Pisander
- son of Polyctor, and one of Penelope's suitors, Ov. H. 1, 91.
(Πείσανδρος). (1) An early Greek poet, born at Camirus, in the island of Rhodes, and supposed to have flourished about B.C. 650, although some made him earlier than Hesiod, and contemporary with Eumolpus. He wrote a poem, entitled Heraclea (Ἡράκλεια), on the exploits of Heracles, of which frequent mention is made by the grammarians. The Alexandrian critics assigned him a rank among epic poets after Homer, Hesiod, Panyasis, and Antimachus.
(2) A Greek poet, born at Laranda, a city of Lycaonia, in Asia Minor, and who lived during the reign of Alexander Severus. He composed a long poem, entitled Ἡρωϊκαὶ Θεογαμίαι, in which he sang of the nuptials of gods and heroes. The sixteenth book of this poem is cited, and Suidas calls the whole production a history varied after the epic manner. One of the interlocutors in the Saturnalia of Macrobius (v. 2) accuses Vergil of having translated from Pisander almost all the second book of the Aeneid, and particularly the story of the wooden horse.
(3) An epigrammatic poet, supposed by Jacobs to be the same with the native of Camirus above mentioned. Heyne, however, thinks that he was identical with the younger Pisander.
(4) An Athenian, one of the leaders of the oligarchical party, and instrumental in bringing about the establishment of the Council of Four Hundred (Thuc.vi. 27, 60; viii. 49, 63, 89; Plut. Alcib.).
(5) A Spartan admiral, in the time of Agesilaüs, slain in a naval battle with Conon near Cnidus, B.C. 394. (Xen. Hellen. iv. 3, 10).
- poet: Paus. 2.37.4, Paus. 8.22.4
- on the mother of Tydeus: Apollod. 1.8.3
- appointed admiral of Lacedaemonian fleet: Paus. 3.9.6
- his axe mentioned by Homer: Paus. 3.3.8
- Apollod. E.7.25