St. Paul in his Epistle to Titus (i. 12) is supposed to allude to Epimenides. But little more than his name and existence are known, apart from tradition. About B.C. 596, he was invited to Athens, in order to stay the plague brought upon the city by an impious outrage committed by Cylon, one of the Athenian rulers, on the altars of the Acropolis. Succeeding in arresting the pestilence, he augmented his already great fame--but he refused any other reward beyond the goodwill of the Athenians in favour of the inhabitants of Gnossus, where he dwelt. He was a native of Crete. [From the marble in the Vatican. One of the conventional portraits of the ancient Greek poets. The closed eyes are to represent the sleep which tradition says he fell into for fifty-seven years.] 6. ÆSCHYLUS. _Tragic Poet._ [Born at Eleusis, in Greece, B.C. 525. Died at Gela, in Sicily, B.C. 456. Aged 69.] The founder of Greek tragedy as it existed in its greatness. He introduced a second actor upon the scene, and gave dramatic interest to his act, by rendering dialogue the most important element in the play. He improved the masks and dresses of the actors, and raised the character of the choral dances. The scenes painted under his direction were, it is said, the first in which the idea of perspective was maintained. Sublimity and magnificence characterize the style of his tragedies, in which the action and plot, with an unparalleled simplicity of structure, move on, in commanding and stern strength, to their catastrophe; supported by grand imagery, with diction wrested to the height of energy and solemn passion. The characters drawn by Æschylus are as lofty as the language which they speak. We almost yearn for the simple voice of Nature as we listen to the sustained thunder-tone of this great master. His mind seems ever attuned for discourse with the Gods; yet in the “Prometheus,” though dealing with a demigod, he describes with awful power, human suffering and human passion in its saddest and most thrilling aspect. The family of Æschylus were remarkable for their valour, and he himself fought bravely at Marathon and Salamis. He was an actor in his own plays. [From the marble in Stanza dei Filosofi, of the Capitoline Museum, at Rome.] 7. SOPHOCLES. _Tragic Poet._ [Born at Colonus, in Attica, about B.C. 495. Died probably at Athens, B.C. 405. Aged 90.]