Bryaxis

{{Short description|4th-century BC Greek sculptor}}

{{For|the beetle genus|Bryaxis (beetle)}}

Image:Serapis Pio-Clementino Inv689 n2.jpg. Roman copy of the original Bryaxis.]]

Bryaxis ({{langx|grc|Βρύαξις or Βρύασσις}}; fl. 350 BC) was a Greek sculptor. He created the sculptures on the north side of the mausoleum of Maussollos at Halicarnassus which was commissioned by the queen Artemisia II of Caria in memory of her brother and husband, Mausolus. The three other greatest sculptors of their time, Leochares, Scopas and Timotheus, were each one responsible for one side of the grave. The tomb was completed three years after the death of Mausolus and one year after the death of Artemisia.{{cite book|author=Fergusson, John|title=The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus|year=1862|location=London|publisher=John Murray|url=https://archive.org/details/mausoleumathali00ferggoog|page=[https://archive.org/details/mausoleumathali00ferggoog/page/n18 8]}} Some authors allege that Bryaxis created a famous colossal statue of Serapis in the temple at Alexandria; however, according to Michaelis, Athenodoros Cananites expressly pointed out that the Bryaxis connected with the Alexandrian statue was merely a namesake of the famous Bryaxis.{{cite journal|last=Michaelis|first=Ad.|title=Sarapis Standing on a Xanthian Marble in the British Museum|journal=Journal of Hellenic Studies|year=1885|volume=6|pages=289–292|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OUcaAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA289}} The works of Bryaxis include a bronze statue of Seleucus, king of Syria, five huge statues at Rhodes,{{cite book|title=Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology|author=Smith, Sir William|year=1849|publisher=Charles C. Little, and James Brown|location=Boston|page=513|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m_ErAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA513}} and a statue of Apollo at Daphne near Antioch.{{cite book|title=A Handbook of Greek Sculptures|year=1897|author=Gardner, Ernest Arthur|volume=2|publisher=Macmillan and Co|location=London|page=374|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cp8CAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA374}}