( fl late 5th century or early 4th century BC). Greek painter. He originated from Kythnos or Sikyon and was a contemporary and rival of ZEUXIS and PARRHASIOS, defeating the latter in a competition on Samos (Pliny, XXXV.64, 71, 73–4). Parrhasios had painted the hero Ajax, who, in an episode recounted in the Aethiopis and Little Iliad, was defeated by Odysseus in the competition for the arms of Achilles. When the artist heard that the judges had voted in favour of Timanthes, Parrhasios said that Ajax has suffered a second indignity. It is not known what subject Timanthes painted for the competition, but Parrhasios’ comment suggests it was not Ajax. None of Timanthes’ works now survives. Cicero (Brutus, xviii.70) listed him among the painters who used a four-colour palette. Although he may occasionally have limited his palette to yellow, white, red and black, he no doubt used a wider range at other times. Timanthes was reputed to possess great skill but even greater imagination, as his most famous picture, the Sacrifice of Iphigeneia, illustrates. The artist varied the intensity of the emotions of the witnesses: the sorrow of Kalchas was less than that of Odysseus, which was less than that of Menelaos. The grief of Agamemnon, the father of Iphigeneia, was too great to depict, and so the artist veiled his head. It is a motif often found in later artists’ work. With the Iphigeneia, Timanthes defeated the otherwise unknown Kolotes of Teos in a competition. Timanthes’ small picture in which satyrs measure a sleeping Cyclops’ thumb with a thyrsus in order to suggest his size was also praised for ingenuity of conception. He also painted the Death of Palamedes, which Alexander the Great admired at Ephesos; and a Hero, which hung in the Temple of Peace at Rome.