Scopas

Scopas, an ancient Greek sculptor, founder, along with Praxiteles (q.v.), of the later Attic school, was a native of the island of Paros, and flourished during the first half of the 4th century B.C. One of his earliest works we read about was the temple of Athena Alea at Tegea in, Arcadia, on the site of a previous one burned down in 395 B.C.; he superintended both the building of it and the adorning of it with sculpture. Some fifteen years or so later he settled in Athens, where for more than a quarter of a century he laboured at his profession. Towards the end of his life he was associated with Leochares and others in preparing sculpture for the great Mausoleum (q.v.) of Halicarnassus in Asia Minor. A large composition representing Achilles being conveyed to Leuce by Poseidon, Thetis, and the Nereids, preserved for some time in the temple of Neptune at Rome, was accounted one of his greatest masterpieces. Another composite work attributed to him, though doubtfully, was the 'Slaughter of the Children of Niobe.' He excelled also in statues of single gods and goddesses, as the 'Apollo with the Lyre.' See the German monograph by Ulrichs (1863).