ZANZIS. Zeuxis, fl. 397 B.C., was a painter from Heraclea. He was well known to Socrates and his circle; Plato mentions his work in Gorgias 453C, 453D. Zeuxis added the use of highlights to shading. Pliny mentions his paintings of Penelope, Helen, and the infant Hercules strangling two snakes as outstanding (HN XXXV.xxxvi.61-66).

Nature says that neither Apelles or Zanzis could imitate her Virginia, PhysT 15-18. Pandarus quotes a proverb from Zanzis, "the newe love chaceth ofte the olde," Tr IV.414-415. Skeat (II: 487-488) suggests Ovid, Remedia amoris 462; J. Kreuzer suggests Rule 17 of Book III, De amore by Andreas Capellaneas. D.K. Fry points out that Zeuxis is mentioned in Cicero's De inventione II.1.12 in a story that values individual qualities in separate ladies rather than all qualities in just one, as Pandarus points out, Tr IV.407-413. Fry suggests further that, in ascribing the proverb to Zanzis (an old sage), Chaucer follows the device used elsewhere in the poem. Just as he ascribes the work to one Lollius, so he quotes a well-known proverb from Ovid but attributes it to the source of the idea in the previous stanza, Zeuxis or Zanzis. Zeuxis's fame as a painter appears in RR 16185.

Zanzis is a Chaucerian variant; Zeuzis also occurs in manuscripts and is closer to the Greek Zeuxis. The name occurs twice medially, PhysT 16; Tr IV.414.