APOLLONIUS, or TYRE. The hero of a Greek romance now lost, which in a Latin ver sion enjoyed great popularity in the Middle Ages, and was translated into almost all the languages of Western Europe. In it are related the ro mantic adventures which befell Apollonius, Syrian prince, previous to 16, marriage with the daughter of King Aleistrates. of Cyrene. To these are added the adventures of his wife, who was parted from him by apparent death, as well as those of his daughter, Tarsia, who was carried off by pirates and sold in Mytilene. The work closes with the reunion of the whole family. The original Greek work belonged to the Third Century A.D., and showed close rela tions with the Ephesiara of Xenophon of Ephe sus. The Latin version was made by a Chris tian. not earlier than the Fifth Century. The account given in the Gesta Romanorunt and the part contained in the Pmitheon Godfrey of Viterbo (c.1185) are drawn front this early translation. The earliest translation front the Latin was into Anglo-Saxon in the Ninth and Tenth' centuries; an early English rhymed ver sion of the end of the Fourteenth Century is to be found in Gower's Confessio A mantis; and the materials are employed in Shakespeare's Pericles.
About 1300. Heinrich von der Neuenstadt pro duced a poetical version in over twenty thousand verses, based probably on the account in the Gesta Romanorum. The Ilistori des Kiiniges Apollonii, puhlighed 1476, is translated from Godfrey of Viterbo, as is the Spanish version of the Thirteenth Century. printed in Sanchez's Coleceion de Poesias Castellanos (Paris, 1842). Several French and Italian versions have been made from the same source. There are also middle and modern Greek versions extant. The Latin translation from the Greek original is edited by Riese. Historic Apolloģii Regis Tyri (2d ed. Leipzig, 1893). Consult in general: llohde, Der griechische Roman and seine Vorliin fer (Leipzig, 1900) ; Hagen, Der Roman rum Honig Apollonins in seinen rersehiedeneģ Bear beitanyen ( Berlin, 1.878) ; Simock, Quellen des Shakespeare (Bonn, 1872).