(Παύσων), a Greek painter, of whom very little is known, but who is of some importance on account of the manner in which he is mentioned by Aristotle in the following passage (Poet. 2.2), ὥσπερ οἱ γραφεῖς, Πολύγνωτος μὲν κρείττους, Παύσων δὲ χείρους, Διονύσιος δε ὁμοίους εἴκαζεν, which undoubtedly means that while, in painting men, Dionysius represented them just as they are. neither more nor less beautiful than the average of human kind, Polygnotus on the one hand invested them with an expression of ideal excellence, while Pauson delighted in imitating what was defective or repulsive, and was in fact a painter of caricatures. In another passage, Aristotle says that the young ought not to look upon the pictures of Pauson, but those of Polygnotus and of any other artist who is ἠθικός. (Polit. 8.5.7.)
From these allusions it may safely be inferred that Pauson lived somewhat earlier than the time of Aristotle. A more exact determination of his date is gained from two allusions in Aristophanes to a certain Pauson, if this person is, as the Scholiasts and Suidas supposed, the same as the painter (Aristoph. Ach. 854; Plut. 602; Schol. ll. cc. ; Suid. s v. Παύσωνος πτωχότερος); but this is very doubtful, and the passages seem rather to refer to some wretched parasite or mendicant. (Comp. Suid. s. v. Ἀσκληπίειον Φάρμακον.) A curious anecdote is told of Pauson by Plutarch (de Pyth. Orac. 5, p. 396d), Aelian (Ael. VH 14.15), and Lucian (Demosth. Eucom. 24). In the MSS. of Aristotle and Lucian the name is frequently written Πάσων and Πάσσων.
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