1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Panyasis

PANYASIS (more correctly, Panyassis), of Halicarnassus, Greek epic poet, uncle or cousin of Herodotus, flourished about 470 B.C. He was put to death by the tyrant Lygdamis (c. 454). His chief poems were the Heracleias in 14 books, describing the adventures of Heracles in various parts of the world, and the Ionica in elegiacs, giving an account of the founding and settlement of the Ionic colonies in Asia Minor. Although not much esteemed in his own time, which was unfavourable to epic poetry, he was highly thought of by later critics, some of whom assigned him the next place to Homer (see Quintilian, Inst. orat. x. 1. 54). The few extant fragments show beauty and fullness of expression, and harmonious rhythm.

Fragments in G. Kinkel, Epic. poet. fragmenta (1877), ed. separately by J. P. Tzschirner (1842); F. P. Funcke, De Panyasidis vita (1837); R. Krausse, De Panyasside (1891).