Amĭlos, or Amĭlus, a river of Mauritania, where the elephants go to wash themselves by moonshine. Pliny, bk. 8, ch. 1.——A town of Arcadia. Pausanias, Arcadia.

Amimŏne, or Amymŏne, a daughter of Danaus, changed into a fountain which is near Argos, and flows into the lake Lerna. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 2, li. 240.

Amĭnea, or Amminea, a part of Campania, where the inhabitants are great husbandmen. Its wine was highly esteemed. Virgil, Georgics, bk. 2, li. 97.——A place of Thessaly.

Aminias, a famous pirate, whom Antigonus employed against Apollodorus tyrant of Cassandrea. Polyænus, bk. 4, ch. 18.

Aminius, a river of Arcadia. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 30.

Aminŏcles, a native of Corinth, who flourished 705 B.C., &c.

Amisēna, a country of Cappadocia. Strabo, bk. 12.

Amisias, a comic poet, whom Aristophanes ridiculed for his insipid verses.

Amissas, an officer of Megalopolis in Alexander’s army. Curtius, bk. 10, ch. 8.

Amiternum, a town of Italy, where Sallust was born. The inhabitants assisted Turnus against Æneas. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 710.—Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 5.—Livy, bk. 28, ch. 45.

Amithāon, or Amythāon, was father to Melampus the famous prophet. Statius, Thebiad, bk. 3, li. 451.

Ammālo, a festival in honour of Jupiter in Greece.

Amphiarāĭdes, a patronymic of Alcmæon as being son of Amphiaraus. Ovid, Fasti, bk. 2, li. 43.

Amphicrătes, an historian who wrote the lives of illustrious men. Diogenes Laërtius.

Amphictyon, son of Deucalion and Pyrrha, reigned at Athens after Cranaus, and first attempted to give the interpretation of dreams, and to draw omens. Some say that the deluge happened in his age. Justin, bk. 2, ch. 6.——The son of Helenus, who first established the celebrated council of the Amphictyons, composed of the wisest and most virtuous men of some cities of Greece. This august assembly consisted of 12 persons, originally sent by the following states: the Ionians, Dorians, Perhæbians, Bœotians, Magnesians, Phthians, Locrians, Malians, Phocians, Thessalians, Dolopes, and the people of Œta. Other cities in process of time sent also some of their citizens to the council of the Amphictyons, and in the age of Antoninus Pius, they were increased to the number of 30. They generally met twice every year at Delphi, and sometimes sat at Thermopylæ. They took into consideration all matters of difference which might exist between the different states of Greece. When the Phocians plundered the temple of Delphi the Amphictyons declared war against them, and this war was supported by all the states of Greece, and lasted 10 years. The Phocians, with their allies the Lacedæmonians, were deprived of the privilege of sitting in the council of the Amphictyons, and the Macedonians were admitted in their place, for their services in support of the war. About 60 years after, when Brennus, with the Gauls, invaded Greece, the Phocians behaved with such courage, that they were reinstated in all their former privileges. Before they proceeded to business, the Amphictyons sacrificed an ox to the god of Delphi, and cut his flesh into small pieces, intimating that union and unanimity prevailed in the several cities which they represented. Their decisions were held sacred and inviolable, and even arms were taken up to enforce them. Pausanias, Phocis & Achaia.—Strabo, bk. 8.—Suidas.—Hesychius.—Aeschines.

Amphiclea, a town of Phocis, where Bacchus had a temple.

Amphidāmus, a son of Aleus, brother to Lycurgus. He was of the family of the Inachidæ. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 4.——One of the Argonauts. Flaccus, bk. 1, li. 376.——A son of Busiris, killed by Hercules. Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 5.

Amphidrŏmia, a festival observed by private families at Athens, the fifth day after the birth of every child. It was customary to run round the fire with a child in their arms; whence the name of the festivals.

Amphigenīa, a town of Messenia in Peloponnesus. Statius, Thebiad, bk. 4, li. 178.

Amphilŏchus, a son of Amphiaraus and Eriphyle. After the Trojan war, he left Argos, his native country, and built Amphilochus, a town of Epirus. Strabo, bk. 7.—Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 18.——An Athenian philosopher who wrote upon agriculture. Varro, de Re Rustica, bk. 1.

Amphily̆tus, a soothsayer of Acarnania, who encouraged Pisistratus to seize the sovereign power of Athens. Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 62.

Amphimăche, a daughter of Amphidamus, wife of Eurystheus. Apollodorus, bk. 2.

Amphimăchus, one of Helen’s suitors, son of Cteatus. He went to the Trojan war. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 10.—Hyginus, fable 97.——A son of Actor and Theronice. Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 3.

Amphimĕdon, a Libyan killed by Perseus, in the court of Cepheus. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 5, li. 75.——One of Penelope’s suitors, killed by Telemachus. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 22, li. 283.

Amphinŏme, the name of one of the attendants of Thetis. Homer, Iliad, bk. 18, li. 44.

Amphinŏmus, one of Penelope’s suitors, killed by Telemachus. Homer, Odyssey, bks. 16 & 22.

Amphinŏmus and Anapius, two brothers, who, when Catana and the neighbouring cities were in flames, by an eruption from mount Ætna, saved their parents upon their shoulders. The fire, as it is said, spared them while it consumed others by their side; and Pluto, to reward their uncommon piety, placed them after death in the island of Leuce, and they received divine honours in Sicily. Valerius Maximus, bk. 5, ch. 4.—Strabo, bk. 6.—Silius Italicus, bk. 14, li. 197.—Seneca, de Beneficiis.

Amphitryōniădes, a surname of Hercules, as the supposed son of Amphitryon. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 8, li. 103.

Amphitus, a priest of Ceres, at the court of Cepheus. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 5, fable 5.

Amphotĕrus, was appointed commander of a fleet in the Hellespont by Alexander. Curtius, bk. 3, ch. 1.——A son of Alcmæon.

Amphrȳsus, a river of Thessaly, near which Apollo, when banished from heaven, fed the flocks of king Admetus. From this circumstance the god has been called Amphryssius, and his priestess Amphryssia. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 1, li. 580.—Lucan, bk. 6, li. 367.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 3, li. 2; Æneid, bk. 6, li. 398.——A river of Phrygia, whose waters rendered women liable to barrenness. Pliny, bk. 32, ch. 2.

Amyntiānus, an historian in the age of Antoninus, who wrote a treatise in commendation of Philip, Olympias, and Alexander.

Amyntor, a king of Argos, son of Phrastor. He deprived his son Phœnix of his eyes, to punish him for the violence which he had offered to Clytia his concubine. Hyginus, fable 173.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 8, li. 307.—Apollodorus, bk. 3.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 9.——A general of the Dolopes. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 12, li. 364.——A son of Ægyptus, killed by Damone the first night of his marriage. Hyginus, fable 170.

Amyris, a man of Sybaris, who consulted the oracle of Delphi concerning the probable duration of his country’s prosperity, &c.

Amyrīcus Campus, a plain of Thessaly. Polybius, bk. 3.

Amyrius, a king by whom Cyrus was killed in a battle. Ctesias.

Amy̆rus, a town of Thessaly.——A river mentioned by Valerius Flaccus, bk. 2, li. 11.

Amystis, a river of India falling into the Ganges. Arrian, Indica.

Amythāon, a son of Cretheus king of Iolchos, by Tyro. He married Idomene, by whom he had Bias and Melampus. After his father’s death, he established himself in Messenia with his brother Neleus, and re-established or regulated the Olympic games. Melampus is called Amythaonius, from his father Amythaon. Virgil, Georgics, bk. 3, li. 550.—Diodorus, bk. 4.—Apollodorus, bk. 1.—Homer, Odyssey, bk. 11.——A son of Hippasus, who assisted Priam in the Trojan war, and was killed by Lycomedes. Homer, Iliad, bk. 17.

Amytis, a daughter of Astyages, whom Cyrus married. Ctesias.——A daughter of Xerxes, who married Megabyzus, and disgraced herself by her debaucheries.

Anăces, or Anactes, a name given to Castor and Pollux among the Athenians. Their festivals were called Anaceia. Plutarch, Theseus.—Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 3, ch. 21.

Anacharsis, a Scythian philosopher, 592 B.C., who, on account of his wisdom, temperance, and extensive knowledge, has been called one of the seven wise men. Like his countrymen, he made use of a cart instead of a house. He was wont to compare laws to cobwebs, which can stop only small flies, and are unable to resist the superior force of large insects. When he returned to Scythia from Athens, where he had spent some time in study, and in the friendship of Solon, he attempted to introduce there the laws of the Athenians, which so irritated his brother, who was then on the throne, that he killed him with an arrow. Anacharsis has rendered himself famous among the ancients by his writings, and his poems on war, the laws of Scythia, &c. Two of his letters to Crœsus and Hanno are still extant. Later authors have attributed to him the invention of tinder, of anchors, and of the potter’s wheel. The name of Anacharsis is become very familiar to modern ears, by that elegant, valuable, and truly classical work of Barthelemi, called the travels of Anacharsis. Herodotus, bk. 4, chs. 56, 47, & 48.—Plutarch, Quæstiones Convivales.—Cicero, Tusculanæ Disputationes, bk. 5, ch. 32.—Strabo, bk. 7.

Anacium, a mountain with a temple sacred to the Anaces in Peloponnesus. Polyænus, bk. 1, ch. 21.

Anacreon, a famous lyric poet of Teos in Ionia, highly favoured by Polycrates and Hipparchus son of Pisistratus. He was of a lascivious and intemperate disposition, much given to drinking, and deeply enamoured of a youth called Bathyllus. His odes are still extant, and the uncommon sweetness and elegance of his poetry have been the admiration of every age and country. He lived to his 85th year, and, after every excess of pleasure and debauchery, choked himself with a grape stone and expired. Plato says that he was descended from an illustrious family, and that Codrus, the last king of Athens, was one of his progenitors. His statue was placed in the citadel of Athens, representing him as an old drunken man, singing, with every mark of dissipation and intemperance. Anacreon flourished 532 B.C. All that he wrote is not extant; his odes were first published by H. Stephens, with an elegant translation. The best editions of Anacreon are that of Maittaire, 4to, London, 1725, of which only 100 copies were printed, and the very correct one of Barnes, 12mo, Cambridge, 1721, to which may be added that of Brunck, 12mo, Strasbourg, 1778. Pausanias, bk. 1, chs. 2, 25.—Strabo, bk. 14.—Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 9, ch. 4.—Cicero, Tusculanæ Disputationes, bk. 4, ch. 33.—Horace, epode 14, li. 20.—Pliny, bk. 7, ch. 7.—Herodotus, bk. 3, ch. 121.

Anactoria and Anactorium, a town of Epirus, in a peninsula towards the gulf of Ambracia. It was founded by a Corinthian colony, and was the cause of many quarrels between the Corcyreans and Corinthians. Augustus carried the inhabitants to the city of Nicopolis, after the battle of Actium. Strabo, bk. 10.—Thucydides, bk. 1, ch. 55.—Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 1; bk. 5, ch. 29.——An ancient name of Miletus.

Anactŏrie, a woman of Lesbos, wantonly loved by Sappho. Ovid, Heroides, poem 15, li. 17.

Anagnia, now Anagni, a city of the Hernici in Latium, where Antony struck a medal when he divorced Octavia and married Cleopatra. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 684.—Strabo, bk. 5.—Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 392.

Anagogia, a festival, celebrated by the people of Eryx in Sicily, in honour of Venus. Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 1, ch. 15; Natura Animalium, bk. 4, ch. 2.

Anagyrontum, a small village of Attica. Herodotus.

Anaītis, a goddess of Armenia. The virgins who were consecrated to her service, esteemed themselves more dignified by public prostitution. The festivals of the deity were called Sacarum Festa; and when they were celebrated both sexes assisted at the ceremony, and inebriated themselves to such a degree, that the whole was concluded by a scene of the greatest lasciviousness and intemperance. They were first instituted by Cyrus, when he marched against the Sacæ, and covered tables with the most exquisite dainties, that he might detain the enemy by the novelty and sweetness of food to which they were unaccustomed, and thus easily destroy them. Strabo.——Diana is also worshipped under this name by the Lydians. Pliny, bk. 33, ch. 4.

Ananias, an Iambic poet. Athenæus.

Anăphe, an island that rose out of the Cretan sea, and received this name from the Argonauts, who, in the middle of a storm, suddenly saw the new moon. Apollo was worshipped there, and called Anaphæus. Apollonius.

Anaphlystus, a small village of Attica near the sea, called after an ancient hero of the same name, who was son of Trœzen.——A small village near Athens.

Anāpus, a river of Epirus. Thucydides, bk. 2, ch. 82.——Of Sicily, near Syracuse. Thucydides, bk. 6, ch. 96.

Anartes, a people of Lower Pannonia. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 6, ch. 25.

Anas, a river of Spain, now called Guadiana. Strabo, bk. 3.

Anatŏle, one of the Horæ. Hyginus, fable 183.——A mountain near the Ganges, where Apollo ravished a nymph called Anaxibia.

Anauchĭdas, a Samian wrestler. Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 27.

Anaurus, a river of Thessaly, near the foot of mount Pelion, where Jason lost one of his sandals. Callimachus, Diana [Artemis].——A river of Troas near Ida. Colluthus.

Anausis, one of Medea’s suitors, killed by Styrus. Valerius Flaccus, bk. 6, li. 43.

Anax, a son of Cœlus and Terra, father to Asterius, from whom Miletus has been called Anactoria. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 36; bk. 7, ch. 2.

Anaxagŏras, succeeded his father Megapenthes on the throne of Argos. He shared the sovereign power with Bias and Melampus, who had cured the women of Argos of madness. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 18.——A Clazomenian philosopher, son of Hegesibulus, disciple to Anaximes and preceptor to Socrates and Euripides. He disregarded wealth and honours, to indulge his fondness for meditation and philosophy. He applied himself to astronomy, was acquainted with eclipses, and predicted that one day a stone would fall from the sun, which it is said really fell into the river Ægos. Anaxagoras travelled into Egypt for improvement, and used to say that he preferred a grain of wisdom to heaps of gold. Pericles was in the number of his pupils, and often consulted him in matters of state; and once dissuaded him from starving himself to death. The ideas of Anaxagoras concerning the heavens were wild and extravagant. He supposed that the sun was inflammable matter, about the bigness of Peloponnesus; and that the moon was inhabited. The heavens he believed to be of stone, and the earth of similar materials. He was accused of impiety and condemned to die; but he ridiculed the sentence, and said it had long been pronounced upon him by nature. Being asked whether his body should be carried into his own country, he answered, no, as the road that led to the other side of the grave was as long from one place as the other. His scholar Pericles pleaded eloquently and successfully for him, and the sentence of death was exchanged for banishment. In prison, the philosopher is said to have attempted to square the circle, or determine exactly the proportion of its diameter to the circumference. When the people of Lampsacus asked him before his death whether he wished anything to be done in commemoration of him, “Yes,” said he, “let the boys be allowed to play on the anniversary of my death.” This was carefully observed, and that time, dedicated to relaxation, was called Anaxagoreia. He died at Lampsacus in his 72nd year, 428 B.C. His writings were not much esteemed by his pupil Socrates. Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers.—Plutarch, Nicias & Pericles.—Cicero, Academicæ quaestiones, bk. 4, ch. 23; Tusculanæ Disputationes, bk. 1, ch. 43.——A statuary of Ægina. Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 23.——A grammarian, disciple to Zenodotus. Diogenes Laërtius.——An orator, disciple to Socrates. Diogenes Laërtius.——A son of Echeanox, who, with his brothers Codrus and Diodorus, destroyed Hegesias tyrant of Ephesus.

Anaxander, of the family of the Heraclidæ, was son of Eurycrates and king of Sparta. The second Messenian war began in his reign, in which Aristomenes so egregiously signalized himself. His son was called Eurycrates. Herodotus, bk. 2, ch. 204.—Plutarch, Apophthegmata Laconica.—Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 3; bk. 4, chs. 15 & 16.——A general of Megalopolis, taken by the Thebans.

Anaxandrĭdes, son of Leon and father to Cleomenes I. and Leonidas, was king of Sparta. By the order of the Ephori, he divorced his wife, of whom he was extremely fond, on account of her barrenness; and he was the first Lacedæmonian who had two wives. Herodotus, bks. 1, 5, & 7.—Plutarch, Apophthegmata Laconica, bk. 1.—Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 3, &c.——A son of Theopompus. Herodotus, bk. 8, ch. 131.——A comic poet of Rhodes in the age of Philip and Alexander. He was the first poet who introduced intrigues and rapes upon the stage. He was of such a passionate disposition, that he tore to pieces all his compositions which met with no success. He composed about 100 plays, of which 10 obtained the prize. Some fragments of his poetry remain in Athenæus. He was starved to death by order of the Athenians, for satirizing their government. Aristotle, bk. 3, Rhetoric.

Anaxarĕte, a girl of Salamis, who so arrogantly despised the addresses of Iphis, a youth of ignoble birth, that the lover hung himself at her door. She saw this sad spectacle without emotion or pity, and was changed into a stone. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 14, li. 748.

Anaxēnor, a musician, whom Marcus Antony greatly honoured, and presented with the tribute of four cities. Strabo, bk. 14.

Anaxias, a Theban general. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 22.

Anaxibia, a sister of Agamemnon, mother of seven sons and two daughters by Nestor. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 29.——A daughter of Bias, brother to the physician Melampus. She married Pelias king of Iolchos, by whom she had Acastus and four daughters—Pisidice, Pelopea, Hippothoe, and Alceste. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 9.——She is called daughter of Dymas by Hyginus, fable 14.

Anaxicrătes, an Athenian archon. Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 23.

Anaxidămus, succeeded his father Zeuxidamus on the throne of Sparta. Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 7; bk. 4, ch. 15.

Anaxĭlas and Anaxĭlaus, a Messenian, tyrant of Rhegium. He took Zancle, and was so mild and popular during his reign, that when he died, 476 B.C., he left his infant sons to the care of one of his servants, and the citizens chose rather to obey a slave than revolt from their benevolent sovereign’s children. Justin, bk. 3, ch. 2.—Pausanias, bk. 4, ch. 23; bk. 5, ch. 27.—Thucydides, bk. 6, ch. 5.—Herodotus, bk. 6, ch. 23; bk. 7, ch. 167.——A magician of Larissa, banished from Italy by Augustus.——A Pythagorean philosopher.——A physician. Pliny, bk. 19, ch. 1.——An historian, who began his history with bitter invectives against former writers. Dionysius of Halicarnassus.——A Lacedæmonian. Plutarch, Alcibiades.——A comic writer, about the 100th Olympiad.

Anaxilĭdes, wrote some treatises concerning philosophers, and mentioned that Plato’s mother became pregnant by a phantom of the god Apollo, from which circumstance her son was called the prince of wisdom. Diogenes Laërtius, Plutarch.

Anaximander, a Milesian philosopher, the companion and disciple of Thales. He was the first who constructed spheres, asserted that the earth was of a cylindrical form, and taught that men were born of earth and water mixed together, and heated by the beams of the sun; that the earth moved, and that the moon received light from the sun, which he considered as a circle of fire like a wheel, about 28 times bigger than the earth. He made the first geographical maps and sun-dials. He died in the 64th year of his age, B.C. 547. Cicero, Academicæ Quæstiones, bk. 4, ch. 37.—Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers.—Pliny, bk. 2, ch. 70.—Plutarch, Quæstiones Convivales. He had a son who bore his name. Strabo, bk. 1.

Anaximĕnes, a philosopher, son of Erasistratus and disciple of Anaximander, whom he succeeded in his school. He said that the air was the cause of every created being, and a self-existent divinity, and that the sun, the moon, and the stars, had been made from the earth. He considered the earth as a plain, and the heavens as a solid concave figure, on which the stars were fixed like nails, an opinion prevalent at that time, and from which originated the proverb, τι εἰ οὐρανος ἐμπεσοι, if the heavens should fall? to which Horace has alluded, bk. 3, Odes, poem 3, li. 7. He died 504 years B.C. Cicero, Academicæ Quæstiones, bk. 4, ch. 37; de Natura Deorum, bk. 1, ch. 10.—Plutarch, Quæstiones Convivales.—Pliny, bk. 2, ch. 76.——A native of Lampsacus, son of Aristocles. He was pupil to Diogenes the cynic, and preceptor to Alexander the Great, of whose life, and that of Philip, he wrote the history. When Alexander, in a fit of anger, threatened to put to death all the inhabitants of Lampsacus, because they had maintained a long siege against him, Anaximenes was sent by his countrymen to appease the king, who, as soon as he saw him, swore he would not grant the favour he was going to ask. Upon this, Anaximenes begged the king to destroy the city and enslave the inhabitants, and by this artful request the city of Lampsacus was saved from destruction. Besides the life of Philip and his son, he wrote a history of Greece, in 12 books, all now lost. His nephew bore the same name, and wrote an account of ancient paintings. Pausanias, bk. 6, ch. 18.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 7, ch. 3.—Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers.

Anaxipŏlis, a comic poet of Thasos. Pliny, bk. 14, ch. 14.——A writer on agriculture, likewise of Thasos.

Anaxippus, a comic writer in the age of Demetrius. He used to say, that philosophers were wise only in their speeches, but fools in their actions. Athenæus.

Anaxirrhoe, a daughter of Coronus, who married Epeus. Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 1.

Anaxis, a Bœotian historian, who wrote a history down to the age of Philip son of Amyntas. Diodorus, bk. 25.——A son of Castor and Hilaira.

Anaxo, a virgin of Trœzene carried away by Theseus. Plutarch, Theseus.——A daughter of Alceus, mother of Alcmene by Electryon.

Ancæus, the son of Lycurgus and Antinoe, was in the expedition of the Argonauts. He was at the chase of the Calydonian boar, in which he perished. Hyginus, fables 173 & 248.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 8.——The son of Neptune and Astypalæa. He went with the Argonauts, and succeeded Tiphis as pilot of the ship Argo. He reigned in Ionia, where he married Samia daughter of the Mæander, by whom he had four sons, Perilas, Enudus, Samus, Alithersus, and one daughter called Parthenope. Orpheus, Argonauts. He was once told by one of his servants, whom he pressed with hard labour in his vineyard, that he never would taste of the produce of his vines. He had already the cup in his hand, and called the prophet to convince him of his falsehood; when the servant, yet firm in his prediction, uttered this well-known proverb: