ZEUXIS, ziik'sis (Greek ZeioEtc), ancient Greek painter. He was a native of Heraclesa, but which town of that name was his birth place is not certain. He was born about the middle of the 5th century before Christ, and flourished about the end of the 4th century ac He is said by some authorities to have studied under Demophilus of Himera, by others under Neseas of Thasos. He also studied at Ephesus. where he eventually settled, although he worked at times at Athens and other cities. Aristotle says that an elevated conception of character was wanting in his work, while Cicero praises him along with Polygnotus and Timanthes for forma et lineomenta. He learned from Apol lodorus the treatment of light and shade, he greatly developed, and from Phidias to take Homer's descriptions of his heroes as ideal models and to paint them with limbs larger than the ordinary human proportion_ One of his most famous works was a picture of Helen for the temple of Hera at Croton The rivalry of Zeuxis and Parrhasius is represented in a well-known story about a contest in which Zeuxis painted grapes at which the birds pecked.
and Parrhasius a curtain which Zeuxis wished to have raised in order to see the picture. Some of his later works he gave away as being val uable beyond any fixed price. As far as may be judged from extant accounts, be painuni small works on panels in contrast to the Large mural paintings of Polygnotus. It is, of course. now impossible to form a correct idea his art. though more anecdotes are told of him than of any other painter of antiquity. These arc to be found in Lucian, Cicero. and especially the (iiistoria Naturalis' of Pliny. Among his other works were 'Zeus on His Throne Stu rounded by Deities' ;