Pisander
（
Πείσανδρος).
1.
An early Greek poet, born at Camirus, in the island of Rhodes, and supposed to have
flourished about B.C. 650, although some made him earlier than Hesiod, and contemporary with
Eumolpus. He wrote a poem, entitled
Heraclea (
Ἡράκλεια), on the exploits of Heracles, of which frequent mention is made by
the grammarians. The Alexandrian critics assigned him a rank among epic poets after Homer,
Hesiod, Panyasis, and Antimachus.
2.
A Greek poet, born at Laranda, a city of Lycaonia, in Asia Minor, and who lived during the
reign of Alexander Severus. He composed a long poem, entitled
Ἡρωϊκαὶ Θεογαμἰαι, in which he sang of the nuptials of gods and heroes. The
sixteenth book of this poem is cited, and Suidas calls the whole production a history varied
after the epic manner. One of the interlocutors in the
Saturnalia of Macrobius
(v. 2) accuses Vergil of having translated from Pisander almost all the second book of the
Aeneid, and particularly the story of the wooden horse.
3.
An epigrammatic poet, supposed by Jacobs to be the same with the native of Camirus above
mentioned. Heyne, however, thinks that he was identical with the younger Pisander.
4.
An Athenian, one of the leaders of the oligarchical party, and instrumental in bringing
about the establishment of the Council of Four Hundred (
Thuc. vi.
27,
Thuc., 60;
viii. 49,
Thuc., 63Thuc., 89;
Alcib.).
5.
A Spartan admiral, in the time of Agesilaüs, slain in a naval battle with Conon
near Cnidus, B.C. 394. (
Hellen. iv. 3, 10).
