Hipponax

Pliny N. H. xxxvi. II

Before their time the sculptor Melas had already lived on the island of Chios, and after him his son Mikkiades and his grandson Archermos, whose sons Bupalos and Athenis were the most famous masters of their craft in the time of the poet Hipponax, who is known to have lived in the 6oth Olympiad (540 B.C.). If their line is traced back to the great-grand- father, it will be found that the art took its rise at the beginning of the Olympiads.

Hipponax was remarkable for the ugliness of his face, for which reason they exposed his portrait in wanton mockery to jesting crowds, until Hipponax in indignation turned the weapons of his bitterest satire against them with such effect that as some believe he drove them to hang themselves. This is not the case : for they afterwards made many statues in the neighbouring islands, as for example in Delos, where their work bore a metrical inscription, stating that Chios was famed not only for its vines but also for the works of the sons of Archermos. The people of Lasos display an Artemis fashioned by their hands ;