The Collaborative International Dictionary
Wikipedia
Chrysis may refer to:
- Chrysis (wasp), a genus of cuckoo wasps in the family Chrysididae
- An ancient Greek personal name (as a female name: , as a male name: ); in particular:
- Chrysis (priestess), priestess who caused the destruction of the Heraion of Argos in 423 BC
- Chrysis, the eponymous girl from Samos in the play Samia by Menander
- Chrysis, the eponymous girl from Andros in the play Andria by Terence
- Chrysis, the courtesan in the novel Aphrodite: mœurs antiques by Pierre Louÿs
- Chrysis, a mistress of Demetrius I of Macedon according to Plutarch's Lives
Chrysis is a very large genus of cuckoo wasps (the family Chrysididae). It is the largest genus in the family, including over 1,000 species, as large as the rest of the Chrysididae together. The generic name is derived from Greek chrysis, "gold vessel, gold-embroidered dress", and pays tribute to the brilliant metallic appearance of wasps in the genus.
Chrysis (or Chryseis, or ) was a priestess at the ancient Greek sanctuary of Hera at Argos at the time of the Peloponesian War. She is known for having inadvertently caused a fire that led to the destruction of the temple.
Thucydides mentions in book 2 of his history of the Peloponesian War that at the outbreak of the war, in 431 BC, Chrysis was in the 48th year of her tenure as head priestess of Argos. The burning of the temple, in the summer of 423 BC, is mentioned in book 4 of the same work. According to Thucydides, Chrysis placed a light near a curtain and then fell asleep. She survived the fire and fled from Argos to the nearby city of Phlius. According to Pausanias, her flight led her to Tegea, where she found asylum at the sanctuary of Athena Alea. Pausanias also mentions that in his time a statue of Chrysis still stood at Argos.
The catastrophe of Argos was later mentioned by the Christian theologians Clemens of Alexandria and Arnobius (who, unlike Thucydides, assumed that Chrysis herself had perished in the fire), as perceived examples of the powerlessness of heathen gods. Her case is the topic of an entry in Pierre Bayle's Dictionnaire historique et critique of 1695.
Usage examples of "chrysis".
In the fifteenth, in the forty-eighth year of the priestess-ship of Chrysis at Argos, in the ephorate of Aenesias at Sparta, in the last month but two of the archonship of Pythodorus at Athens, and six months after the battle of Potidaea, just at the beginning of spring, a Theban force a little over three hundred strong, under the command of their Boeotarchs, Pythangelus, son of Phyleides, and Diemporus, son of Onetorides, about the first watch of the night, made an armed entry into Plataea, a town of Boeotia in alliance with Athens.