DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.800#0526
BRIDGE OF THE CEPIIISUS.
503
mentioned by Pausanias, may be added that of the sophist Apollonius.1
A little before crossing the Cephisus was the monument of Theodoras, an
infamous character, but the best tragic actor of his time, who is said to
have drawn tears from Alexander, the cruel tyrant of Pherse.2 On the
bank of the stream were statues of Mnesimache and of her son, cutting
off his hair as an anathema to the river Cephisus ;3 an ancient Greek
custom, as is evident from Homer.
Pausanias does not say how the river was crossed; whether by a ford,
a ferry, or a bridge. A. Mommsen * positively denies that there was
any bridge here in the olden times, though he admits that there was
one in the time of Strabo. But it is hardly probable that so consi-
derable a stream as the Cephisus should have been left unbridged.
The epigram attributed to Simonides proves, we think, the existence of
a bridge:
2> ire Arjprjrpos irpbs dvaKropov, S> Ire iivarai,
firjd' v8aros 7rpo%oas 6V/fiere \€i.p.fpiovs '
Toiov EeivoKKrfS yap 6 Aii/Siov >i(r<j)a\es Vfifai'
fevypa bia 7r\ar€os roO^' ej3a\ev TrorafLOv.5
" 0 mystics, to Demeter's shrine proceed,
Ye need no more the storm-swoln torrent dread ;
But o'er it on the bridge, just newly raised
By Lindian Xenocles securely tread."
The epigram, though wrongly ascribed to Simonides, is doubtless an
ancient one. An architect named Xenocles was, we know, employed in
erecting the temple at Eleusis,6 and it is therefore highly probable that
he should have built a bridge over the Cephisus. We attach no
importance to the circumstance that while the epigram calls him a
native of Lindus, Plutarch designates him as of the deme Cholargos.
1 See the passage of Philostratus quoted
above, p. 501.
3 M. V. H. xiv. 40 et ibi not. He
seems to have been a tragic poet as well as
actor; cf. Plut. Sympos. ix. 2; Demosth.
de fals. Leg. p. 418, Reiske; Aristot.
Polit. vii. 17.
3 Sicbolis (ad loc.) observes that Mnesi-
mache and her son, whoever they were,
must have been of the heroic age, as
Pausanias calls their statutes ayaXfun-a.
4 Heortologie, p. 255, note 2.
6 Ap. Casaub. ad Strab. ix. p. 400; cf.
Brunck, Anal. i. p. 138.
6 Plut. Pericl. 13.
503
mentioned by Pausanias, may be added that of the sophist Apollonius.1
A little before crossing the Cephisus was the monument of Theodoras, an
infamous character, but the best tragic actor of his time, who is said to
have drawn tears from Alexander, the cruel tyrant of Pherse.2 On the
bank of the stream were statues of Mnesimache and of her son, cutting
off his hair as an anathema to the river Cephisus ;3 an ancient Greek
custom, as is evident from Homer.
Pausanias does not say how the river was crossed; whether by a ford,
a ferry, or a bridge. A. Mommsen * positively denies that there was
any bridge here in the olden times, though he admits that there was
one in the time of Strabo. But it is hardly probable that so consi-
derable a stream as the Cephisus should have been left unbridged.
The epigram attributed to Simonides proves, we think, the existence of
a bridge:
2> ire Arjprjrpos irpbs dvaKropov, S> Ire iivarai,
firjd' v8aros 7rpo%oas 6V/fiere \€i.p.fpiovs '
Toiov EeivoKKrfS yap 6 Aii/Siov >i(r<j)a\es Vfifai'
fevypa bia 7r\ar€os roO^' ej3a\ev TrorafLOv.5
" 0 mystics, to Demeter's shrine proceed,
Ye need no more the storm-swoln torrent dread ;
But o'er it on the bridge, just newly raised
By Lindian Xenocles securely tread."
The epigram, though wrongly ascribed to Simonides, is doubtless an
ancient one. An architect named Xenocles was, we know, employed in
erecting the temple at Eleusis,6 and it is therefore highly probable that
he should have built a bridge over the Cephisus. We attach no
importance to the circumstance that while the epigram calls him a
native of Lindus, Plutarch designates him as of the deme Cholargos.
1 See the passage of Philostratus quoted
above, p. 501.
3 M. V. H. xiv. 40 et ibi not. He
seems to have been a tragic poet as well as
actor; cf. Plut. Sympos. ix. 2; Demosth.
de fals. Leg. p. 418, Reiske; Aristot.
Polit. vii. 17.
3 Sicbolis (ad loc.) observes that Mnesi-
mache and her son, whoever they were,
must have been of the heroic age, as
Pausanias calls their statutes ayaXfun-a.
4 Heortologie, p. 255, note 2.
6 Ap. Casaub. ad Strab. ix. p. 400; cf.
Brunck, Anal. i. p. 138.
6 Plut. Pericl. 13.