PEISANDER  , of Camirus in

Rhodes, Greek epic poet, sup-posed to have flourished about 64o B.C . He was the author of a Heracleia, in which he introduced a new conception of the hero, the lion's skin and club taking the place of the older Homeric equipment . He is also said to have fixed the number of the " labours of Hercules " at twelve . The work, which according to Clement of Alexandria (Stromata, vf'. ch . 2) was simply a plagiarism from an unknown Pisinus of Lindus, enjoyed so high a reputation that the Alexandrian critics admitted the author to the epic canon . From an epigram (20) of Theocritus we learn that a statue was erected in honour of Peisander by his countrymen . He is to be distinguished from Peisander of Laranda in Lycia, who lived during the reign of Alexander Severus (A.D . 222-235), and wrote a poem on the mixed marriages of gods and mortals, after the manner of the Eoiai of Hesiod . See fragments in G . Kinkel, Epicorum graecorum fragmenta (1878) ; also F . G . Welcker, Kleine Schriften, vol. i .

(1844), on the twelve labours of Hercules in Peisander .