Agathŏclēa, a beautiful courtesan of Egypt. One of the Ptolemies destroyed his wife Eurydice to marry her. She, with her brother, long governed the kingdom, and attempted to murder the king’s son. Plutarch, Cleomenes.—Justin, bk. 30, ch. 1.

Agathŏcles, a lascivious and ignoble youth, son of a potter, who, by entering in the Sicilian army, arrived to the greatest honours, and made himself master of Syracuse. He reduced all Sicily under his power, but being defeated at Himera by the Carthaginians, he carried the war into Africa, where, for four years, he extended his conquests over his enemies. He afterwards passed into Italy, and made himself master of Crotona. He died in his 72nd year, B.C. 289, after a reign of 28 years of mingled prosperity and adversity. Plutarch, Apophthegmata Laconica.—Justin, bks. 22 & 23.—Polybius, bk. 15.—Diodorus, bk. 18, &c.——A son of Lysimachus, taken prisoner by the Getæ. He was ransomed, and married Lysandra daughter of Ptolemy Lagus. His father, in his old age, married Arsinoe the sister of Lysandra. After her husband’s death, Arsinoe, fearful for her children, attempted to murder Agathocles. Some say that she fell in love with him, and killed him because he slighted her. When Agathocles was dead, 283 B.C., Lysandra fled to Seleucus. Strabo, bk. 13.—Plutarch, Pyrrhus & Demetrius.—Pausanias, bk. 1, chs. 9 & 10.——A Grecian historian of Babylon, who wrote an account of Cyzicus. Cicero, de Divinatione, bk. 1, ch. 24.——A Chian who wrote on husbandry. Varro.——A Samian writer.——A physician.——An Athenian archon.

Agăthon. See: Agatho.

Agathonȳmus, wrote a history of Persia. Plutarch, de Fluviis.

Agathosthĕnes, a poet, &c.

Agathyllus, an elegiac poet of Arcadia. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, bk. 1.

Agathynum, a town of Sicily.

Agathyrsi, an effeminate nation of Scythia, who had their wives in common. They received their name from Agathyrsus son of Hercules. Herodotus, bk. 4, ch. 10.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 4, li. 146.

Agāve, daughter of Cadmus and Hermione, married Echion, by whom she had Pentheus, who was torn to pieces by the Bacchanals. See: Pentheus. She is said to have killed her husband in celebrating the orgies of Bacchus. She received divine honours after death, because she had contributed to the education of Bacchus. Theocritus, poem 26.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 3, li. 725.—Lucan, bk. 1, li. 574.—Statius, Thebiad, bk. 11, li. 318.—Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 4.——One of the Nereides. Apollodorus, bk. 1.——A tragedy of Statius. Juvenal, satire 7, li. 87, &c.

Agaui, a northern nation who lived upon milk. Homer, Iliad, bk. 13.

Agāvus, a son of Priam. Homer, Iliad, bk. 24.

Agdestis, a mountain of Phrygia, where Atys was buried. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 4.——A surname of Cybele.

Agelades, a statuary of Argos. Pausanias, bk. 6, ch. 8; bk. 7, ch. 23.

Agelastus, a surname of Crassus, the grandfather of the rich Crassus. He only laughed once in his life, and this, it is said, was upon seeing an ass eat thistles. Cicero, de Finibus, bk. 5.—Pliny, bk. 7, ch. 19.——The word is also applied to Pluto, from the sullen and melancholy appearance of his countenance.

Agelāus, a king of Corinth, son of Ixion.——One of Penelope’s suitors. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 20.——A son of Hercules and Omphale, from whom Crœsus was descended. Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 7.——A servant of Priam, who preserved Paris when exposed on mount Ida. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 12.

Agendīcum, now Sens, a town of Gaul, the capital of the Senones. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 6, ch. 44.

Agēnor, king of Phœnicia, was son of Neptune and Libya, and brother to Belus. He married Telephassa, by whom he had Cadmus, Phœnix, Cilix, and Europa. Hyginus, fable 6.—Silius Italicus, bk. 1, li. 15; bk. 17, li. 58.—Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 1; bk. 3, ch. 1.——A son of Jasus and father of Argus. Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 10.——A son of Ægyptus. Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 1.——A son of Phlegeus. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 7.——A son of Pleuron, father to Phineus. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 7.——A son of Amphion and Niobe. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 4.——A king of Argos, father to Crotopus.——A son of Antenor. Homer, Iliad, bk. 21, li. 579.——A Mitylenean, who wrote a treatise on music.

Agenŏrĭdes, a patronymic applied to Cadmus, and the other descendants of Agenor. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 3, li. 8.

Agerīnus, a freedman of Agrippina, accused of attempting Nero’s life. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 14, ch. 16.

Agesander, a sculptor of Rhodes under Vespasian, who made a representation of Laocoon’s history, which now passes for the best relict of all ancient sculpture.

Agesias, a Platonic philosopher who taught the immortality of the soul. One of the Ptolemies forbade him to continue his lectures, because his doctrine was so prevalent that many of his auditors committed suicide.

Agesilāus, king of Sparta, of the family of the Agidæ, was son of Doryssus and father of Archelaus. During his reign Lycurgus instituted his famous laws. Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 204.—Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 2.——A son of Archidamus, of the family of the Proclidæ, made king in preference to his nephew Leotychides. He made war against Artaxerxes king of Persia with success; but in the midst of his conquests in Asia, he was recalled home to oppose the Athenians and Bœotians, who desolated his country; and his return was so expeditious that he passed, in 30 days, over that tract of country which had taken up a whole year of Xerxes’ expedition. He defeated his enemies at Coronea; but sickness prevented the progress of his conquests, and the Spartans were beat in every engagement, especially at Leuctra, till he appeared at their head. Though deformed, small of stature, and lame, he was brave, and a greatness of soul compensated all the imperfections of nature. He was as fond of sobriety as of military discipline; and when he went, in his 80th year, to assist Tachus king of Egypt, the servants of the monarch could hardly be persuaded that the Lacedæmonian general was eating with his soldiers on the ground, bare-headed, and without any covering to repose upon. Agesilaus died on his return from Egypt, after a reign of 36 years, 362 B.C., and his remains were embalmed and brought to Lacedæmon. Justin, bk. 6, ch. 1.—Plutarch & Cornelius Nepos, Lives of Distinguished Romans.—Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 9.—Xenophon, Oratation for Agesilaus.——A brother of Themistocles, who was sent as a spy into the Persian camp, where he stabbed Mardonius instead of Xerxes. Plutarch, Parallela minora.——A surname of Pluto.——A Greek who wrote a history of Italy.

Agesipŏlis I., king of Lacedæmon, son of Pausanias, obtained a great victory over the Mantineans. He reigned 14 years, and was succeeded by his brother Cleombrotus, B.C. 380. Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 5; bk. 8, ch. 8.—Xenophon, bk. 3, Hellenica.

Agesipŏlis II., son of Cleombrotus king of Sparta, was succeeded by Cleomenes II., B.C. 370. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 13; bk. 3, ch. 5.

Agesistrăta, the mother of king Agis. Plutarch, Agis.

Agesistrătus, a man who wrote a treatise entitled, De arte machinali.

Aggrammes, a cruel king of the Gangarides. His father was a hair-dresser, of whom the queen became enamoured, and whom she made governor of the king’s children, to gratify her passion. He killed them to raise Aggrammes, his son by the queen, to the throne. Curtius, bk. 9, ch. 2.

Aggrīnæ, a people near mount Rhodope. Cicero, Against Piso, ch. 37.

Agĭdæ, the descendants of Eurysthenes, who shared the throne of Sparta with the Proclidæ. The name is derived from Agis son of Eurysthenes. The family became extinct in the person of Cleomenes son of Leonidas. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 8, li. 682.

Agilāus, king of Corinth, reigned 36 years.——One of the Ephori, almost murdered by the partisans of Cleomenes. Plutarch, Cleomenes.

Agis, king of Sparta, succeeded his father Eurysthenes, and, after a reign of one year, was succeeded by his son Echestratus, B.C. 1058. Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 2.——Another king of Sparta, who waged bloody wars against Athens, and restored liberty to many Greek cities. He attempted to restore the laws of Lycurgus at Sparta, but in vain; the perfidy of friends, who pretended to second his views, brought him to difficulties, and he was at last dragged from a temple, where he had taken refuge, to a prison, where he was strangled by order of the Ephori. Plutarch, Agis.——Another, son of Archidamus, who signalized himself in the war which the Spartans waged against Epidaurus. He obtained a victory at Mantinea, and was successful in the Peloponnesian war. He reigned 27 years. Thucydides, bks. 3 & 4.—Pausanias, bk. 3, chs. 8 & 10.——Another, son of Archidamus king of Sparta, who endeavoured to deliver Greece from the empire of Macedonia, with the assistance of the Persians. He was conquered in the attempt, and slain by Antipater, Alexander’s general, and 5300 Lacedæmonians perished with him. Curtius, bk. 6, ch. 1.—Diodorus, bk. 17.—Justin, bk. 12, ch. 1, &c.——Another, son of Eudamidas, killed in a battle against the Mantineans. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 10.——An Arcadian in the expedition of Cyrus against his father Artaxerxes. Polyænus, bk. 7, ch. 18.——A poet of Argos, who accompanied Alexander into Asia, and said that Bacchus and the sons of Leda would give way to his hero, when a god. Curtius, bk. 8, ch. 5.——A Lycian, who followed Æneas into Italy, where he was killed. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 10, li. 751.

Aglāia, one of the Graces, called sometimes Pasiphae. Her sisters were Euphrosyne and Thalia, and they were all daughters of Jupiter and Eurynome. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 35.

Aglaonīce, daughter of Hegemon, was acquainted with astronomy and eclipses, whence she boasted of her power to draw down the moon from heaven. Plutarch, de Defectu Oraculorum.

Aglaŏpe, one of the Sirens.

Aglaŏphon, an excellent Greek painter. Pliny, bk. 35, ch. 8.

Aglaosthĕnes, wrote a history of Naxos. Strabo, bk. 6.

Aglauros, or Agraulos, daughter of Erechtheus the oldest king of Athens, was changed into a stone by Mercury. Some make her daughter of Cecrops. See: Herse. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 2, fable 12.

Aglaus, the poorest man of Arcadia, pronounced by the oracle more happy than Gyges king of Lydia. Pliny, bk. 7, ch. 46.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 7, ch. 1.

Agna, a woman in the age of Horace, who, though deformed, had many admirers. Horace, bk. 1, satire 3, li. 40.

Agno, one of the nymphs who nursed Jupiter. She gave her name to a fountain on mount Lycæus. When the priest of Jupiter, after a prayer, stirred the waters of this fountain with a bough, a thick vapour arose, which was soon dissolved into a plentiful shower. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 31, &c.

Agnodĭce, an Athenian virgin, who disguised her sex to learn medicine. She was taught by Hierophilus the art of midwifery, and when employed always discovered her sex to her patients. This brought her into so much practice, that the males of her profession, who were now out of employment, accused her, before the Areopagus, of corruption. She confessed her sex to the judges, and a law was immediately made to empower all free-born women to learn midwifery. Hyginus, fable 274.

Agnon, son of Nicias, was present at the taking of Samos by Pericles. In the Peloponnesian war he went against Potidæa, but abandoned his expedition through disease. He built Amphipolis, whose inhabitants rebelled to Brasidas, whom they regarded as their founder, forgetful of Agnon. Thucydides, bks. 2, 3, &c.——A writer. Quintilian, bk. 2, ch. 17.——One of Alexander’s officers. Pliny, bk. 33, ch. 3.

Agnonĭdes, a rhetorician of Athens, who accused Phocion of betraying the Piræus to Nicanor. When the people recollected what services Phocion had rendered them, they raised him statues, and put to death his accuser. Plutarch & Cornelius Nepos, Phocion.

Agōnālia and Agonia, festivals in Rome, celebrated three times a year in honour of Janus, or Agonius. They were instituted by Numa, and on the festive days the chief priest used to offer a ram. Ovid, Fasti, bk. 1, li. 317.—Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 5.

Agōnes Capitolīni, games celebrated every fifth year upon the Capitoline hill. Prizes were proposed for agility and strength, as well as for poetical and literary compositions. The poet Statius publicly recited there his Thebaid, which was not received with much applause.

Agonis, a woman in the temple of Venus, on mount Eryx. Cicero, Against Verres, bk. 1.

Agonius, a Roman deity, who presided over the actions of men. See: Agonalia.

Agoracrĭtus, a sculptor of Pharos, who made a statue of Venus for the people of Athens, B.C. 150.

Agoranŏmi, ten magistrates at Athens, who watched over the city and port, and inspected whatever was exposed to sale.

Agorānis, a river falling into the Ganges. Arrian, de Indica.

Agoræa, a name of Minerva at Sparta. Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 11.

Agoreus, a surname of Mercury among the Athenians, from his presiding over the markets. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 15.

Agra, a place of Bœotia where the Ilissus rises. Diana was called Agræa, because she hunted there.——A city of Susa——of Arcadia——and of Arabia.

Agræi and Agrenses, a people of Arabia. Pliny, bk. 6, ch. 28.——Of Ætolia. Livy, bk. 42, ch. 34.

Agrāgas, or Acragras, a river, town, and mountain of Sicily; called also Agrigentum. The town was built by the people of Gela, who were a Rhodian colony. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 703.—Diodorus, bk. 11.

Agraria lex, was enacted to distribute among the Roman people all the lands which they had gained by conquest. It was first proposed A.U.C. 268, by the consul Spurius Cassius Vicellinus, and rejected by the senate. This produced dissensions between the senate and the people, and Cassius, upon seeing the ill success of the new regulations he proposed, offered to distribute among the people the money which was produced from the corn of Sicily, after it had been brought and sold in Rome. This act of liberality the people refused, and tranquillity was soon after re-established in the state. It was proposed a second time A.U.C. 269, by the tribune Licinius Stolo, but with no better success; and so great were the tumults which followed, that one of the tribunes of the people was killed, and many of the senators fined for their opposition. Mutius Scævola, A.U.C. 620, persuaded the tribune Tiberius Gracchus to propose it a third time; and though Octavius, his colleague in the tribuneship, opposed it, yet Tiberius made it pass into a law, after much altercation, and commissioners were authorized to make a division of the lands. This law at last proved fatal to the freedom of Rome under Julius Cæsar. Florus, bk. 3, chs. 3 & 13.—Cicero, on the Agrarian Law.—Livy, bk. 2, ch. 41.

Agraule, a tribe of Athens. Plutarch, Themistocles.

Agraulia, a festival at Athens in honour of Agraulos. The Cyprians also observed these festivals, by offering human victims.

Agraulos, a daughter of Cecrops. See: Aglauros.——A surname of Minerva.

Agrauonītæ, a people of Illyria. Livy, bk. 45, ch. 26.

Agre, one of Actæon’s dogs. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 3, li. 213.

Agriānes, a river of Thrace. Herodotus, bk. 4, ch. 9.——A people that dwelt in the neighbourhood of that river. Herodotus, bk. 5, ch. 16.

Agricŏla, the father-in-law of the historian Tacitus, who wrote his life. He was eminent for his public and private virtues. He was governor of Britain, and first discovered it to be an island. Domitian envied his virtues; he recalled him from the province he had governed with equity and moderation, and ordered him to enter Rome in the night, that no triumph might be granted him. Agricola obeyed, and without betraying any resentment, he retired to peaceful solitude, and to the enjoyment of the society of a few friends. He died in his 56th year, A.D. 93. Tacitus, Agricola.

Agrigentum, now Girgenti, a town of Sicily, 18 stadia from the sea, on mount Agragas. It was founded by a Rhodian, or, according to some, by an Ionian colony. The inhabitants were famous for their hospitality, and for their luxurious manner of living. In its flourishing situation Agrigentum contained 200,000 inhabitants, who submitted with reluctance to the superior power of Syracuse. The government was monarchical, but afterwards a democracy was established. The famous Phalaris usurped the sovereignty, which was also for some time in the hands of the Carthaginians. Agrigentum can now boast of more venerable remains of antiquity than any other town in Sicily. Polybius, bk. 9.—Strabo, bk. 6.—Diodorus, bk. 13.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 707.—Silius Italicus, bk. 14, li. 211.

Agrinium, a city of Acarnania. Polybius, bk. 6.

Agriōnia, annual festivals in honour of Bacchus, celebrated generally in the night. They were instituted, as some suppose, because the god was attended with wild beasts.

Agriopas, a man who wrote the history of all those who had obtained the public prize at Olympia. Pliny, bk. 8, ch. 22.

Agriōpe, the wife of Agenor king of Phœnicia.

Marcus Agrippa Vipsanius, a celebrated Roman, who obtained a victory over Sextus Pompey, and favoured the cause of Augustus at the battles of Actium and Philippi, where he behaved with great valour. He advised his imperial friend to re-establish the republican government at Rome, but he was overruled by Mecænas. In his expeditions in Gaul and Germany, he obtained several victories, but refused the honours of a triumph, and turned his liberality towards the embellishing of Rome and the raising of magnificent buildings, one of which, the Pantheon, still exists. After he had retired for two years to Mitylene, in consequence of a quarrel with Marcellus, Augustus recalled him, and, as a proof of his regard, gave him his daughter Julia in marriage, and left him the care of the empire during an absence of two years employed in visiting the Roman provinces of Greece and Asia. He died, universally lamented, at Rome in the 51st year of his age, 12 B.C., and his body was placed in the tomb which Augustus had prepared for himself. He had been married three times: to Pomponia daughter of Atticus, to Marcella daughter of Octavia, and to Julia, by whom he had five children—Caius, and Lucius Cæsares, Posthumus Agrippa, Agrippina, and Julia. His son, Caius Cæsar Agrippa, was adopted by Augustus, and made consul, by the flattery of the Roman people at the age of 14 or 15. This promising youth went to Armenia on an expedition against the Persians, where he received a fatal blow from the treacherous hand of Lollius, the governor of one of the neighbouring cities. He languished for a little time and died in Lycia. His younger brother, Lucius Cæsar Agrippa, was likewise adopted by his grandfather Augustus; but he was soon after banished to Campania, for using seditious language against his benefactor. In the seventh year of his exile he would have been recalled had not Livia and Tiberius, jealous of the partiality of Augustus for him, ordered him to be assassinated in his 26th year. He has been called ferocious and savage; and he gave himself the name of Neptune, because he was fond of fishing. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 8, li. 682.—Horace, bk. 1, ode 6.——One of the servants of the murdered prince assumed his name and raised commotions. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 2, ch. 39.——Sylvius, a son of Tiberius Sylvius king of Latium. He reigned 33 years, and was succeeded by his son Romulus Sylvius. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, bk. 1, ch. 8.——A consul who conquered the Æqui.——A philosopher. Diogenes Laërtius.——Herodes, a son of Aristobulus, grandson of the Great Herod, who became tutor to the grandchild of Tiberius, and was soon after imprisoned by the suspicious tyrant. When Caligula ascended the throne his favourite was released, presented with a chain of gold as heavy as that which had lately confined him, and made king of Judæa. He was a popular character with the Jews: and it is said, that while they were flattering him with the appellation of God, an angel of God struck him with the lousy disease, of which he died, A.D. 43. His son, of the same name, was the last king of the Jews, deprived of his kingdom by Claudius, in exchange for other provinces. He was with Titus at the celebrated siege of Jerusalem, and died A.D. 94. It was before him that St. Paul pleaded, and made mention of his incestuous commerce with his sister Berenice. Juvenal, satire 6, li. 156.—Tacitus, bk. 2, Histories, ch. 81.——Menenius, a Roman general, who obtained a triumph over the Sabines, appeased the populace of Rome by the well-known fable of the belly and the limbs, and erected the new office of tribunes of the people, A.U.C. 261. He died poor, but universally regretted: his funeral was at the expense of the public from which also his daughters received dowries. Livy, bk. 2, ch. 32.—Florus, bk. 1, ch. 23.——A mathematician in the reign of Domitian; he was a native of Bithynia.

Agrippīna, a wife of Tiberius. The emperor repudiated her to marry Julia. Suetonius, Tiberias, ch. 7.——A daughter of Marcus Agrippa, and granddaughter to Augustus. She married Germanicus, whom she accompanied in Syria; and when Piso poisoned him, she carried his ashes to Italy, and accused his murderer, who stabbed himself. She fell under the displeasure of Tiberius, who exiled her in an island, where she died A.D. 26, for want of bread. She left nine children, and was universally distinguished for intrepidity and conjugal affection. Tacitus, bk. 1, Annals, ch. 2, &c.—Suetonius, Tiberias, ch. 52.——Julia, daughter of Germanicus and Agrippina, married Domitius Ænobarbus, by whom she had Nero. After her husband’s death she married her uncle the emperor Claudius, whom she destroyed to make Nero succeed to the throne. After many cruelties and much licentiousness she was assassinated by order of her son, and as she expired she exclaimed, “Strike the belly which could give birth to such a monster.” She died A.D. 59, after a life of prostitution and incestuous gratifications. It is said that her son viewed her dead body with all the raptures of admiration, saying, he never could have believed his mother was so beautiful a woman. She left memoirs which assisted Tacitus in the composition of his annals. The town which she built, where she was born, on the borders of the Rhine, and called Agrippina Colonia, is the modern Cologne. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 4, ch. 75; bk. 12, chs. 7, 22, &c.

Agrisius. See: Acrisius.

Agrisope, or Agriope, the mother of Cadmus. Hyginus, fable 6.

Agrius, son of Parthaon drove his brother Œneus from the throne. He was afterwards expelled by Diomedes the grandson of Œneus, upon which he killed himself. Hyginus, fables 175 & 242.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 7.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 14, li. 117.——A giant.——A centaur killed by Hercules. Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 5.——A son of Ulysses by Circe. Hesiod, Theogony, li. 1013.——The father of Thersites. Ovid, ex Ponto, bk. 3, poem 9, li. 9.

Agrŏlas, surrounded the citadel of Athens with walls, except that part which afterwards was repaired by Cimon. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 28.

Agron, king of Illyria, who, after conquering the Ætolians, drank to such excess that he died instantly, B.C. 231. Polybius, bk. 2, ch. 4.

Agrotas, a Greek orator of Marseilles.

Agrotĕra, an anniversary sacrifice of goats offered to Diana at Athens. It was instituted by Callimachus the Polemarch, who vowed to sacrifice to the goddess so many goats as there might be enemies killed in a battle which he was going to fight against the troops of Darius, who had invaded Attica. The quantity of the slain was so great, that a sufficient number of goats could not be procured; therefore they were limited to 500 every year, till they equalled the number of Persians slain in battle.——A temple of Ægira in Peloponnesus, erected to the goddess under this name. Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 26.

Agyleus and Agyieus from ἀγυια, a street, a surname of Apollo, because sacrifices were offered to him in the public streets of Athens. Horace, bk. 4, ode 6.

Agylla, a town of Etruria, founded by a colony of Pelasgians, and governed by Mezentius when Æneas came to Italy. It was afterwards called Cære, by the Lydians, who took possession of it. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 652; bk. 8, li. 479.

Agyllæus, a gigantic wrestler of Cleonæ, scarce inferior to Hercules in strength. Statius, Thebiad, bk. 6, li. 837.

Agyrium, a town of Sicily, where Diodorus the historian was born. The inhabitants were called Agyrinenses. Diodorus, bk. 14.—Cicero, Against Verres, bk. 2, ch. 65.

Agyrius, an Athenian general who succeeded Thrasybulus. Diodorus, bk. 14.

Agyrtes, a man who killed his father. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 5, li. 148.——A piper. ♦Statius, bk. 2, Achilleis, li. 50.

♦ ‘Sil.’ replaced with ‘Statius’

Agȳrus, a tyrant of Sicily, assisted by Dionysius against the Carthaginians. Diodorus, bk. 14.

Ahāla, the surname of the Servilii at Rome.

Ahenobarbus. See: Ænobarbus.

Ajax, the son of Telamon by Peribœa or Eribœa daughter of Alcathous, was, next to Achilles, the bravest of all the Greeks in the Trojan war. He engaged Hector, with whom at parting he exchanged arms. After the death of Achilles, Ajax and Ulysses disputed their claim to the arms of the dead hero. When they were given to the latter, Ajax was so enraged that he slaughtered a whole flock of sheep, supposing them to be the sons of Atreus, who had given the preference to Ulysses, and stabbed himself with his sword. The blood which ran to the ground from the wound, was changed into the flower hyacinth. Some say that he was killed by Paris in battle, others that he was murdered by Ulysses. His body was buried at Sigæum, some say on mount Rhœtus, and his tomb was visited and honoured by Alexander. Hercules, according to some authors, prayed to the gods that his friend Telamon, who was childless, might have a son, with a skin as impenetrable as the skin of the Nemæan lion which he then wore. His prayers were heard. Jupiter, under the form of an eagle, promised to grant the petition; and when Ajax was born, Hercules wrapped him up in the lion’s skin, which rendered his body invulnerable, except that part which was left uncovered by a hole in the skin, through which Hercules hung his quiver. This vulnerable part was in his breast, or as some say behind the neck. Quintus Calaber [Smyrnæus], bks. 1 & 4.—Apollodorus, bk. 3, chs. 10 & 13.—Philostratus, Heroicus, ch. 12.—Pindar, Isthmean, ode 6.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 1, &c.; Odyssey, bk. 11.—Dictys Cretensis, bk. 5.—Dares Phrygius, ch. 9.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 13.—Horace, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 197.—Hyginus, fables 107 & 242.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 35; bk. 5, ch. 19.——The son of Oileus king of Locris, was surnamed Locrian, in contradistinction to the son of Telamon. He went with 40 ships to the Trojan war, as being one of Helen’s suitors. The night that Troy was taken, he offered violence to Cassandra, who fled into Minerva’s temple; and for this offence, as he returned home, the goddess, who had obtained the thunders of Jupiter, and the power of tempests from Neptune, destroyed his ship in a storm. Ajax swam to a rock, and said that he was safe in spite of all the gods. Such impiety offended Neptune, who struck the rock with his trident, and Ajax tumbled into the sea with part of the rock and was drowned. His body was afterwards found by the Greeks, and black sheep offered on his tomb. According to Virgil’s account, Minerva seized him in a whirlwind, and dashed him against a rock, where he expired, consumed by thunder. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 1, li. 43, &c.—Homer, Iliad, bks. 2, 13, &c.; Odyssey, bk. 4.—Hyginus, fables 116 & 273.—Philostratus, Imagines, bk. 2, ch. 13.—Seneca, Agamemnon.—Horace, Epodes, poem 10, li. 13.—Pausanias, bk. 10, chs. 26 & 31.——The two Ajaces were, as some suppose, placed after death in the island of Leuce, a separate place reserved only for the bravest heroes of antiquity.

Aidōneus, a surname of Pluto.——A king of the Molossi, who imprisoned Theseus, because he and Pirithous attempted to ravish his daughter Proserpine, near the Acheron; whence arose the well-known fable of the descent of Theseus and Pirithous into hell. Plutarch, Theseus.——A river near Troy. Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 12.

Aimy̆lus, son of Ascanius, was, according to some, the progenitor of the noble family of the Æmylii in Rome.

Aius Locutius, a deity to whom the Romans erected an altar, from the following circumstance: one of the common people, called Ceditius, informed the tribunes, that as he passed one night through one of the streets of the city, a voice more than human, issuing from above Vesta’s temple, told him that Rome would soon be attacked by the Gauls. His information was neglected; but his veracity was proved by the event; and Camillus, after the conquest of the Gauls, built a temple to that supernatural voice which had given Rome warning of the approaching calamity, under the name of Aius Locutius.

Alabanda, æ, or orum, an inland town of Caria, abounding with scorpions. The name is derived from Alabandus, a deity worshipped there. Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 3, ch. 16.—Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 195.—Strabo, bk. 14.

Alabastrum, a town of Egypt. Pliny, bk. 36, ch. 7.

Alăbus, a river in Sicily.

Alæa, a surname of Minerva in Peloponnesus. Her festivals are also called Alæa. Pausanias, bk. 8, chs. 4 & 7.

Alæi, a number of islands in the Persian gulf, abounding in tortoises. Arrian, Periplus of the Euxine Sea.

Alæsa, a city on a mountain in Sicily.

Alæus, the father of Auge, who married Hercules.

Alagōnia, a city of Laconia. Pausanias, bk. 3, chs. 21 & 26.

Alāla, the goddess of war, sister to Mars. Plutarch, de gloria Atheniensium.

Alalcomĕnæ, a city of Bœotia, where some suppose that Minerva was born. Plutarch, Quæstiones Græcæ.—Statius, Thebiad, bk. 7, li. 330.

Alalia, a town of Corsica, built by a colony of Phocæans, destroyed by Scipio, 262 B.C., and afterwards rebuilt by Sylla. Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 165.—Florus, bk. 2, ch. 2.

Alamānes, a statuary at Athens, disciple of Phidias.

Alamanni, or Alemanni, a people of Germany, near the Hercynian forest. They were very powerful and inimical to Rome.

Alāni, a people of Sarmatia, near the Palus Mœotis, who were said to have 26 different languages. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 12.—Strabo.

Alăres, a people of Pannonia. Tacitus, bk. 15, Annals, ch. 10.

Alarīcus, a famous king of the Goths, who plundered Rome in the reign of Honorius. He was greatly respected for his military valour, and during his reign he kept the Roman empire in continual alarms. He died after a reign of 13 years, A.D. 410.

Alarōdii, a nation near Pontus. Herodotus, bk. 3, ch. 94.

Alastor, a son of Neleus and Chloris. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 9.——An arm-bearer to Sarpedon king of Lycia, killed by Ulysses. Homer, Iliad, bk. 5, li. 677.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 13, li. 257.——One of Pluto’s horses when he carried away Proserpine. Claudian, de Raptu Proserpinæ, bk. 1, li. 286.

Alaudæ, soldiers of one of Cæsar’s legions in Gaul. Suetonius, Julius Cæsar, ch. 24.

Alazon, a river flowing from mount Caucasus into the Cyrus, and separating Albania from Iberia. Flaccus, bk. 6, li. 101.

Alba Sylvius, son of Latinus Sylvius, succeeded his father in the kingdom of Latium, and reigned 36 years. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 14, li. 612.——Longa, a city of Latium, built by Ascanius, B.C. 1152, on the spot where Æneas found, according to the prophecy of Helenus (Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 390, &c.), and of the god of the river (Æneid, bk. 8, li. 43), a white sow with 30 young ones. It was called longa because it extended along the hill Albinus. The descendants of Æneas reigned there in the following order: 1. Ascanius, son of Æneas, with little intermission, eight years. 2. Sylvius Posthumus, 29 years. 3. Æneas Sylvius, 31 years. 4. Latinus, five years. 5. Alba, 36 years. 6. Atys, or Capetus, 26 years. 7. Capys, 28 years. 8. Calpetus, 13 years. 9. Tiberinus, eight years. 10. Agrippa, 33 years. 11. Remulus, 19 years. 12. Aventinus, 37 years. 13. Procas, 13 years. 14. Numitor and Amulius. Alba, which had long been the powerful rival of Rome, was destroyed by the Romans, 665 B.C., and the inhabitants were carried to Rome. Livy.—Florus.—Justin, &c.——A city of the Marsi in Italy.——Pompeia, a city of Liguria. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 5.

Albāni and Albenses, names applied to the inhabitants of the two cities of Alba. Cicero, Rhetorica ad Herennium, bk. 2, ch. 28.

Albānia, a country of Asia, between the Caspian sea and Iberia. The inhabitants are said to have their eyes all blue. Some maintain that they followed Hercules from mount Albanus in Italy, when he returned from the conquest of Geryon. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, bk. 1, ch. 15.—Justin, bk. 42, ch. 3.—Strabo, bk. 11.—Pliny, bk. 8, ch. 40.—Mela, bk. 3, ch. 5.——The Caspian sea is called Albanum, as being near Albania. Pliny, bk. 6, ch. 13.

Albānus, a mountain with a lake in Italy, 16 miles from Rome, near Alba. It was on this mountain that the Latinæ feriæ were celebrated with great solemnity. Horace, bk. 2, ltr. 1, li. 27. The word, taken adjectively, is applied to such as are natives of, or belong to, the town of Alba.

Albia Terennia, the mother of Otho. Suetonius.

Albīci, a people of Gallia Aquitania. Cæsar, Civil War, bk. 1, ch. 34.

Albiētæ, a people of Latium. Dionysius of Halicarnassus.

Albigaunum, a town of Liguria. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 4.

Albīni, two Roman orators of great merit, mentioned by Cicero in Brutus. This name is common to many tribunes of the people. Livy, bk. 2, ch. 33; bk. 6, ch. 30. Sallust, Jugurthine War.

Albinovānus Celsus. See: Celsus.——Pedo, a poet contemporary with Ovid. He wrote elegies, epigrams, and heroic poetry in a style so elegant that he merited the epithet of divine. Ovid, ex Ponto, bk. 4, poem 10.—Quintilian, bk. 10, ch. 5.

Albintemēlium, a town of Liguria. Tacitus, bk. 2, Histories, ch. 13.

Albīnus, was born at Adrumetum in Africa, and made governor of Britain by Commodus. After the murder of Pertinax, he was elected emperor by the soldiers in Britain. Severus had also been invested with the imperial dignity by his own army; and these two rivals, with about 50,000 men each, came into Gaul to decide the fate of the empire. Severus was conqueror, and he ordered the head of Albinus to be cut off, and his body to be thrown into the Rhone, A.D. 198. Albinus, according to the exaggerated account of a certain writer called Codrus, was famous for his voracious appetite, and sometimes ate for breakfast no less than 500 figs, 100 peaches, 20 pounds of dry raisins, 10 melons, and 400 oysters.——A pretorian sent to Sylla, as ambassador from the senate during the civil wars. He was put to death by Sylla’s soldiers. Plutarch, Sulla.——An usurer. Horace.——A Roman plebeian who received the vestals into his chariot in preference to his family, when they fled from Rome, which the Gauls had sacked. Valerius Maximus, bk. 1, ch. 1.—Livy, bk. 5, ch. 40.—Florus, bk. 1, ch. 13.——Aulus Posthumus, consul with Lucullus, A.U.C. 603, wrote a history of Rome in Greek.

Albion, son of Neptune by Amphitrite, came into Britain, where he established a kingdom, and first introduced astrology and the art of building ships. He was killed at the mouth of the Rhone, with stones thrown by Jupiter, because he opposed the passage of Hercules. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 5.——The greatest island of Europe, now called Great Britain. It is called after Albion, who is said to have reigned there; or from its chalky white (albus) rocks, which appear at a great distance. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 16.—Tacitus, Agricola. The ancients compared its figure to a long buckler, or to the iron of a hatchet.

Albis, a river of Germany falling into the German ocean, and now called the Elbe. Lucan, bk. 2, li. 52.

Albius, a man, father to a famous spendthrift. Horace, bk. 1, satire 4.——A name of the poet Tibullus. Horace, bk. 1, ode 33, li. 1.

Albucilla, an immodest woman. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 6, ch. 47.

Albŭla, the ancient name of the river Tiber. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 8, li. 332.—Livy, bk. 1, ch. 3.

Albŭnea, a wood near Tibur, and the river Anio, sacred to the muses. It received its name from a Sibyl, called also Albunea, worshipped as a goddess at Tibur, whose temple still remains. Near Albunea there was a small lake of the same name, whose waters were of a sulphureous smell, and possessed some medicinal properties. This lake fell, by a small stream called Albula, into the river Anio, with which it soon lost itself in the Tiber. Horace, bk. 1, ode 7, li. 12.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 83.

Alburnus, a lofty mountain of Lucania, where the Tanager takes its rise. Virgil, Georgics, bk. 3, li. 147.

Albus Pagus, a place near Sidon, where Antony waited for the arrival of Cleopatra.

Albūtius, a prince of Celtiberia, to whom Scipio restored his wife. Arrian.——A sordid man, father to Canidia. He beat his servants before they were guilty of any offence, “lest,” said he, “I should have no time to punish them when they offend.” Horace, bk. 2, satire 2.——A rhetorician in the age of Seneca.——An ancient satirist. Cicero, Brutus.——Titus, an epicurean philosopher, born at Rome; so fond of Greece and Grecian manners, that he wished not to pass for a Roman. He was made governor of Sardinia; but he grew offensive to the senate and was banished. It is supposed that he died at Athens.

Alcæus, a celebrated lyric poet of Mitylene in Lesbos, about 600 years before the christian era. He fled from a battle, and his enemies hung up, in the temple of Minerva, the armour which he left in the field, as a monument of his disgrace. He is the inventor of alcaic verses. He was contemporary to the famous Sappho, to whom he paid his addresses. Of all his works, nothing but a few fragments remain, found in Athenæus. Quintilian, bk. 10, ch. 1.—Herodotus, bk. 5, ch. 95.—Horace, bk. 4, ode 9.—Cicero, bk. 4, Tusculanæ Disputationes, ch. 33.——A poet of Athens, said by Suidas to be the inventor of tragedy.——A writer of epigrams.——A comic poet.——A son of Androgeus, who went with Hercules into Thrace, and was made king of part of the country. Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 5.——A son of Hercules by a maid of Omphale.——A son of Perseus, father of Amphitryon and Anaxo. From him Hercules has been called Alcides. Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 4.—Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 14.

Alcamĕnes, one of the Agidæ, king of Sparta, known by his apophthegms. He succeeded his father Teleclus, and reigned 37 years. The Helots rebelled in his reign. Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 2; bk. 4, chs. 4 & 5.——A general of the Achæans. Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 15.——A statuary, who lived 448 B.C., and was distinguished for his statues of Venus and Vulcan. Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 10.——The commander of a Spartan fleet, put to death by the Athenians. Thucydides, bk. 4, ch. 5, &c.

Alcander, an attendant of Sarpedon, killed by Ulysses. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 13, li. 257.——A Lacedæmonian youth, who accidentally put out one of the eyes of Lycurgus, and was generously forgiven by the sage. Plutarch, Lycurgus.—Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 18.——A Trojan killed by Turnus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 9, li. 767.

Alcandre, the wife of Polybius, a rich Theban. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 4, li. 672.

Alcānor, a Trojan of mount Ida, whose sons Pandarus and Bitias followed Æneas into Italy. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 9, li. 672.——A son of Phorus, killed by Æneas. Æneid, bk. 10, li. 338.

Alcăthoe, a name of Megara, in Attica, because rebuilt by Alcathous son of Pelops. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 8, li. 8.

Alcăthous, a son of Pelops, who, being suspected of murdering his brother Chrysippus, came to Megara, where he killed a lion which had destroyed the king’s son. He succeeded to the kingdom of Megara, and in commemoration of his services, festivals, called Alcathoia, were instituted at Megara. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 41, &c.——A Trojan, who married Hippodamia daughter of Anchises. He was killed in the Trojan war by Idomeneus. Homer, Iliad, bk. 12, li. 93.——A son of Parthaon, killed by Tydeus. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 7, &c.——A friend of Æneas, killed in the Rutulian war. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 10, li. 747.

Alce, one of Actæon’s dogs. Ovid.——A town of Spain which surrendered to Gracchus, now Alcazar, a little above Toledo. Livy, bk. 40, ch. 47.

Alcēnor, an Argive, who, along with Chromius, survived the battle between 300 of his countrymen and 300 Lacedæmonians. Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 82.

Alceste, or Alcestis, daughter of Pelias and Anaxibia, married Admetus. She, with her sisters, put to death her father, that he might be restored to youth and vigour by Medea, who, however, refused to perform her promise. Upon this the sisters fled to Admetus, who married Alceste. They were soon pursued by an army headed by their brother Acastus; and Admetus, being taken prisoner, was redeemed from death by the generous offer of his wife, who was sacrificed in his stead to appease the shades of her father. Some say that Alceste, with an unusual display of conjugal affection, laid down her life for her husband, when she had been told by an oracle that he could never recover from a disease, except some one of his friends died in his stead. According to some authors, Hercules brought her back from hell. She had many suitors while she lived with her father. See: Admetus. Juvenal, satire 6, li. 651.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 9.—Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 17.—Hyginus, fable 251.—Euripides, Alcestis.

Alcĕtas, a king of the Molossi, descended from Pyrrhus the son of Achilles. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 11.——A general of Alexander’s army, brother to Perdiccas.——The eighth king of Macedonia, who reigned 29 years.——An historian, who wrote an account of everything that had been dedicated in the temple of Delphi. Athenæus.——A son of Arybas king of Epirus. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 11.

Alchĭdas, a Rhodian, who became enamoured of a naked Cupid of Praxiteles. Pliny, bk. 36, ch. 5.

Alchimăchus, a celebrated painter. Pliny, bk. 35, ch. 11.

Alcibiădes, an Athenian general famous for his enterprising spirit, versatile genius, and natural foibles. He was disciple to Socrates, whose lessons and example checked for a while his vicious propensities. In the Peloponnesian war he encouraged the Athenians to make an expedition against Syracuse. He was chosen general in that war, and in his absence his enemies accused him of impiety, and confiscated his goods. Upon this he fled, and stirred up the Spartans to make war against Athens, and when this did not succeed he retired to Tissaphernes, the Persian general. Being recalled by the Athenians, he obliged the Lacedæmonians to sue for peace; made several conquests in Asia, and was received in triumph at Athens. His popularity was of short duration; the failure of an expedition against Cyme exposed him again to the resentment of the people, and he fled to Pharnabazus, whom he almost induced to make war upon Lacedæmon. This was told to Lysander the Spartan general, who prevailed upon Pharnabazus to murder Alcibiades. Two servants were sent for that purpose, and they set on fire the cottage where he was, and killed him with darts as he attempted to make his escape. He died in the 46th year of his age, 404 B.C., after a life of perpetual difficulties. If the fickleness of his countrymen had known how to retain among them the talents of a man who distinguished himself, and was admired wherever he went, they might have risen to greater splendour, and to the sovereignty of Greece. His character has been cleared from the aspersions of malevolence, by the writings of Thucydides, Timæus, and Theopompus; and he is known to us as a hero, who, to the principles of the debauchee, added the intelligence and sagacity of the statesman, the cool intrepidity of the general, and the humanity of the philosopher. Plutarch & Cornelius Nepos, Alcibiades.—Thucydides, bks. 5, 6, & 7.—Xenophon, Hellenica, bk. 1, &c.—Diodorus, bk. 12.

Alcidămas, of Cos, was father to Ctesilla, who was changed into a dove. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 7, fable 12.——A celebrated wrestler. Statius, Thebiad, bk. 10, li. 500.——A philosopher and orator, who wrote a treatise on death. He was pupil to Gorgias, and flourished B.C. 424. Quintilian, bk. 3, ch. 1.

Alcidamēa, was mother of Bunus by Mercury.

Alcidamĭdas, a general of the Messenians, who retired to Rhegium, after the taking of Ithome by the Spartans, B.C. 723. Strabo, bk. 6.

Alcidămus, an Athenian rhetorician, who wrote an eulogy on death, &c. Cicero, bk. 1, Tusculanæ Disputationes, ch. 48.—Plutarch, Lives of the Ten Orators.

Alcīdas, a Lacedæmonian, sent with 23 galleys against Corcyra, in the Peloponnesian war. Thucydides, bk. 3, ch. 16, &c.

Alcīdes, a name of Hercules, from his strength, ἀλκος, or from his grandfather Alcæus.——A surname of Minerva in Macedonia. Livy, bk. 42, ch. 51.

Alcidĭce, the mother of Tyro, by Salmoneus. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 9.

Alcimăchus, an eminent painter. Pliny, bk. 35, ch. 11.

Alcimĕde, the mother of Jason by Æson. Flaccus, bk. 1, li. 296.

Alcimĕdon, a plain of Arcadia, with a cave the residence of Alcimedon, whose daughter Phillo was ravished by Hercules. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 12.——An excellent carver. Virgil, Eclogues, poem 3.——A sailor, &c. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 4, fable 10.

Alcimĕnes, a tragic poet of Megara.——A comic writer of Athens.——An attendant of Demetrius. Plutarch, Demetrius.——A man killed by his brother Bellerophon. Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 3.

Alcĭmus, an historian of Sicily, who wrote an account of Italy.——An orator. Diogenes Laërtius.

Alcinoe, a daughter of Sthenelus son of Perseus. Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 4.

Alcĭnor. See: Alcenor.

Alcinous, son of Nausithous and Peribœa, was king of Phæacia, and is praised for his love of agriculture. He married his niece Arete, by whom he had several sons and a daughter, Nausicaa. He kindly entertained Ulysses, who had been shipwrecked on his coast, and heard the recital of his adventures; whence arose the proverb of the stories of Alcinous to denote improbability. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 7.—Orpheus, Argonautica.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 2, li. 87.—Statius, bk. 1, Sylvæ, poem 3, li. 81.—Juvenal, satire 5, li. 151.—Ovid, Amores, bk. 1, poem 10, li. 56.—Plato, Republic, bk. 10.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 9.——A son of Hippocoon. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 10.——A man of Elis. Pausanias.——A philosopher in the second century, who wrote a book de Doctriná Platonis, the best edition of which is the 12mo, printed Oxford, 1667.

Alcioneus, a man killed by Perseus. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 5, fable 4.

Alciphron, a philosopher of Magnesia, in the age of Alexander. There are some epistles in Greek that bear his name, and contain a very perfect picture of the customs and manners of the Greeks. They are by some supposed to be the production of a writer of the fourth century. The only edition is that of Leipzig, 12mo, 1715, cum notis Bergleri.

Alcippe, a daughter of the god Mars, by Agraulos. She was ravished by Halirrhotius. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 14.——The wife of Metion and mother to Eupalamus. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 16.——The daughter of Œnomaus, and wife of Evenus, by whom she had Marpessa.——A woman who brought forth an elephant. Pliny, bk. 7.——A country-woman. Virgil, Eclogues, poem 7.

Alcippus, a reputed citizen of Sparta, banished by his enemies. He married Democrite, of whom Plutarch, Amatoriæ narrationes.

Alcis, a daughter of Ægyptus. Apollodorus.

Alcithoe, a Theban woman, who ridiculed the orgies of Bacchus. She was changed into a bat, and the spindle and yarn with which she worked, into a vine and ivy. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 4, fable 1.

Alcmæon, was son of the prophet Amphiaraus and Eriphyle. His father going to the Theban war, where, according to an oracle, he was to perish, charged him to revenge his death upon Eriphyle, who had betrayed him. See: Eriphyle. As soon as he heard of his father’s death, he murdered his mother, for which crime the Furies persecuted him till Phlegeus purified him and gave him his daughter Alphesibœa in marriage. Alcmæon gave her the fatal collar which his mother had received to betray his father, and afterwards divorced her, and married Callirhoe the daughter of Achelous, to whom he promised the necklace which he had given to Alphesibœa. When he attempted to recover it, Alphesibœa’s brothers murdered him on account of the treatment which he had shown their sister, and left his body a prey to dogs and wild beasts. Alcmæon’s children by Callirhoe revenged their father’s death by killing his murderers. See: Alphesibœa, Amphiaraus. Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 17; bk. 6, ch. 18; bk. 8, ch. 24.—Plutarch, de Exilio.—Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 7.—Hyginus, fables 73 & 245.—Statius, Thebiad, bks. 2 & 4.—Ovid, Fasti, bk. 2, li. 44; Metamorphoses, bk. 9, fable 10.——A son of Ægyptus, the husband of Hippomedusa. Apollodorus.——A philosopher, disciple to Pythagoras, born in Crotona. He wrote on physic, and he was the first who dissected animals to examine into the structure of the human frame. Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 6, ch. 27.——A son of the poet Æschylus, the 13th archon of Athens.——A son of Syllus, driven from Messenia with the rest of Nestor’s family, by the Heraclidæ. He came to Athens, and from him the Alcmæonidæ were descended. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 18.

Alcmæŏnĭdæ, a noble family of Athens, descended from Alcmæon. They undertook for 300 talents to rebuild the temple of Delphi, which had been burnt, and they finished the work in a more splendid manner than was required, in consequence of which they gained popularity, and by their influence the Pythia prevailed upon the Lacedæmonians to deliver their country from the tyranny of the Pisistratidæ. Herodotus, bks. 5 & 6.—Thucydides, bk. 6, ch. 59.—Plutarch, Solon.

Alcman, a very ancient lyric poet, born in Sardinia, and not at Lacedæmon, as some suppose. He wrote in the Doric dialect six books of verses, besides a play called Colymbosas. He flourished B.C. 670, and died of the lousy disease. Some of his verses are preserved by Athenæus and others. Pliny, bk. 11, ch. 33.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 41; bk. 3, ch. 15.—Aristotle, History of Animals, bk. 5, ch. 31.

Alcmēna, was daughter of Electryon king of Argos, by Anaxo, whom Plutarch, ♦Theseus calls Lysidice, and Diodorus, bk. 2, Eurymede. Her father promised his crown and his daughter to Amphitryon, if he would revenge the death of his sons, who had been all killed, except Licymnius, by the Teleboans, a people of Ætolia. While Amphitryon was gone against the Ætolians, Jupiter, who was enamoured of Alcmena, resolved to introduce himself into her bed. The more effectually to insure success in his amour, he assumed the form of Amphitryon, declared that he had obtained a victory over Alcmena’s enemies, and even presented her with a cup, which he said he had preserved from the spoils for her sake. Alcmena yielded to her lover what she had promised to her future husband; and Jupiter, to delay the return of Amphitryon, ordered his messenger, Mercury, to stop the rising of Phœbus, or the sun, so that the night he passed with Alcmena was prolonged to three long nights. Amphitryon returned the next day; and after complaining of the coldness with which he was received, Alcmena acquainted him with the reception of a false lover the preceding night, and even showed him the cup which she had received. Amphitryon was perplexed at the relation, and more so upon missing the cup from among his spoils. He went to the prophet Tiresias, who told him of Jupiter’s intrigue; and he returned to his wife proud of the dignity of his rival. Alcmena became pregnant by Jupiter, and afterwards by her husband; and when she was going to bring forth, Jupiter boasted in heaven that a child was to be born that day to whom he would give absolute power over his neighbours, and even over all the children of his own blood. Juno, who was jealous of Jupiter’s amours with Alcmena, made him swear by the Styx, and immediately prolonged the travails of Alcmena, and hastened the bringing forth of the wife of Sthenelus king of Argos, who, after a pregnancy of seven months, had a son called Eurystheus. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 8, fable 5, &c., says that Juno was assisted by Lucina to put off the bringing forth of Alcmena, and that Lucina, in the form of an old woman, sat before the door of Amphitryon with her legs and arms crossed. This posture was the cause of infinite torment to Alcmena, till her servant, Galanthis, supposing the old woman to be a witch, and to be the cause of the pains of her mistress, told her that she had brought forth. Lucina retired from her posture, and immediately Alcmena brought forth twins, Hercules conceived by Jupiter, and Iphiclus by Amphitryon. Eurystheus was already born, and therefore Hercules was subjected to his power. After Amphitryon’s death, Alcmena married Rhadamanthus, and retired to Ocalea, in Bœotia. This marriage, according to some authors, was celebrated in the island of Leuce. The people of Megara said that she died ♠on her way from Argos to Thebes, and that she was buried in the temple of Jupiter Olympius. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 41; bk. 5, ch. 18; bk. 9, ch. 16.—Plutarch, ♦Theseus & Romulus.—Homer, Odyssey, bk. 11; Iliad, bk. 19.—Pindar, Pythian, ♣poem 4.—Lucian, Dialogi Deorum.—Diodorus, bk. 4.—Hyginus, fable 29.—Apollodorus, bk. 2, chs. 4, 7; bk. 3, ch. 1.—Plautus, Amphitruo.—Herodotus, bk. 2, chs. 43 & 45.——See: Amphitryon, Hercules, Eurystheus.