Cheirisophus

(Χειρίσοφος), a Lacedaemonian, was sent by the Ephors with 700 heavyarmed men (800 according to Diodorus), to aid Cyrus in his expedition against his brother Artaxerxes, B. C. 401, and joined the prince on his march at Issus in Cilicia. (Diod. xiv 19, 21 ; Xen. Anab. 1.4.3.) After the battle of Cunaxa, Clearchus sent him with others to Ariaeus to make an offer, which however was declined, of placing him on the Persian throne [p. 283b.]. After the arrest of Clearchus and the other generals, through the treachery of Tissaphernes, Cheirisophus took an active part in encouraging the troops and in otherwise providing for the emergency, and, on the motion of Xenophon, was appointed, as being a Lacedaemonian, to lead the van of the retreating army. In this post we find him subsequently acting throughout the retreat, and cordially cooperating with Xenophon. In fact it was only once that any difference arose between them, and that was caused by Cheirisophus having struck, in a fit of angry suspicion, an Armenian who was guiding them, and who left them in consequence of the indignity. (Diod. 14.27; Xen. Anab. 3.2.33, &c., 3. §§ 3, 11, 4. §§ 38-43, 5. §§ 1-6, 4.1. §§ 6, 15-22, 2.23, &c., 3. §§ 8, 25, &c., 6. §§ 1-3.) When the Greeks had arrived at Trapezus on the Euxine, Cheirisophus volunteered to go to his friend Anaxibius, the Spartan admiral at Byzantium, to obtain a sufficient number of ships to transport them to Europe; but he was not successful in his application. (Diod. 14.30, 31; Xen. Anab 5.1.4, 6.1.16.) On his return to the army, which he found at Sinope, he was chosen commander-in-chief, Xenophon having declined for himself the proffered honour on the express ground of the prior claim of a Lacedaemonian. (Anab. 6.1. §§ 18-33.) Cheirisophus, however, was unable to enforce submission to his authority, or to restrain the Arcadian and Achaean soldiers from their profligate attempt to plunder the hospitable Heracleots; and, on the sixth or seventh day from his election, these troops, who formed more than half the army, separated themselves from the rest, and departed by sea under ten generals whom they had appointed. Xenophon then offered to continue the march with the remainder of the forces, under the command of Cheirisophus, but the latter declined the proposal by the advice of Neon, who hoped to find vessels at Calpe furnished by Cleander, the Spartan Harmost at Byzantium, and wished to reserve them exclusively for their own portion of the army. With the small division yet under his command, Cheirisophus arrived safely at Calpe, where he died from the effects of a medicine which he had taken for a fever. (Xen. Anab. 6.2.4. § 11.) [E.E]

(Χειρίσοφος), a statuary in wood and probably in stone. A gilt wooden statue of Apollo Agyieus, made by him, stood at Tegea, and near it was a statue in stone of the artist himself, which was most probably also his own work. (Paus. 8.53.3.) Pausanias knew nothing of his age or of his teacher; but front the way in which he mentions him in connexion with the Cretan school of Daedalus, and from his working both in wood and stone, he is probably to be placed with the latest of the Daedalian sculptors, such as Dipoenus and Scyllis (about B. C. 566). Böckh, considers the erection by the artist of his own statue as an indication of a later date (Corp). Inscrip. i. p. 19); but his arguments are satisfactoily answered by Thiersch, who also shews that the reply of Hermann to Böckh, that Pausanias does not say that Cheirisophus made his own statue, is not satisfactory. (Epochen, pp. 137-139.) Thiersch has also observed, that the name of Cheirisophus, like many other names of the early artists, is significant of skill in art (χείπ, σοφός). Other names of the same kind are, Daedalus (Δαίδαλος) the son of Eupalamus (Εὐπάλαμος), Eucheir (Εὔχειρ), Chersiphron (Χερσίφρων), and others. Now, granting that Daedalus is nothing more than a mythological personage, and that his name was merely symbolical, there can be no doubt that others of these artists really existed and bore these names, which were probably given to them in their infancy because they belonged to families in which art was hereditary. Thiersch quotes a parallel case in the names taken from navigation among the maritime people of Phaeacia. (Hom. Od. 8.112, &c.)

Pausanias mentions also two shrines of Dionysus, an altar of Cora, and a temple of Apollo, but the way in which he speaks leaves it doubtful whether Cheirisophus erected these, as well as the statue of Apollo, or only the statue. [P.S]