Aristoclides

Not to be confused with Aristocleides or Aristocleidas.

Aristoclides was a painter mentioned by Pliny the Elder^[1] as one of those who deserved to be ranked next to the "masters" in their art. His age and country are unknown.^[2] He painted the temple of Apollo at Delphi.^[3][4] It is said that he was famous before the public of Athens, and attracted many great artists to himself.^[5][6]

There was also another Aristoclides mentioned in the third Nemean Ode of the poet Pindar, and is ostensibly the friend of Pindar to whom the ode is addressed. While it is often written in English as "Aristoclides", this person's name is more commonly transliterated from the Greek as Aristocleidas.^[7][8]

There was still another Aristoclides, this one apparently a tyrant of ancient Greek Orchomenus, whose first known reference is in the treatise on marriage and virginity called Against Jovinianus, written by Church Father Saint Jerome. The tale told of Aristoclides is that he killed the father of the virgin Stymphalides, whom he desired, and afterwards pursued her into the temple of the goddess Diana. Stymphalides clung to the statue of Diana in the temple, refusing to give herself to Aristoclides, and Aristoclides stabbed her to death.^[9] It is this Aristoclides who is described as "Aristoclides of Orchomenus" in The Franklin's Tale of The Canterbury Tales of Geoffrey Chaucer, referenced by one character as an example of how women ought to behave regarding the preservation of their virginity.^[10][11][12]

This tale is possibly a mythical retelling of the tale of Aristocrates of Orchomenus, which is similar.

References

1. Pliny the Elder, Natural History, xxxv. 11. s. 40
2. Sillig, Karl Julius (1837). "Aristoclides". Dictionary of the Artists of Antiquity: Architects, Carvers, Engravers, Modellers, Painters, Sculptors, Statuaries, and Workers in Bronze, Gold, Ivory, and Silver, with Three Chronological Tables. Translated by Williams, H.W. Black and Armstrong. p. 27. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
3. A.P., Laurie (2014). Greek and Roman Methods of Painting: Some Comments on the Statements Made by Pliny and Vitruvius about Wall and Panel Painting. Cambridge University Press & Assessment. p. 50. ISBN 9781107416307. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
4. Dyer, Louis (1905). Gardner, Percy; Cary, Max; Gardner, Ernest Arthur (eds.). "Olympian Treasuries". The Journal of Hellenic Studies. 25. Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies: 316–317. doi:10.2307/624243. JSTOR 624243. S2CID 162330277. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
5. Schol. ad Ar. Nub. 965
6. Curtius, Ernst (1902). The History of Greece. Vol. 4. Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 116. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
7. Ferguson, John (2016). Moral Values in the Ancient World. Taylor & Francis. p. 24. ISBN 9781315473314. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
8. Hutchinson, Winifred Margaret Lambart (1913). "Two Notes on Nemean III". In Quiggin, Edmund Crosby (ed.). Essays and Studies Presented to William Ridgeway ... on His Sixtieth Birthday, 6 August, 1913. University Press. pp. 222–224. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
9. Jerome (393). Against Jovinianus. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
10. Dempster, G. (1937). "Chaucer at Work on the Complaint in The Franklin's Tale". Modern Language Notes. 52 (1): 16–23. doi:10.2307/2912305. JSTOR 2912305.
11. Hume, Kathryn (1972). "The Pagan Setting of The Franklin's Tale and the Sources of Dorigen's Cosmology". Studia Neophilologica. 44 (2): 289–294. doi:10.1080/00393277208587533. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
12. Rossignol, Rosalyn (2006). Critical Companion to Chaucer: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work. Infobase Publishing. pp. 333, 574. ISBN 9781438108407. Retrieved 30 August 2021.

  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Mason, Charles Peter (1870). "Aristoclides". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 1. p. 303.