POLYGNOTUS, a Greek painter. For a description of his work see vol. ii. p. 358. It may here be added that an approximate date for his paintings at Delphi is obtained from the fact that one of them was inscribed with an epigram written by the poet Simonides, who died 467 b.c. As Simonides appears to have resided in Sicily during the last ten years of his life, the epigram was probably composed previous to 477 b.c. This series of mural paintings at Delphi, embracing about one hundred and forty-six figures, seems to have occupied two opposite walls of an oblong building known as the Lesche. The figures, hardly under life size, were disposed in two or sometimes three rows, the one higher up than the other, with apparently but very slight indications of the fact that the figures of the upper rows were to be understood as standing at a more remote distance. The several rows would run continuously like sculptured friezes, and indeed this manner of composition is best illustrated by the friezes at Vienna recently found at Gjölbaxhi in Lycia, some of which present subjects and motives identical with those treated by Polygnotus.