So, also, various errors in the “History of Art” have arisen solely from Winkelmann’s haste in accepting Junius instead of consulting the original authors. When, for instance, he is citing examples to show that excellence in all departments of art and labor was so highly prized by the Greeks, that the best workman, even on an insignificant thing, might immortalize his name, he brings forward this among others:[[194]] “We know the name of a maker of very exact balances or scales; he was called Parthenius.” Winkelmann must have read the words of Juvenal, “lances Parthenio factas,” which he here appeals to, only in Junius’s catalogue. Had he looked up the original passage in Juvenal, he would not have been misled by the double meaning of the word “lanx,” but would at once have seen from the connection that the poet was not speaking of balances or scales, but of plates and dishes. Juvenal is praising Catullus for throwing overboard his treasures during a violent storm at sea, in order to save the ship and himself. In his description of these treasures, he says:—
Ille nec argentum dubitabat mittere, lances
Parthenio factas, urnæ cratera capacem
Et dignum sitiente Pholo, vel conjuge Fusci.
Adde et bascaudas et mille escaria, multum
Cælati, biberet quo callidus emtor Olynthi.
What can the “lances” be which are here standing among drinking-cups and bowls, but plates and dishes? And what does Juvenal mean, except that Catullus threw overboard his whole silver table-service, including plates made by Parthenius. “Parthenius,” says the old scholiast, “cœlatoris nomen” (the name of the engraver). But when Grangäus, in his annotations, appends to this name, “sculptor, de quo Plinius” (sculptor spoken of by Pliny), he must have been writing at random, for Pliny speaks of no artist of that name.
“Yes,” continues Winkelmann, “even the name of the saddler, as we should call him, has been preserved, who made the leather shield of Ajax.” This he cannot have derived from the source to which he refers his readers,—the life of Homer, by Herodotus. Here, indeed, the lines from the Iliad are quoted wherein the poet applies to this worker in leather the name Tychius. But it is at the same time expressly stated that this was the name of a worker in leather of Homer’s acquaintance, whose name he thus introduced in token of his friendship and gratitude.[[195]]
Ἀπέδωκε δὲ χάριν καὶ Τυχίῳ τῷ σκύτει. ὃς ἐδέξατο αὐτὸν ἐν τῷ Νέῳ τείχει, προσελθόντα πρὸς τὸ σκύτειον, ἐν τοῖς ἔπεσι καταζεύξας ἐν τῇ Ἰλιάδι τοῖσδε:
Αἴας δ’ ἐγγύθεν ἦλθε, φέρων σάκος ἠΰτε πύργον,