Peisander

(Πείσανδρος).

1. A son of Maemalus, a Myrmidon, and one of the warriors of Achilles. (Hom. Il. 16.193.)

2. A son of Antimachus, and brother of Hippolochus. a Trojam was slain by Agamemnon (Hom. Il. 11.122, &c; 13.601, &c; Paus. 3.3.6.)

3. A son of Polyctor, and one of the suitors of Penelope. (Hom. Od. 18.298, &c 22.268 ; Ov. Ep. 1.91.) [L.S]

(Πείσανδρος), historical.

1. An Athenian, of the demus of Acharnae. From a fragment of the Babylonians of Aristophanes (apud Schol. ad Arist. Av. 1556) it would seem that he was satirised in that play as having been bribed to join in bringing about the Peloponnesian war (comp. Arist. Lysistr. 490; Schol. ad Arist. Pac. 389). Rapacity, however, was fair from being the only point in his character which exposed him to the attacks of the comic poets. In the fragment of the Ἀείσανδρος εἰς Πακτωλὸν ἐστρατεύετο. of Eupolis, which thus speaks of him, --

Πείσανδρος εἰς Πακτωλὸν ἐστρατεύετο, Κἀνταῦθα τῆς στρατιᾶς κάκιστος ἦν ἀνήρ, --

his expedition to the Pactolus has indeed been explained as an allusion to his peculating propensities ; but others, by an ingenious conjecture, would substitute Σπάρτωλον for Πακτωλὸν, and would understand the passage as an attack on him for cowardice in the unsuccessful campaign of the Athenians against the revolted Chalcidians, in B. C. 429 (Thuc. 2.79; comp. Meineke, Fragm. Com. Graec.. vol. i. p. 177, ii. pp. 435, 436). It further appears, from a notice of him in the Symposium of Xeniophon (2.14), that in B. C. 422 he shrunk pusillanimously from serving in the expedition to Macedonia under Cleon (Thuc 5.2). If for this he was brought to trial on an ἀστρατείας γραφή, of which, however, we have no evidence, it is possible, us Meineke suggests (Fragm. Com. Graec. vol. i. p. 178; comp vol. ii. pp 501, 502), that the circumstance may be allnded to in the following line of the Maricus of Eupolis, -- ἄκουε νῦν Πείσανδρος ὡς ἀπόλλυται.

To about this period, too, Meineke would refer the play of the comic poet, Plato, which bears Peisanject. name, and of which he formed the main subject. Aristophanes ridicules him also for the attempt to cloak his cowardice under a gasconading demeanour ; and he gave further occasion for satire to Aristophanes, Eupolis, Hermippus, and Plato, by his gluttony and his unwieldy bulk, the latter of which procured for him the nicknames of ὀνοκίνδιος and ὔνος κανθήλιος (donkey-driver and donkey), names the more appropriate, as the donkeys of Acharnae, his native demus, were noted for their size (Arist. Pax, 389, Av. 1556; Meineke, Fragm. Com. Gaec. ll. cc., vol. ii. pp. 384, 385, 648, 685; Ath. x. p. 415e; Ael. VH 1.27, H. A. 4.1; Suid. s. vv. Δειλότερος τοῦ παρακύπτοντος, Εἴτι πεισάνδρου, Πειδάνδρου δεικλότερος, Ἀρκάδας μιμούμενοι; Hesych. s. v. Ἀχαρνικοὶ ὔνοι). With this disreputable character he possessed we find him in B. C. 415 appointed one of the commissioners (ζητηταὶ) for investigating the mystery of the mutilation of the Hermae, on which occasion he joined with Charictles in representing th outrage as connected with a conspiracy against the people, and thus inflaming the popular fury (Thuc. 6.27_29, 53, 60, &c.; Andoc. die Myst. pp. 5, 6). In B. C. 414 he was archon eponymus (Diod. 13.7); and towards the end of 412 he comes before us as the chief ostensible agent in effecting the revolution of the Four Hundred, having been sent about that time to Athens from the army at Samos to bring about the recall of Aleibiades and the overthrow of the democracy, or rather, according to his own professions, a modification of it. On his arrival, he urged these measures on his countrymen as the only means of obtaining the help of Persia, without which they could not hope to make head against the Lacedaemonians; and at the same time he craftily suggested that it would be at their own option to recur to their old form of government after the temporary revolution had served its purpose. The people, pressed by the emergency, gave a reluctant consent, and entrusted Peisander and ten others with discretionary power to treat with Tissaphernes and Alcibiades. At his instigation also they took away the command of the fleet from Phrynichus and Scironides, who were opposed to the new movement, and the former of whom he accused of having betrayed Amorges and caused the capture of lasus (comp. Thuc. 8.28). Before be left Athens, Peisander organised a cospiracy among the several political clubs (έταιρίαι) for the overthrow of the democracy, and then proceeded on his mission. The negotiation, however, with Tissaphernes failed, and he returned with his colleagues to Samos. Here he strengthened his faction in the army, and formed an oligarchical party among the Samians themselves. He then sailed again to Athens, to complete his work there, establishing oligarchy in all the cities at which he toced is course. Five of his fellow envoys accompanied him, while the remainder were emplayed in the same way in other quarters. On his a al at Athens with a body of heavy-armed drawn from some of the states which he had revolutionised, he found that the clubs had almost effected his object already, principally by means of assassination and the general terror thus produced. When matters were fully ripe for the final step, Peisander made the proposal in the assembly for the establishment of the Four Hundred. In all the measures of this new government, of which he was a member, he took an active part; and when Theramenes, Aristocrates, and others withdrew from it, he sided with the more violent aristocrats, and was one of those who, on the counter-revolution, took refuge with Agis at Deceleia. His property was confiscated, and it does not appear that he ever returned to Athens (Thuc. 8.49, 53, 54, 56, 63-77, 89_98 ; Diod. 13.34; Plut. Alc. 26; Aristot. Rh. 3.18.6, Polit. 5.4, 6, ed. Bekk.; Schol. ad Aesch. de Fals. Leg. p. 34; Lys. περὶ σηκοῦ, p. 108c. Erat. p. 126; Isocr. Areop. p. 151c, d).

2. An Athenian, nick-named "squinter" (στρεβλός). He was attacked by Plato, the comic poet, in his play called "Peisander," which, however, chiefly dealt with his more famous name-sake [No. 1], with whom he seems to have been consessed temporary. In the "Maricas" of Eupolis the two are thus distinguished,-- ὁ στρεβλός; οὔκ ἀλλʼ ὁ μέγας, οὑνοκίνδιος.

(Meineke, vol. i. pp. 178, 179, ii. pp. 501, 502 Schol. ad Arist. Av. 1556. ad Lysistr. 490).

3. A Spartan, brother-in-law of Agesilaus II., who made him admiral of the fleet in B. C. 395, permission having been sent him from the government at home to appoint whomsoever he pleased to the office. This is an instance of the characteristic having nepotism of Agesiaus; for Peisander, though brave and eager eager for distinction, was deficient in the experience requisite for the command in question. In the following year, B. C. 394, he was defeated and slain in a sea-fight off Cnidus, against Conon and Pharnabazus (Xen. Hell. 3.4.29, 4.3, §§ 10, &c; Plut. Ages. 10; Paus. 3.9; Diod. 14.83; Corn. Nep. Con. 4; Just. 6.3). Diodorus improperly calls him Periarchus. [E.E]

(Πείσανδρος), literary.

1. A poet of Cameirus, in Rhodes. The names of his parents were Peison and Aristaechma, and he had a sister called Diocleia; but beyond these barren facts we know nothing of his life or circumstances. He appears to have flourished about the 33d Olympiad (B. C. 648-645), though, according to some, he was earlier than Hesiod, and was a contemporary and friend of Eumolpus. This latter statement, however, is only an instance of the way in which the connection between the great early masters of poetry and their followers in the same line was often represented as an actual personal relation. Peisander was the author of a poem in two books on the exploits of Hercules. It was called Ἡράκλεια, and Clement of Alexandria (Clem. Al. Strom. vi. p. 266, ed. Sylb.) accuses him of having taken it entirely from one Pisinus of Lindus. In this poem Hercules was for the first time represented as armed with a club, and covered with the lion's skin, instead of the usual armour of the heroic period; and it is not improbable, as Müller suggests, that Peisander was also the first who fixed the number of the hero's labours at twelve (Strab. xv. p.688; Suid. s. v. Πείσανδρος ; Eratosth. Catust. 12; Ath. xii. p. 512f; Schol. ad Apoll. Rhod. 1.1196; Theocr. Epigr. xx. ; Miller, Hist. of Gk. Lit. 9.3, Dor. 2.12.1). The Alexandrian grammarians thought so highly of the poem that they received Peisander, as well as Antimachus and Panyasis, into the epic canon together with Homer and Hesiod. Only a few lines of it have been preserved; two are given us by the Scholiast on Aristophanes (Aristoph. Cl. 1034), and another by Stobaeus (Flor. 12.6). Other poems which were ascribed to Peisander were, as we learn from Suidas, spurious, having been composed chiefly by Aristeas. In the Greek Anthology (vol. i. p. 49, ed. Jacobs) we find an epigram attributed to Peisander of Rhodes, perhaps the poet of Cameirus; it is an epitaph on one Hippaemon, together with his horse, dog, and attendant. By some, moreover, it has been thought, but on no sufficient grounds, that the fragments which pass as the 24th and 25th Idyllia of Theocritus, as well as the 4th of Moschus, are portions of the Ἡράκλεια of Peisander (Paus. 2.37, 8.22; Phot. Bibl. 239; Ath. xi. p. 469d; Strab. xiv. p.655 ; Quint. 10.1; Apollod. 1.8; Hygin. Poet. Astr. 2.24; Schol. ad Pind. Pyth. 9.185; Schol. ad Apoll. Rhod. 4.1396; Steph. Byz. s. v. Κάμιπος; Heyne, Exc. i. ad Virg. Aen. ii.; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. i. pp. 215, 590; Voss. de Poet. Graec. 3; Bode, Gesch. der Epischen Dichtkunst, pp. 499, &c). From Theocritus (Epiyr. xx.) it appears that a statue was erected by the citizens of Cameirus in honour of Peisander.

2. A poet of Laranda, in Lycia or Lycaonia, was a son of Nestor [No. 1. See above, Vol. II. p. 1170a], and flourished in the reign of Alexander Severus (A. D. 222-235). He wrote a poem, which, according to Zosimus (5.29), was called Ἠρωικαὶ θεογαμίαι. In most copies of Suidas (s. v. Πείσανδρος) we find the title given as Ἡρα̈ικαὶ θεογαμίαι, which, some have thought, derives confirmation from the statement in Macrobius (Macr. 5.2), that Peisander wrote a sort of universal history, commencing with the nuptials of Jupiter and Juno. But it seems clear that Ἡρωικαὶ is the right reading, and the work probably treated of the marriages of gods and goddesses with mortals, and of the heroic progeny thus produced. It would seem to have been a very voluminous performance, if we adopt the extremely probable alteration of ξʼ for ἓξ in Suidas, and so consider it as consisting of sixty books (Suid. s. v. Ἀγάθυρσοι; Steph. Byz. s. vv. Ἀγάθυρσοι, Ἀπέννιον, Ἄστακος, Βοαύλεια, Κνβέλεια, Λυκόζεια, Οἰνωτρία, Νιφάτης). There are several passages making mention of Peisander, in which we have no means of ascertaining whether the poet of Cameirus or of Laranda is the person alluded to ; such are Schol. ad Apoll. Rhod. 1.471, 2.98, 1090, 4.57; Schol. ad Eur. Phoen. 1748. Macrobius, in the passage above referred to, says that Virgil drew the whole matter of the second book of the Aeneid from Peisander. But chronology, of course, forbids us to understand this of Peisander of Laranda; and we hear of no such work as that to which Macrobius alludes by any older poet of the same name, for the notion of Valckenaer seems quite untenable, viz. that the Ἠρωικαὶ θεογαμίαι was written, in spite of the testimony of Suidas, by Peisander of Cameirus, and was in fact one and the same poem with the Ἠράκλεια (Valcken. Diatrib. ad Eur. Hipp. p. 24; Heyne, Exc. i. iii. ad Virg. Aen. ii.; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. i. pp. 215, 590, iv. p. 265; Voss. de Poet. Graec. 9; Bode, Gesch. der Episch. Dichtk. p. 500, note ). [E.E]