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TWELVE TABLES——TYNDAREOS.
the forehead. It was characteristic of the flamen and his wife. (Sec hair, modes of dressing.)
Twelve Tables (Duodfcim Tabula). The laws of the Twelve Tables represent the first attempt made by the decemvirs, 451-450 B.C., to reduce to a regular code the older unwritten and imperfectly formulated laws of custom—criminal, civil, and religious (iiis publicum, prlvatitm, sacrum)—which had up to that time prevailed in Rome. To this end improvements were adopted which were suggested by the constitutions aud laws of other nations. The code thus formed was the source of the whole system of Roman jurisprudence, and, so far as civil law was concerned, survived until the latest times. The importance ascribed to the Twelve Tables by the Romans is clear from their forming a principal part of the education of Roman boys; even in the boyho’od of Cicero they were still learnt by heart in the schools of Rome. As in course of time many passages became obscure, through changes in the language and in the state of the laws, various commentaries were added to them, some as early as 204 B.C., by .Sims Cfttus (see jurisprudence) ; some as late as the 2nd century a.d., by Gaius. The laws were written on twelve tablets of bronze, but it is doubtful whether the originals survived the capture of Rome by the Gauls in 390 B.C. It was probably copies of these that were still standing in the Roman Forum in the 2nd century after Christ. Only detached fragments, occasionally quoted in other writings, have survived to modern times, yet these give a clear idea of the succinct style in which the laws were written. [The standard critical edition is by R. Schoell, 1866, followed in the main in Wordsworth’s Fragments and Specimens of Early Latin, Bruns’ Fontes Juris Romani, and F. D. Alien’s Remnants of Early Latin, 1880, §§ 174-207.]
Tyche. In Greek mythology, originally the goddess of chance ; only occasionally mentioned in the older poets. In the course of time she came to be extensively worshipped as a goddess of prosperity, who had cities under her special protection. With the general decay of belief in the gods she became one of the mightiest and most commonly named of all supernatural powers. She is generally represented with a cornucopia as the bestower of blessing, with a rudder as the pilot of destiny, and with wings, wheel, and ball, as emblems of her variability. [For the personified
Tyche of Antioch on the Orontes, see sculpture, fig. 15.]
Tydeus. Son of (Eneus of Calydon and Peribcea; father of Diomedes. Being obliged to fly from his home, owing to the murder of his paternal uncle Melas, and of his sons, he took refuge with Adrastus (q.v.) at Argos, and married his daughter Delpyle. Though small of stature, he possessed a bold spirit and great strength, together with the special favour of Athene. As one of the Seven against Thebes, he was sent to Thebes before the commencement of hostilities in the hope of coming to terms with the Theban chiefs. He found them banqueting with their king Eteocles. On their refusal to listen to him, he called them out to combat, and defeated them one after the other. On his return, the Thebans, in revenge, laid an ambuscade, consisting of fifty youths, under two leaders; but with the help of Athene he slew them all, and only suffered one of the leaders, Mseon, son of Heemon, to escape. In the disastrous conflict under the walls of ‘Thebes, he was fatally wounded by the Theban Melanippus, when Athene, with the permission of Zeus, appeared to grant him life and immortality. Then his old antagonist, Amphiaraus, laid before him the head of Melanippus, whom he had just slain ; and Tydeus, in savage fury, cleft open his skull and sucked out the brain of his enemy. Outraged by this horrible deed, the goddess recoiled from his presence and delivered him over to death. The corpse was buried by Mason out of gratitude for having been spared by Tydeus.
tympanon.
Tympanfin (Greek). A hand-drum, used more especially at the noisy revels of Dionysus and Cybele, a broad rim of wood or metal covered with skin (see cut); sometimes also set round with a concave and semicircular sound-board.
TyndarSos. Son of king (Ebalus of Sparta, brother of Icarlus and Hippocoon. Expelled by the latter, he took refuge in JEtolia,, with king Thestius, who gave him his daughter Leda to wife. She became the mother of Helen, Clytaemnestra, and Castor and Pollux. (See leda.) Heracles restored him to the throne of Sparta. When Helen was wooed by the noblest chieftains of Greece, Tyndareos, acting on the advice of Odysseus, made the assembled suitors swear to protect the husband whom Helen should choose against every act of
