=Seleucus=: called Callinicus (the ‘Victorious’); king of Syria 246-226 B.C. He was defeated by Antiochus with the help of Gauls (= Galatians) at Ancyra, and it was for a time thought that he had perished in the rout. He managed, however, to retain his kingdom. =Silániōn=: Athenian portrait sculptor _c._ 324 B.C. His _Jocasta_ represented her as dying, her pallor being realistically rendered by the unworthy device of mixing silver with bronze. =Siléni=: a class of tipsy satyrs associated with Dionysus. _The_ Silenus was in a sense the Falstaff of Greek legend. =Simónȋdes=: a most distinguished poet of Ceos, writer of elegies, choral and processional odes, epigrams, and drinking songs (556-467 B.C.). He spent part of his life as a kind of court poet in Thessaly and at Syracuse, and visited Athens. His compositions were of a high order, and his moral maxims much in vogue, but he was notorious for worldliness and a love of money. =Sísyphus=: legendary king of Corinth; type of fraudulent and criminal cunning; punished in Hades by being compelled to roll a stone up a hill for ever and never establishing it at the top. =Socrates=: the Athenian philosopher (468-399 B.C.), from whose thinking most of the later schools were in some way descended. His object was to bring philosophy down to earth, and to arrive at true and universal definitions. His simple character, his whimsical irony, and his dialectical skill formed the groundwork for many stories. His method was conversational and non-didactic. He wrote nothing, and what we know of him is due to his disciples Plato and Xenophon, and to later writers. =Solōn=: of Athens, _c._ 638-558 B.C.; aristocrat, trader, traveller, poet and thinker. Chosen at a time of political and financial crisis as mediator between parties in Attica, and as constitution-maker, he behaved with strict impartiality and self-effacement. We may believe that he visited Egypt, but his intercourse with Croesus (q.v.) is of doubtful warrant. Author of much proverbial wisdom. =Sophocles=: 496-406 B.C.; second in date, and perhaps in merit, of three great Athenian tragedians; a genial and practical man of the world. =Sótădes=: a poet at Alexandria _c._ 280 B.C. He wrote songs and satires of a lascivious kind. One account states that in consequence of his abuse he was thrown into the sea in a leaden chest. =Speusippus=: of Athens, nephew and disciple of Plato, and his successor as head of the Academy (347-339 B.C.); a writer on ethical and dialectical subjects. His character is said to have excelled his intellect. =Spínthărus=: the best known person of the name was an inferior tragic poet of Heraclea on the Black Sea satirized by Aristophanes and other comedians. =Stilpo=: a high-minded and sane philosopher of great dialectical acuteness. Founder of the Megarian school, which made a cult of virtue while denying the possibility of knowledge. See also under Demetrius.