A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

(Ἄλεξις), a sculptor and statuary, mentioned by Pliny (34.8. s. 19) as one of the pupils of Polycletus. Pausanias (6.3.3) mentions an artist of the same name, a native of Sicyon, and father of the sculptor Cantharus. It cannot be satisfactorily settled whether these are the same, or different persons. Pliny's account implies that he had the elder Polycletus in view, in which case Alexis could not have flourished later than Ol. 95 (B. C. 400), whereas Eutychides, under whom Cantharus studied, flourished about Ol. 120, B. C. 300. (Pliny, Plin. Nat. 34.8. s. 19.) If the two were identical, as Thiersch (Epochen der bild. Kunst. p. 276) thinks, we must suppose either that Pliny made a mistake, and that Alexis studied under the younger Polycletus, or else that the Eutychides, whose date is given by Pliny, was not the artist under whom Cantharus studied.

[C.P.M]