Glaucus
（
*Glau=kos), artists.
1. Of Chios, a statuary in metal, distinguished as the inventor of the art of soldering metals (
κόλλησις). His most noted work was an iron base (
ὑποκρητηρίδιον, Herod.;
ὑπόθημα, Paus.), which, with the silver bowl it supported, was presented to the temple at Delphi by Alyattes, king of Lydia. (
Hdt. 1.25.)
This base was seen by Pausanias, who describes its construction (10.16.1), and by Athenaeus (v. p. 210b. c.), who says that it was chased with small figures of animals, insects, and plants. Perhaps it is this passage that has led Meyer (
Kunstgeschichte, vol. ii. p. 24) and others into the mistake of explaining
κόλλησις as that kind of engraving on steel which we call
damascene work. There is no doubt that it means a mode of uniting metals by a solder or cement, without the help of the nails, hooks, or doyetails (
δεσμοί), which were used before the invention of Glaucus. (Pausan.
l.c.; Müiller, in Böttiger's
Amalthea, vol. iii. p. 25.) Plutarch also speaks of this base as very celebrated. (
De Defect. Orac. 47, p. 436a.)
The skill of Glaucus passed into a proverb,
Γλαύκου τέχνη. (Schol.
ad Plat. Phaed. p. 13, Ruhnken, pp. 381-2, Bekker.)
Stephanus Byzantinus (
s. v. Αἰθάλη) calls Glaucus a Samian.
The fact is, that Glaucus belonged to the Samian school of art.
Glaucus is placed by Eusebius (
Chron. Arm.) at Ol. 22, 2 (B. C. 691/0). Alyattes reigned B. C. 617 --560.
But the dates are not inconsistent, for there is nothing in Herodotus to exclude the supposition that the iron base had been made some time before Alyattes sent it to Delphi.
