Polyzelus

(Πολύζηλος), a Syracusan, son of Deinomenes and brother of Gelon, the tyrant of Syracuse. His name was inscribed together with those of his three brothers on the tripods dedicated by Gelon to commemorate his victory at Himera, B. C. 480, whence we may conclude that Polyzelus himself bore a part in the success of that memorable day. (Schol. ad Pind. pyth. 1.155.) At his death, in B. C. 478, Gelon left the sovereign power to his brother Hieron, but bequeathed the hand of his widow Demarete. the daughter of Theron, together with the command of the army, to Polyzelus, who by this means obtained a degree of power and influence, which quickly excited the jealousy of Hieron. The latter in consequence deputed his brother to assist the Crotoniats, who had applied to him for support against the Sybarites, in hopes that he might perish in the war. Polyzelus, according to one account, refused to comply, and was, in consequence, driven into exile; but other authors state that he undertook the enterprise, and brought the war to a successful termination, but by this means only inflamed the jealousy of Hieron still more. and was ultimately compelled to quit Syracuse in consequence. He took refuge at the court of his father-in-law Theron, who readily espoused his cause, and even took up arms for the purpose of restoring Polyzelus to his country; but the war between Theron and Hieron was brought to a close by the intervention of the poet Simonides, and a reconciliation effected between the two brothers, in pursuance of which Polyzelus returned to Syracuse, and was restored to all his former honours. He appears after this to have continued on friendly terms with Hieron during the remainder of his life; the date of his death is not mentioned, but it is evident that he must have died before Hieron, as the latter was succeeded by his youngest brother Thrasybulus. (Diod. 11.48; Schol. ad Pind. Ol. H. init. and ib. 29; Ael. VH 9.1.) The above circumstances are narrated with considerable variations by Diodorus and the scholiast, who has himself given more than one account, but the preceding version. which rests mainly on the authority of Tinmaeis, appears the most consistent and probable. [E.H.B]

(Πολύζηλός).

1. Of Messene, an historian, who, according to one account, was the father of the poet Ibycus. (Suid. s. v. Ἴβυκος). If so, he must have lived about B. C. 570.

2. Of Rhodes, an historian, of uncertain date, whose Ῥοδιακά is quoted by Athenaeus (viii. p. 361c.). He seems also to have written other works. Plutarch quotes him as an authority in his life of Solon (100.15); and there is at least one other reference to him. (Schol. ad Hesiod. Op. 10 ; the passage in Ath. i. p. 31e. refers to Polyzelus the comic poet). Hyginus (Astron. 2.14) gives, on the authority of Polyzelus, and evidently from his Ῥοδιακά, an account of Phorbas killing the Rhodian dragon. (Vossius, (de Hist. Graec. p. 490, ed. Westermann.)

3. An Athenian comic poet of the Old Comedy, as some lines upon Theramenes, from his Δημοτυνδάρεως, clearly show (Phot. and Suid. s. v. τριῶν κακῶν); although the greater number of the titles of his plays refer to the nativities of the gods, a class of subjects which belongs to the Middle Comedy. He must therefore be assigned to the last period of the Old Comedy and the beginning of the Middle; as is further proved by an allusion, in the play already quoted, to Hyperbolus, who died in B. C. 411. (Schol. ad Lucian. Tim. 30.) This play, the Δημοτυνδάρεως, is conjectured by Kühn, with much inigenuity, to have been a sort of parody on the recal of Tyndarus to life, applying the fable to the resuscitation of the Atheinian people. The period, at which such a subject is likely to have been chosen, would be the year B. C. 402, after the overthrow of the Thirty Tyrants. The titles of his plays, as mentioned by Suidas, are, Νίπτρα, Δημοτυνδάρεως, Διονύσου γοναί, Μουσῶν γοναί, Ἀφροδίτης γοναί, to which Eudocia adds Ἄρεως γοναί. (Meineke, Frag. Com. Graec. vol. i. pp. 260, 261, vol. ii. pp. 867-872; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. p. 488.) [P.S]