(Χειρίσοφος), a statuary in wood and probably in stone. A gilt wooden statue of Apollo Agyieus, made by him, stood at Tegea, and near it was a statue in stone of the artist himself, which was most probably also his own work. (Paus. 8.53.3.) Pausanias knew nothing of his age or of his teacher; but front the way in which he mentions him in connexion with the Cretan school of Daedalus, and from his working both in wood and stone, he is probably to be placed with the latest of the Daedalian sculptors, such as Dipoenus and Scyllis (about B. C. 566). Böckh, considers the erection by the artist of his own statue as an indication of a later date (Corp). Inscrip. i. p. 19); but his arguments are satisfactoily answered by Thiersch, who also shews that the reply of Hermann to Böckh, that Pausanias does not say that Cheirisophus made his own statue, is not satisfactory. (Epochen, pp. 137-139.) Thiersch has also observed, that the name of Cheirisophus, like many other names of the early artists, is significant of skill in art (χείπ, σοφός). Other names of the same kind are, Daedalus (Δαίδαλος) the son of Eupalamus (Εὐπάλαμος), Eucheir (Εὔχειρ), Chersiphron (Χερσίφρων), and others. Now, granting that Daedalus is nothing more than a mythological personage, and that his name was merely symbolical, there can be no doubt that others of these artists really existed and bore these names, which were probably given to them in their infancy because they belonged to families in which art was hereditary. Thiersch quotes a parallel case in the names taken from navigation among the maritime people of Phaeacia. (Hom. Od. 8.112, &c.)
Pausanias mentions also two shrines of Dionysus, an altar of Cora, and a temple of Apollo, but the way in which he speaks leaves it doubtful whether Cheirisophus erected these, as well as the statue of Apollo, or only the statue.
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