against Philip of Macedonia in B. C. 340. Apollodorus was engaged with these troops in protecting the town of Perinthus while Philip invaded its territory. (Paus. 1.29.7 ; comp. Diod. 16.75; Arrian, Arr. Anab. 2.14.)
5. A Boeotian, who together with Epaenetus came as ambassador from Boeotia to Messenia, in B. C. 183, just at the time when the Messenians, terrified by Lycortas, the general of the Achaeans, were inclined to negotiate for peace. The influence of the Boeotian ambassadors decided the question, and the Messenians concluded peace with the Achaeans. (Plb. 14.12.)
6. Of Carystus. The ancients distinguish between two comic poets of the name of Apollodorus: the one is called a native of Gela in Sicily, and the other of Carystus in Euboea. Suidas speaks of an Athenian comic poet Apollodorus, and this circumstance has led some critics to imagine that there were three comic poets of the name of Apollodorus. But as the Athenian is not mentioned anywhere else, and as Suidas does not notice the Carystian, it is supposed that Suidas called the Carystian an Athenian either by mistake, or because he had the Athenian franchise. It should, however, be remembered that the plays of the Carystian were not performed at Athens, but at Alexandria. (Athen. 14.664.) Athenaeus calls him a contemporary of Machon; so that he probably lived between the years B. C. 300 and 260. Apollodorus of Carystus belonged to the school of the new Attic comedy, and was one of the most distinguished among its poets. (Athen. l.c.) This is not only stated by good authorities, but may also be inferred from the fact, that Terence took his Hecyra and Phormio from Apollodorus of Carystus. (A. Mai, Fragm. Plandi et Terenti, p. 38.) According to Suidas Apollodorus wrote 47 comedies, and five times gained the prize. We know the titles and possess fragments of several of his plays; but ten comedies are mentioned by the ancients under the name of Apollodorus alone, and without any suggestion as to whether they belong to Apollodorus of Carystus or to Apollodorus of Gela. (A. Meineke, Hist. Crit. (Comicor. Graecor. p. 462, &c.)
7. Tyrant of Cassandreia (formerly Potidaea) in the peninsula of Pallene. He at first pretended to be a friend of the people; but when he had gained their confidence, he formed a conspiracy for the purpose of making himself tyrant, and bound his accomplices by most barbarous ceremonies described in Diodorus. (xxii. Exc. p. 563.) When he had gained his object, about B. C. 279, he began his tyrannical reign, which in cruelty, rapaciousness, and debauchery, has seldom been equalled in any country. The ancients mention him along with the most detestable tyrants that ever lived. (Plb. 7.7; Seneca, De Ira, 2.5, De Benef. 7.19.) But notwithstanding the support which he derived from the Gauls, who were then penetrating southward, he was unable to maintain himself, and was conquered and put to death by Antigonus Gonatas. (Polyaen. 6.7, 4.6, 18 ; Aelian, Ael. VH 14.41; Hist. An. 5.15; Plut. De Sera Num. Vind. 10, 11; Paus. 4.5.1; Heinsius, ad Ovid. ex Pont. 2.9. 43.)
8. Of Cumae, a Greek grammarian, who is said to have been the first person that was distinguished by the title of grammarian and critic. (Clem. Alex. Strom. i. p. 309.) According to Pliny Plin. Nat. 7.37) his fame was so great that he was honoured by the Amphictyonic council of the Greeks.
9. Of Cyrene, a Greek grammarian, who is often cited by other Greek grammarians, as by the Scholiast on Euripides (Eur. Orest. 1485), in the Etymologicum M. (s. v. βωμολόχοι), and by Suidas (s. vv. ά̀ντικρυς, βωμολόχος, Νάνιον, and βδελύσσω). From Athenaeus (xi. p. 487) it would seem that he wrote a work on drinking vessels (ποτήρια), and if we may believe the authority of Natalis Comes (3.16-18, 9.5), he also wrote a work on the gods, but this may possibly be a confusion of Apollodorus of Cyrene, with the celebrated grammarian of Athens. (Heyne, ad Apollod. pp. 1174, &c., 1167.)
10. Of Cyzicus, lived previous to the time of Plato, who in his dialogue Ion (p. 541), mentions him as one of the foreigners whom the Athenians had frequently placed at the head of their armies. This statement is repeated by Aelian (V.H. 14.5), but in what campaigns Apollodorus served the Athenians is not known. Athenaeus (xi. p. 506), in censuring Plato for his malignity, mentions Apollodorus, and the other foreigners enumerated in the passage of the Ion, as instances of persons calumniated by the philosopher, although the passage does not contain a trace of anything derogatory to them.
11. Of Cyzicus, an unknown Greek writer, who is mentioned by Diogenes Laertins (9.38), and is perhaps the same as the Apollodotus spoken of by Clemens of Alexandria. (Strom. ii. p. 417.)
12. Surnamed Ephillus, a Stoic philosopher, who is frequently mentioned by Diogenes Laertius, who attributes to him two works, one called φνσικὴ, and the other ἠθική. (D. L. 7.39, 41, 54, 64, 84, 102, 121, 125, 129, 135, 140.) Theon of Alexandria wrote a commentary on the φνσικὴ (Suid. s. v. Θέων, and Stobaeus (Eclog. Phys. i. p. 257, ed. Heeren) has preserved two fragments of it. This Stoic must be distinguished from the Academic philosopher Apollodorus who is spoken of by Cicero (De Nat. Deor. 1.34), but he is perhaps the same as the one who is mentioned by Tertullian (De Anima 15) along with Chrysippus.
13. An Epicurean, was according to Diogenes Laertius (10.13) surnamed κηποτύραννος, from his exercising a kind of tyranny or supremacy in the garden or school of Epicurus. He was the teacher of Zeno of Sidon, who became his successor as the head of the school of Epicurus, about B. C. 84. He is said to have written upwards of 400 books (βιβλία, D. L. 10.25), but only one of them is mentioned by its title, viz. a Life of Epicurus. (D. L. 10.2.) This as well as his other works have completely perished.
14. An Epigrammatic poet, who lived in the time of Augustus and Tiberius, and is commonly believed to have been a native of Smyrna. The Greek Anthology contains upwards of thirty epigrams which bear his name, and which are distinguished for their beautiful simplicity of style as well as of sentiment. Reiske was inclined to consider this poet as the same man as Apollonides of Nicaca, and moreover to suppose that the poems in the Anthologia were the productions of two different persons of the name of Apollodorus, the one of whom lived in the reign of Augustus, and the other in that of Hadrian. But there is no ground for this hypothesis. (Jacobs, ad Anthol. Graec. xiii. p. 854, &c.)
15. Of Erythrae, a Greek writer, who spoke of the Erythraean Sibyl as his fellow-citizen. (Varro, Fragm. p. 216, ed Bip.; Schol. ad Plat. Phaedr. p. 343; Lactant. De Fals. Relig 1.6.)
16. Of Gela in Sicily, was, according to Suidas and Eudocia (p. 61), a contemporary of Menander, and accordingly lived between the years B. C. 340 and 290. Suidas and Eudocia attribute to him seven comedies, of which they give the titles. But while Suidas (s. v. Ἀπολλόδωρος) ascribes them to Apollodorus of Gela, he assigns one of these same comedies in another passage (s. v. σπουδάζω) to the Carystian. Other writers too frequently confound the two comic poets. (Meineke, Hist. Cril. Comic. Graec. p. 459, &c.)
17. A Greek Grammarian of Athens, was a son of Asclepiades, and a pupil of the grammarian Aristarchus, of Panaetius, and Diogenes the Babylonian. He flourished about the year B. C. 140, a few years after the fall of Corinth. Further particulars are not mentioned about him. We know that one of his historical works (the χρονικά) came down to the year B. C. 143, and that it was dedicated to Attalus II., surnamed Philadelphus, who died in B. C. 138; but how long Apollodorus lived after the year B. C. 143 is unknown. Works
Apollodorus wrote a great number of works, and on a variety of subjects, which were much used in antiquity, but all of them have perished with the exception of one, and even this one has not come down to us complete. ΒιβλιοθήκηThis work is not now thought to be by Apollodorus and we label the author Pseudo-Apollodorus -- GRC 5/16/2008.
This work bears the title Βιβλιοθήκη; it consists of three books, and is by far the best among the extant works of the kind. It contains a well-arranged account of the numerous mythuses of the mythology and the heroic age of Greece. The materials are derived from the poets, especially the eyelic poets, the logograph(ers, and the historians. It begins with the origin of the gods, and goes down to the time of Theseus, when the work suddenly breaks off. The part which is wanting at the end contained the stories of the families of Pelops and Atreus, and probably the whole of the Trojan cycle also. The first portion of the work (1.1-7) contains the ancient theogonie and cosmogonie mythuses, which are followed by the Hellenic mythuses, and the latter are arranged according to the different tribes of the Greek nation. (Phot. Bibl. 186.) The ancients valued this work very highly, as it formed a running mythological conmmentary to the Greek poets; to us it is of still greater value, as most of the works from which Apollodorus derived his information, as well as several other works which were akin to that of Apollodorus, are now lost. Apollodorus relates his mythical stories in a plain and unadorned style, and gives only that which he found in his sources, without interpolating or perverting the genuine forms of the legends by attempts to explain their meaning. This extreme simplicity of the Bibliotheca, more like a mere catalogue of events, than a history, has led some modern critics to consider the work in its present form either as an abridgement of some greater work of Apollodorus, or as made up out of several of his works. But this opinion is a mere hypothesis without any evidence. Editions
The first edition of the Bibliotheca of Apollodorus, in which the text is in a very bad condition, was edited by Benedictus Aegius of Spoleto, at Rome, 1555, 8vo. A somewhat better edition is that of Heidelberg, 1599, 8vo. (Ap. Commelin.) After the editions of Tan. Faber (Salmur. 1661, 8vo.), and Th. Gale in his Script. Hist. poet. (Paris, 1675, 8vo.), there followed the critical edition of Ch. G. Heyne, Göttingen, 1782 and 83, 4 vols. 12mo., of which a second and improved edition appeared in 1803, 2 vols. 8vo.
The best among the subsequent editions is that of Clavier, Paris, 1805, 2 vols. 8vo., with a commentary and a French translation. The Bibliotheca is also printed in C. and Th. Müller, Fragment. Hist. Graec., Paris, 1841, and in A. Westermann's Mythographi, sive Scriptores Poeticae Histor. Graevi, 1843, 8vo. Fragments
Among the other works ascribed to Apollodorus which are lost, but of which a considerable number of fragments are still extant, which are contained in Heyne's edition of the Bibliotheca and in C. and Th. Müller's Fragm. Hist. Graec., the following must be noticed here:
1. Περὶ τῶν Ἀθήνησιν ἑταίρων, i. e. on the Athenian Courtezans. (Athen. xiii. pp. 567, 583, xiv. pp. 586, 591 Heyne, vol. iii. p. 1163, &c.; Müller, p. 467, &c.)
2. Ἀντιγραφὴ πρὸς τὴν Ἀριστοκλέους ὲπιστμήν. (Athen. 14.636; Heyne, p. 1172, &c.)
3. Γῆς περίοδος, κωμικῷ μέτρῳ, that is, a Universal Geography in iambie verses, such as was afterwards written by Scymnus of Chios and by Dionysins. (Strabo xiv. p.656; Steph. Byz. passim; Heyne, p. 1126, &c.; Müller, p. 449, &c.)
4. Περὶ Ἐτιχάρμου, either a commentary or a dissertation on the plays of the comic poet Epicharmus, which consisted of ten books. (Pophyr. Vit. Plotin,. 4; Heyne, p. 1142, &c.; Müller, p. 462.)
5. Ἐτυμολογίαι, or Etymologies, a work which is frequently referred to, though not always under this title, but sometimes apparently under that of the head of a particular article. (Heyne, p. 1144 &c.; Müller, p. 462, &c.)
6. Περὶ Θεῶν, in twenty-four books. This work contained the mythology of the Greeks, as far as the gods themseives were concerned; the Bibliotheca, giving an account of the heroic ages, formed a kind of continuation to it. (Heyne, p. 1039, &c.; Müller, p. 428, &c.)
7. Περὶ νεῶν καταλόγου or περὶ νεῶν, was an historical and geographical explanation of the catalogue in the second book of the Iliad. It consisted of twelve books, and is frequently cited by Strabo and other ancient writers. (Heyne, p. 1099, &c.; Müller, p. 453, &c.)
8. Περπὶ Σώφρονος, that is, a commentary on the Mimes of Sophron, of which the third book is quoted by Athenaeus (vii. p. 281), and the fourth by the Schol. on Aristoph. ()Vesp. 483; Heyne, p. 1138; Müller, p. 461, &c.)
9. Χρονικὰ or χρονικὴ σύνταξις, was a chronicle in iambic verses, comprising the history of 1040 years, from the destruction of Troy (1184) down to his own time, B. C. 143. This work, which was again a sort of continuation of the Bibliotheca, thus completed the history from the origin of the gods and the world down to his own time. Of how many books it consisted is not quite certain. In Stephanus of Byzantium the fourth book is mentioned, but if Syncellus (Chronogr. p). 349, ed. Dindorf.) refers to this work, it must have consisted of at least eight books. The loss of this work is one of the severest that we have to lament in the historical literature of antiquity. (Heyne, p. 1072, &c.; Muller, p. 435, &c.) Further Information
For further information respecting Apollodorus and his writings, see Fabricius, Bibl. Gr. iv. pp. 287-299 ; C. and Th. Müller, pp. xxxviii.--xlv.
18. Of Lemnos, a writer on agriculture, who lived previous to the time of Aristotle (Aristot. Pol. 1.4, p. 21, ed. Göttling.) He is mentioned by Varro (De Re Rust. i. 1), and by Pliny. (Elench. ad libb. viii. x. xiv. xv. xvii. and xviii.)
19. Surnamed Logisticus, appears to have been a mathematician, if as is usually supposed, he is the same as the one who is called ἀριφμητικός. (D. L. 1.25, 8.12; Athen. 10.418.) Whether he is the same as the Apollodotus of whom Plutarch (Non posse vivi secund. Epic. p. 1094) quotes two lines, is not quite certain.
20. A Macedonian, and secretary to king Philip V. He and another scribe of the name of Demosthenes accompanied the king to the colloquy at Nicaea, on the Maliac gulf, with T. Quinctius Flamininus, in B. C. 198. (Plb. 17.1, 8.)
21. Of Nicaea. Nothing is known about him except that Stephanus Byzantius (s. v. Νικαια) mentions him among the distinguished persons of that town.
22. Of Pergamus, a Greek rhetorician, was the author of a school of rhetoric called after him Ἀπολλοδωρειος αἵρεσις, which was subsequently opposed by the school established bv Theodorus of Gadara. (Θεοδώρειος αἵρεσις.) In his advanced age Apollodorus taught rhetoric at Apollonia, and here young Octavianus (Augustus) was one of his pupils and became his friend. (Strab. xiii. p.625; Sueton. Aug. 89.) Strabo ascribes to him scientific works (τέχνας) on rhetoric, but Quintilian (3.1.18, conmp. § 1) on the authority of Apollodorus himself declares only one of the works ascribed to him as genuine, and this he calls Ars (τέχνη) edita ad Matium, in which the author treated on oratory only in so far as speaking in the courts of justice was concerned. Apollodorus himself wrote little, and his whole theory could be gathered only from the works of his disciples, C. Valgius and Atticus. (Comp. Quint. Inst. 2.11.2, 15.12, 4.1.50 ; Tacit. De clar. Orat. 19; Seneca, Controv. 1.2, 2.9; Sext. Emapir. Adv. Math. 2.79.) Lucian (Macrob. 23) states, that Apollodorus died at the age of eighty-two. (C. W. Piderit, de Apollodoro Perqamneno et Theodoro Gadarensi, Rhetoribus. Marburg, 4to.)
23. Of Phaleron in Attica, a very ardent and zealous friend and follower of Socrates (Xen. Apol. Socr. § 28, Mem. 3.11.17), but unable with all his attachment to understand the real worth of his master. He was naturally inclined to dwell upon the dark side of things, and thus became discontented and morose. though he had not the courage to struggle manfully for what was good. This brought upon him the nickname of μανικὸς, or the eccentric man. (Plat. Sympos. p. 173 D.) When Socrates was going to die, Apollodorus lost all controul over himself, and gave himself up to tears and loud lamentations. (Plat. Phaed. p. 117, D.) Aelian (Ael. VH 1.16) relates a droll anecdote, according to which Apollodorus offered to Socrates before his death a suit of fine clothes, that he might die respectably. Apollodorus occurs in several of Plato's dialogues, but the passage which gives the most lively picture of the man is in the Symposium, p. 173, &c. Compare T. A. Wolf, Praefat. ad Sympos. p. 41.
24. Surnamed Pyragrus, one of the most influential citizens of the town of Agyrium in Sicily, who gave his evidence against the praetor Verres. (Cic. in Verr. 3.31, 4.23.)
25. Governor of Susiana, was appointed to this office by Antiochus III. after the rebellion of Molo and his brother Alexander had been put down, in B. C. 220. (Plb. 5.54; comp. Alexander, brother of Molo.)
26. Of Tarsus, a tragic poet, of whom Suidas and Eudocia (p. 61) mention six tragedies; but nothing further is known about him. There is ainother Apollodorus of Tarsus, who was probab)ly a grammarian, and wrote commentaries on the early dramatic writers of Greece. (Schol. ad Eurip. Med. 148, 169; Schol. a(d Aristoph. Ran. 323, Plut. 535.)
27. Of Telmessus, is called by Artemidorus (Oneirocr. 1.82) an ἀνὴρ ἐλλόγιμος, and seems to have written a work on dreams.
There are a few more persons of the name of Apollodorus, who are mentioned in ancient writers, but nothing is known about them beyond their name. A list of nearly all of them is given by Fabricius (Bibl. G(r. iv. p. 299, &c.) [L.S]
artists.
1. A painter, a native of Athens, flourished about 40, B. C. With him commences a new period in the history of the art. He gave a dramatic effect to the essential forms of Polygnotus, without actually departing from them as models, by adding to them a representation of persons and objects as they really exist, not, however, individually, but in classes: "primus species exprimere instituit." (Plin. Nat. 35.36.1.) This feature in the works of Apollodorus is thus explained by Fuseli (Lect. i.) :--" The acuteness of his taste led him to discover that, as all men were connected by one general form, so they were separated, each by some predominant power, which fixed character and bound them to a class: that in proportion as this specific power partook of individual peculiarities, the farther it was removed from a share in that harmonious system which constitutes nature and consists in a due balance of all its parts. Thence he drew his line of imitation, and personified the central form of the class to which his object belonged, and to which the rest of its qualities administered, without being absorbed: agility was not suffered to destroy firmness, solidity, or weight; nor strength and weight agility; elegance did not degenerate to effeminancy, or grandeur swell to hugeness." Fuseli justly adds that these principles of style seem to have been exemplified in his two works of which Pliny has given us the titles, a worshipping priest, and Ajax struck by lightning, the former being the image of piety, the latter of impiety and blasphemy. A third picture by Apollodorus is mentioned by the Scholiast on the Plutus of Aristophanes. (5.385 )
Apollodorus made a great advance in colouring. He invented chiaroscuro (φθορὰν καὶ ἀπόχρωσιν σκιᾶς, Plut. de Gloria Athen. 2). Earlier painters, Dionysius for example (Plut. Tim. 36), had attained to the quality which the Greeks called τόνος, that is, a proper gradation of light and shade, but Apollodorus was the tirst who heightened this effect by the gradation of tints, and thus obtained what modern painters call tone. Hence he was called σκιαγράφος. (Hesychius, s. v.) Pliny says that his pictures were the first that rivetted the eyes, and that he was the first who conferred due honour upon the pencil, plainly because the cestrum was an inadequate instrument for the production of those effects of light and shade which Apollodorus produced by the use of the pencil. In this state he delivered the art to Zeuxis [Zeuxis], upon whom he is said to have written verses, complaining that he had robbed him of his art. Plutarch (L. c.) says, that Apollodorus inscribed upon his works the verse which Pliny attributes to Zeuxis, Μωμήσεταί τις μᾶλλον ἢ μιμήσεται.
2. A sculptor, who made statues in bronze. He was so fastidious that he often broke his works in pieces after they were finished, and hence he obtained the surname of " the madman," in which character he was represented by the sculptor Silanion. (Plin. Nat. 34.19.21.) Assuming from this that the two artists were contemporary, Apollodorus flourished about 324 B. C.
A little further on (§ 26) Pliny names an Apollodorus among the artists who had made bronze statues of philosophers.
On the base of the " Venus di Medici," Apollodorus is mentioned as the father of Cleomenes. Thiersch (Epochen, p. 292) suggests, that he may have been the same person as the subject of this article, for that the statue of the latter by Silanion may have been made from tradition at any time after his death. But Apollodorus is so common a Greek name that no such conclusion can be drawn from the mere mention of it.
3. Of Damascus, lived under Trajan and Hadrian. The former emperor employed him to build his Forum, Odeum, and Gymnasium, at Rome; the latter, on account of some indiscreet words uttered by the architect, first banished him and afterwards put him to death. Further Information
D. C. 69.4; Spartian. Hadrian. 19. [P.S]
a Graeco-Roman jurist, and one of the commission appointed by Theodosius the Younger to compile the Theodosian Code. In A. D. 429 he appears as comes and magister memoriac (Cod. Th. 1. tit. 1. s. 5), and he appears as comes sacri consistorii in the years 435 and 438. (Cod. Th. 1. tit. 1. s. 6; Nov. 1. Theod. II., printed in the Bonn Corpas Juris Antejust. as a second preface to the Theod. Cod.) There seems to be no reason, beyond sameness of name and nearness of date, to identify him with the Apollodorus who was comes rei priratae under Peaddius and Honorius A. D. 396, and was procoesul of Africa in the years 399 and 400. (Cod. T h. 11. tit 36. . s. 32; 16. tit. 11. s. 1.) To Apollodorus, proconsul of Africa, are addressed some of the letters of Symmachus, who was connected with him by affinity. (8.4, 9.14, 48.) [J.T.G]
(Ἀπολλόδωρος), the name of two physicians mentioned by Pliny (Plin. Nat. 20.13), one of whom was a native of Citium, in Cyprus, the other of Tarentum. Perhaps it was one of these who wrote to Ptolemy, king of Egypt, giving him directions as to what wines he should drink (ibid. 14.9), though to which king of this name his precepts were addressed is not mentioned. A person of the same name wrote a work, Περὶ Μύρων καὶ Στεφάνων, Ointments and Chaplets quoted by Athenaeus (xv. p. 675), and another, quoted by the same author, Περὶ Θηρίων, On Venomous Animals (ibid. xv. p. 681), which is possibly the work that is several times referred to by Pliny. (H. N. 22.15, 29, &c.) [W.A.G]
(Ἀπολλόδωρος). (1) A Greek poet of the New Comedy, born at Carystus, between B.C. 300 and 260. He wrote forty-seven plays, and won five victories. From him Terence borrowed the plots of his Phormio and Hecyra.
(2) A Greek grammarian and historian of Athens, about B.C. 140, a pupil of Aristarchus and the Stoic Panaetius. He was a most prolific writer on grammar, mythology, geography, and history. Some of his works were written in iambic senarii—e. g. a geography, and the Chronica, a condensed enumeration of the most important data in history and literature from the fall of Troy, which he places in B.C. 1183, down to his own time—undoubtedly the most important of ancient works on the subject. Besides fragments, we have under his name a book entitled Bibliotheca, a great storehouse of mythological material from the oldest theogonies down to Theseus, and, with all its faults of arrangement and treatment, a valuable aid to our knowledge of Greek mythology. Yet there are grounds for doubting whether it is from his hand at all, or whether it is even an extract from his great work, On the Gods, in twenty-four books. A good edition is Hercher's (Berlin, 1874).
(3) A Greek painter of Athens, about B.C. 420, the first who graduated light and shade in his pictures, whence he received the name of Sciagrăphus (shadowpainter). This invention entitled him to be regarded as the founder of a new style, which aimed at producing illusion by pictorial means, and which was carried on further by his younger contemporary Zeuxis (Pliny , Pliny H. N. xxxv. 60).
(4) A Greek architect of Damascus, who lived for a time at Rome, where, among other things, he built Trajan's Forum and Trajan's Column. He was first banished and then put to death under Hadrian, A.D. 129, having incurred that emperor's anger by the freedom of his criticisms. We have a work by him on engines of war, addressed to Hadrian.
- Paus. 10.9.10
- Paus. 1.29.10
- Paus. 4.5.4ff.
Apollodorus, Library c. 100 - 200 AD
In the second century BC, Apollodorus of Athens was a scholar who studied under the famous Aristarchus at Alexandria, but left that city around 146 BC, perhaps for Pergamon. He spent much of his later life working at Athens, and produced a wide range of major scholarly works. In the Byzantine period, his name became associated with the “Library,” the mythological handbook which now survives as our best single source on Greek mythology.
Apollodorus of Athens could not, however, have composed the “Library.” The text that we possess cites a Roman author, Castor the Annalist, who was a contemporary of Cicero in the first century B.C. Since there is no reason to doubt that his passage belongs to the Library, the text which we have was composed at least a century after the historical Apollodorus of Athens was in his prime. The real author of the Libraryof Apollodorus is thus unknown. Scholarly opinion, arguing from the language used by the text, generally places the Library in the first or second centuries A.D.
One aspect of the Librarywhich also suggests that it is not the work of Apollodorus the Athenian contributes to this work's great value for modern scholars: where Apollodorus the Athenian seems to have interpreted ancient myths according to the intellectual trends of his day, the author of the Libraryreports its myths with little interpretation and draws often upon very old and conservative sources. The Librarypreserves many mythological variants which Greek epic and lyric poetry seem to presuppose without directly mentioning, and thus often seems to provide a picture of Greek mythology as it appeared in the archaic and classical period. Apollodorus is thus an invaluable source to the student of Greek mythology.
sources used by ApollodorusThe Librarywas composed at least four hundred years after the death of Alexander the Great (the conventional end of the Classical period), but this work nevertheless derives in large part from very early sources and gives us a better idea of Greek mythology in the archaic and classical period than other works written centuries earlier.
In a number of cases, we can see how the Library follows surviving sources, and the reader can compare the originals with the versions in the Library to get a sense of how faithful this text is: Apollod. 3.5.7-9-Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus Apollod. 1.9.15-Euripides, Alcestis Apollod. 1.9.28-Euripides, Medea Apollod. E.7-Homer, Odyssey Apollod. 2.9.16-26-Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica
The most important lost source used by the Libraryseems to have been Pherecydes of Athens, a prose author from the fifth century BC, who composed a long work on Greek mythology. Many of the most useful traditions preserved in Apollodorus seem to derive from Pherecydes, and Apollodorus thus offers us glimpses of myths as they were recorded at a very early date.
The text of the Libraryis not complete, and the later sections are missing. Two manuscripts, however, contains largely identical summaries of the Libraryas a whole, and James Frazer, the editor of the Loeb Edition Apollodoros [Frazer, 1913], created the “Epitome,” a composite text, drawn from these two manuscript summaries. Frazer includes that section of this Epitome which takes up where the regular text breaks off, thus providing a more or less complete version of whole.
In addition, the index and especially the notes which accompany the text of the Libraryin the Loeb Classical Library edition were composed by Sir James Frazer, the author of the Golden Bough. The index is thorough, and the notes contain references to most of the other major literary sources for the myths mentioned in the Library. A reader interested in seeing how Greek texts portray the story of Herakles and the Hesperides can begin by looking for the Hesperides in the index to Apollodorus, check what Apollodorus has to say and then look up the references collected by Frazer in the notes.
Apollodorus. Gods and Heroes of the Greeks: the Library of Apollodorus translated with Introduction and Notes by Michael Simpson. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1976. vi+311. Apollodorus. The Library. Loeb Classical Library. 2 vols. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1921. Apollodorus. The Library of Greek Mythology: Translated with Notes and Indices. Lawrence, Kansas: Coronado Press, 1975. x+297. Gregory Crane