Aegineta

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the Byzantine Greek physician sometimes known as Paulus Aegineta, see Paul of Aegina.

Aegineta was an ancient Greek modeller (fictor) mentioned by Pliny the Elder.[1] Some scholars supposed that the word Aeginetae in the passage of Pliny denoted merely the country--Aegina--of some artist, whose real name, for some reason or other, was not given. The consensus of scholarly opinion is now against this hypothesis, however, and it is generally believed that "Aegineta" was the man's given name.

His brother Pasias, a painter of some distinction, was a pupil of Erigonus, who had been color-grinder to the artist Nealces. We learn from Plutarch,[2] that Nealces was a friend of Aratus of Sicyon, who was elected praetor of the Achaean League in 243 BC. We shall not be far wrong therefore in assuming that Aegineta and his brother flourish­ed about 220 BC.[3]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia xxxv. 1.1. s. 40
  2. ^ Plutarch, Aratus of Sicyon 13
  3. ^ Mason, Charles Peter (1867), “Aegineta”, in Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. 1, Boston, pp. 26 

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870).