one of those generally known as the seven wise men of Greece, was the son of Cypselus, tyrant of Corinth. He was born n. c. 665, and died at the age of eighty, n. c. 585. He succeeded his father in the government of Corinth, n. c. 625, and was distinguished at first for the mildness of his disposition; but yielding to the advice given him by Thrasybulus, prince of Miletus, he is said to have become a cruel tyrant. He married Lyside, whom he called Melissa, daughter of Procles, tyrant of Epidauros, and of Eristheneia, daughter of Aristocrates, the celebrated king of the Arcadians. By her he had two sons, Cypselus and Locophron, the former of whom was an idiot. He struck his wife in a passion, and killed her, at the same time banishing Lycophron to the island of Coreya, because he dared to bewail the fate of his mother (Herodot. v. 92, iii. 50). In the war between the Athenians and Mytilenaeans, n. c. 606, he is said, according to one statement (v. 94, 95), to have been a mediator between the contending parties; but Strabo represents him as having assisted Pittacus. When he began to feel old age advancing, he sent for his son Lycophron; but the inhabitants of Coreya put him to death, and when Periander failed in inflicting punishment on the authors of this calamity to him, he died of grief. Periander was the author of maxims for the guidance of human life, extending to two thousand hexameter verses. Laertius quotes two letters under the name of Periander, but there seems no good reason for believing that they are genuine. The cruel conduct of Periander made many of the ancients doubt whether the tyrant of Corinth ought to be considered as one of the wise men. It is to be observed, however, that there was a Periander of Ambracia, to whom some give this title. (Diogenes Laertius, Life of Periander.)