AST

AST

Bochart adopts the marginal translation, which, instead I higher order; and near it was the statue of the corof "Out of that land went forth Assur and builded responding male personification, called by the Greek Nineveh," reads "Out of that land he (Nimrod) went writers Jupiter." (Inquiry into the Symb. Lang., &c., forth into Assur (or Assyria) and built Nineveh." 218, seqq.-Class. Journ., No. 53, p. 74.)-Creuzer, The opinion of Bochart is espoused by Faber, the however, thinks it more than probable, that the legend converse by Michaelis and Bryant. The decision of of Astarte is purely astronomical, and may apply to the point is, indeed, a difficult one; but, if weight of the moon in connexion with the planet Venus. authority can avail, the question will be speedily de- name Astarte would seem also, according to him, to termined in favour of the marginal translation of the signify a star or planet. Compare the Persian astara, Bible, which represents Nimrod as the founder of Nin- as suggested by Von Hammer (Fundgr. des Orients, eveh. This translation is supported by the Targums vol. 3, p. 275), and the Greek üorpov. (Creuzer's of Onkelos and Jerusalem; by Theophilus, bishop of Symbolik, par Guigniaut, vol. 2, p. 26.-Lucian, de Antioch, and Jerome, among the ancients; and, in ad- Dea Syria.-Cic., de Nat. D., 3, 23.) ASTER, a skilful archer, one of the garrison of Medition to Bochart and Faber, by Hyde, Marsham, Wells, the writers of the Universal History, and thone in Macedonia, when that place was besieged by Hales, among the moderns. Admitting, then, the force Philip. He aimed an arrow at the monarch, and deof these united authorities, Nimrod, when driven from prived him of an eye. On the arrow was inscribed, Babel, still attended by a strong party of military fol-Aσrip inn dаváσμоν пéμnet Béλos, an Iambic lowers, founded a new empire at Nineveh; which, as it trimeter, meaning, "Aster sends a deadly shaft for Philwas seated in a country almost exclusively peopled by ip." The king shot back an arrow with the following the descendants of Ashur, was called Assyria. The inscription, 'Αστέρα Φίλιππος, ἣν λάβῃ, κρεμήσεται, crown of this new universal empire continued in the another Iambic trimeter, implying, "Philip will susfamily of Nimrod for many ages, probably till its over-pend Aster" (on the cross) "if he take him." When throw by Arbaces, which introduced a Median dynas- the place surrendered, Aster was delivered up to the ty; while Babel remained in a neglected state until conqueror, who kept his word, and crucified him. the same era, when Nabonassar became its first king. (Suidas, s. v. Kápavos.--Plut., Parall., p. 307.-Diod. Whether there was an uninterrupted line of kings from Sic., 16, 34.) Plutarch calls him an Olynthian; but Assur or Nimrod to Sardanapalus, or not, is unknown. Lucian, a native of Amphipolis. (Lucian, Quomodo -According to Herodotus, an Assyrian empire lasted Hist. sit. conscrib., 38.) These two writers may be 520 years, from 1237 to 717. Catalogues of the As-reconciled, by supposing him to have been an Amphisyrian kings are found in Syncellus and Eusebius. politan, serving in the Olynthian auxiliaries of the (Mansford's Scripture Gazetteer, p. 38, seqq.-Com-Methonians. (Palmer, Exercit., p. 557.) pare Hereen's History of the States of Antiquity, p. 25, seqq., Bancroft's transl.)

ASTERIA, I. a daughter of Coeus (Kołoç) one of the Titans, and Phoebe, daughter of Uranus and Gê (Cœlus and Terra). She and Latona were sisters. træa married Perses, son of Crius. According to a ASTICUS, a city of Bithynia, on the Sinus Astace- later fable, she fled from the suit of Jove, and, flinging Callimachus (H. in nus, founded, according to Strabo (563), by the Mega- herself down from heaven to the sea, became the islrians and Athenians. This account is confirmed by and afterward named Delos. Memnon (ap. Phot., p. 722), who says, that the Me- Del., 37), who relates this, makes her to have come garians settled here in the 17th Olympiad, and that, some down like a star (dorépt ion), in allusion to her name years after this, an Athenian colony joined them. As- Asteria (Starry). Another legend, however, stated tacus was subsequently seized by Dædalsus, a native that she took the form of a quail (oprv-Apollod., chief, who became the founder of the Bithynian mon- 1, 4, 1.-Hygin., 53.-Serv. ad En., 3, 73), whence archy. In the war waged by his successor Xipoetes the isle was called Ortygia, This identification of with Lysimachus, Astacus was ruined, and the inhabi- Delos and Ortygia appears to have been later than the tants were transferred by Nicomedes to the city which time of Pindar, who (Nem., 1, 4) calls them sisters. he founded and named, after himself, Nicomedia. The whole fable seems to owe its origin to the af(Strab., 1. c.-Steph. Byz., s. v.-Cramer's Asia Mi-finity of sense between the words Asteria and Delos. nor, vol. 1, p. 185.)

(Keightley's Mythology, p. 81, not.)-II. One of the daughters of Danaus, who married Chetus, son of Egyptus. (Apollod., 2, 1, 4.)

ASTERION, I. a rivulet of Argolis, rising on the slope of Mount Euboea, near the temple of the Argive Juno, and soon after disappearing among the rocks. (Pausan., 2, 17.)-II. (called also Asterius) A king of Crete, descended from Deucalion, who married Europa, and brought up the children whom she previously had from her union with Jupiter. He died without issue, and was succeeded by Minos. (Apollod., 1, 2, 2, seqq.-Schol. ad Il., 12, 397.) According to another account, he was the son of Minos, and was slain by Theseus, having been the most powerful competitor with whom that hero ever had to contend. (Pausan., 2, 31.) Lycophron, again (v. 1301), makes him a leader of the forces of Minos. (Compare Heyne, ad Apollod., l. c.-Meurs., Cret., 3, 2.-Höck, Kret., 2, 48.)

ASTEROPEA, daughter of Deïon, king of Phocis, or more probably Phthiotis. (Apollod., 1, 9, 3.-Heyne, ad loc., not. crit.)

ASTEROPE, daughter of Cebren, and wife of Esacus. (Apollod., 3. 12, 5.) Some MSS. of Apollodo rus read Sterope (Ereponn).-For other names, some times written Asterope and Asteropes, vid. Sterope and Steropes.

ASTRA, the goddess of Justice. Her origin is dif- ASTURES, a people of Hispania Tarraconensis, lying ferently given. She is either a Titan or a descend- west and southwest of the Cantabri. They occupied ant of the Titans; being in the former case the daugh- the eastern half of modern Asturias, the greater part ter of Jove and Themis (Hesiod, Theog., 135, 191, of the kingdom of Leon, and the northern half of Paseqq.), or of Astræus and Hemera, or Astræus and lencia. Their capital was Asturica Augusta, now Aurora (Eos). When the Titans took up arms Astorga. (Mannert, Geogr., vol. 1, p. 363.) against Jupiter, she left her father Astræus, who, as ASTYAGES, son of Cyaxares, was the last king of the son of a Titan, fought on their side, and descended Media. His reign continued from 595 to 560 B.C. to earth, and mingled with the human race. This in- He married Aryenis, daughter of Alyattes, and sister tercourse with mortals continued during the golden of Croesus, by whom he had Mandane. Fearing, from age, but was interrupted when that of silver ensued, a dream which he had, that he would be dethroned by for, during this latter age, she came down from the a grandson, he married his daughter to Cambyses, a mountains only amid the shades of evening, unseen by, Persian, of a good family, but peaceful disposition, and and refraining from all communion with, men. When one whom he himself thought inferior to a Mede even of the brazen age commenced she fled to the skies, hav-moderate condition. A second dream, equally alarming left the earth the last of the immortals. Jove there-ing with the first, induced him to send to Persia for his upon made her the constellation Virgo, among the daughter, who was near her delivery, and, when she signs of the zodiac. (Arat., Phan., 102, seqq.-Schol. brought forth a son, he gave the infant into the hands Theon., ad loc.-Hesiod, Op. et D., 254.-Pind., Ol., of an individual named Harpagus, with strict orders 13, 6-Orph., H., 61.-Hygin., Astron., 2, 25.—to put it to death. The latter, however, disobeying Eratosth., Cat., 9.) As the constellation Virgo, she these injunctions, gave the child to one of the king's is identical with Erigone, having a place in the zodiac herdsmen to expose, and the wife of this man, having between the Scorpion and the Lion. On the old star-just been delivered of a dead infant, took the son of tables, or celestial planispheres, the Scorpion extended Mandane in its place, and caused her husband to exover two signs, filling with its claws the space be- pose their own inanimate offspring. When Harpagus tween itself and Virgo. (Voss. ad Virg., Georg., 1, therefore sent some trusty persons to see whether the 33.-Erastosth., Cat., 7.-Ovid, Met., 2, 197.) Later herdsman had executed his orders, the dead child of the astronomers, as we are told by Theon (ad Arat., 89), latter was seen by them lying exposed, and was misnamed the sign occupied by the claws of Scorpio the taken, of course, for the offspring of Mandane. The Balance (Libra), and this balance Astræa (Virgo) held child thus preserved grew up, and became Cyrus the in her hand as a symbol of justice. Others, however, Great, dethroning Astyages according to the import of as in the case of the Farnese marble, made it the mark the two dreams. Astyages was in this way deprived of the equality of the day and night at the æquinox. It of his crown after a reign of about 35 years. (Vid. is very probable that this latter explanation was the ear- Cyrus.) He appears to have been of a cruel and vinlier one of the two, especially as Astræa ranked among dictive disposition. (Vid. Harpagus.)-According to the Hore, and that the moral idea succeeded the physi- the account of Xenophon, in his historical romance of cal. (Vollmer, Wörterb. der Mythol., p. 354.-Gru- the Cyropædia, Astyages and his grandson lived on ber, Wörterb. der Altclass. Mythol., vol. 1, p. 666.- terms of the closest friendship and intimacy, and the Ideler, Sternnamen, p. 169.) former left, besides a daughter, a son named Cyaxares, ASTREUS, I. a son of the Titan Crius and Eurybia who succeeded the father, and, dying without issue, left the daughter of Pontus. Hyginus, however, makes the crown to Cyrus. (Herod., 1, 46, 73, &c.-Xen., him the offspring of Terra and Tartarus, and brother Cyrop.) Nothing is said in Herodotus of the end of of the giants Enceladus, Pallas, &c. (Hyg., Praf., Astyages. Ctesias, however, informs us, that, after p. 3, ed. Munk.) He was the father of Astræa, men- having been treated kindly by Cyrus, he was sent for tioned in the preceding article, and begat also by Eos by the latter to come to Persia, but that the eunuch (Aurora) the winds Boreas, Notus, Zephyrus, and the charged with this commission led him astray in a desert stars of heaven. (Hes., Theog., 378.) Some assign place, where he perished from hunger and thirst. him also a son named Argestes, but this is merely an (Ctes., Pers., 5.) It is probable this was done by the epithet of Zephyrus, meaning "the swift." Astræus secret orders of Cyrus, although Ctesias states that united with the Titans against Jupiter, and was the eunuch was cruelly punished. (Bähr, ad Ctes., l. hurled along with them to Tartarus. (Serv. ad En., c.)-There is great discrepance in the form of this 1, 136-II. A river of Macedonia, running by Be-name, as given by the ancient writers; Herodotus, and rea, and falling into the Erigonus, a tributary of the most of the Greeks, following his authority, write 'AoAxius. (Elian, Hist. An., 15. 1.) It is now thought rváyns. Ctesias, on the other hand, gives 'Aorviyaç, to be the Vostritza. (Consult, however, as to the while Diodorus, citing Ctesias himself, has 'Aoтáðaç course of this river, the remarks of Cramer, Anc. (2, 34). Compare the remarks of Wesseling (ad Diod., Greece, vol. 1, p. 222, who makes it fall into the lake. c.), Marsham (Can. Chron. p. 528), Bähr, (ad Ctes., Ludias-Compare also Bischoff und Möller, Wörterb. Assyr., 19), and Beck (Weltgesch., vol. 1, p. 638). der Geogr., p. 123)

ASTURA, a small river and village of Latium, near the coast, below Antium. In the neighbourhood was a villa of Cicero, to which he retired to vent his grief for the loss of his beloved daughter, and where he thought of raising a monument to her memory. (Ep. ad Att., 12, 19.) When proscribed by Antony, he withdrew to this same place from Tusculum, and sought escape from thence, intending to join Brutus in Macedonia. (Plut., Vit. Cic.) Astura seems to have been also the residence of Augustus, during an illness, with which he was seized towards the close of his life (Suet., Aug., 98), and also of Tiberius (Suet., Tib., 72). A decisive battle took place on the banks of the river Astura, between the Romans and some of the Latin states, which led to the complete subjugation of the latter. (Liv., 8, 13.-Cramer's Anc. Italy, vol. 2, p. 89.)

ASTYANAX, a son of Hector and Andromache. Hector had called him Scamandrius, after the river Scamander, but the Trojans bestowed on him, out of compliment to his father, their great defender, the name of Astyanax, or "Prince of the city." (Hom., I., 22, 651.) He was very young when the Greeks besieged Troy; and when the city was taken, his mother saved him in her arms from the flames. After the capture of the city, the young prince excited great uneasiness among the Greeks, in consequence of a prediction by Calchas, that Astyanax, if permitted to live, would avenge the death of Hector, and raise Troy in fresh splendour from its ruins. Andromache, dreading the fury of the victorious Greeks, concealed Astyanax in the recesses of Hector's tomb; but his retreat was soon discovered by Ulysses, who, according to some, precipitated the unhappy boy from the battlements of Ilium. This cruelty is by Euripides ascribed to Menelaus, and by Pausanias

with the modern Sirocco. (Horat., Serm., 1, 5, 78.) Both Seneca (Quast. Nat., 5, 17) and Pliny (17, 36) make mention of this wind: the latter remarks concerning it: " Hic enim, si flavit circa brumam, frigore exurit arefaciens, ut nullis postea solibus recreari possint." Etymologists derive the name from urn and Búλ2w. (Nork, Etymol. Handwort., vol. 1, p. 84.)

(10, 25), on the authority of Lesches, to Pyrrhus. | which it scorched or withered up. It is the same Racine, in his " Andromaque," has indulged in the poetic license of making Astyanax survive the fall of Troy, and accompany his mother to Epirus. (Consult Racine, Pref. de l'Androm.) A beautiful lament over the corpse of Astyanax, from the lips of Hecuba, may be found in the Troades of Euripides (1146-1196), and also some fine lines, in the earlier part of the same play, where Andromache is taking leave of her son (742-781).

ATABYRIS, or ATABYRON, I. a mountain in Rhodes, the highest in the island, where Jupiter had a temple, whence he was surnamed Atabyrius. Ancient fables speak of brazen oxen at this place, which, by their bellowings, announced approaching calamity. The mean

ASTYDAMAS, an Athenian tragic writer, son of Morsimus, and grandson of Philocles, the nephew of Eschylus. He studied under Isocrates, and composed, according to Suidas, two hundred and forty tragedies;ing of the fable is said to have been, that the priests a rather improbable number. He lived sixty years. His first exhibition was B.C. 398. (Diod. Sic., 14, 43.-Theatre of the Greeks, 2d ed., p. 158.)

ASTYDAMIA, daughter of Amyntor, king of Orchomenos in Boeotia, married Acastus, son of Pelias, who was king of Iolcos. She is called by some Hippolyte. (Vid. Acastus.)

of this temple pretended to be possessed of the spirit of prophecy. (Pind., Ol., 7, 87, ed. Böckh.—Schol., ad loc-Strab., 655-Steph. Byz., s. v. 'Arúbvpov. -Apollod., 3. 2.) The name is connected with the early traditions respecting the Telchines, and would seem to have come into Rhodes from Phoenicia, being in all probability derived from the Oriental Tabor. ASTYPALEA, one of the Cyclades, southeast of the (Vid. Atabyrion.) Ritter indulges in some curious island of Cos. It is eighty-eight miles in circuit, and and profound speculations on the subject. (Vorhalle, distant, as Pliny (H. N., 4, 12) reports, one hundred p. 339, seqq.)-II. A mountain in Sicily, the name and twenty-five miles from Cadistus in Crete. Stra- having been transferred to this island from Rhodes. bo informs us it contained a town of the same name. (Steph. Byz., s. v. 'Arúbvpov.—Cluver., Sic. Ant., p. It is said that hares having been introduced into this 488.-Meurs., Rhod., 1, 8.-Göller, Syrac., p. 294.) island from Anaphe, it was so overrun with them-III. A city of Persia. (Steph. Byz.) that the inhabitants were under the necessity of consulting the oracle, which advised their hunting them with dogs in one year six thousand are said to have been caught. (Hegesandrius, Delph. ap. Athen., 9, 63.) According to Cicero, divine honours were rendered here to Achilles. It was called Pyrrha when the Carians possessed it, and afterward Pylæa. Its name Astypalea is said to have been derived from that of a sister of Europa. It was also called Orv Tрúnela, or the Table of the Gods, because its soil was fertile, and almost enamelled with flowers. It is now Stanpalia. (Cramer's Anc. Greece, vol. 3, p. 416.)-II. A promontory of Caria, near the city of Myndus, now the peninsula of Pasha Liman. (Cramer's Asia Minor, vol. 2, p. 176.)

:

ASYCHIS, a king of Egypt, who, according to Herodotus (2, 136), during a scarcity of money, enacted a law to the following effect: That any man, by giving as a pledge the body of his father, might borrow money; but that, in case he afterward refused to pay the debt, he should neither be buried in the same place with his father, nor in any other, nor have the liberty of burying the dead body of any of his friends. This law was based on the popular belief, that those deprived of the rites of sepulchre were not permitted to enter the peaceful realms of Osiris. Hence it was a statute, in fact, of extraordinary severity. (Compare Zoega, de Obelisc., p. 292.) Herodotus also informs us, that this same monarch, desiring to outdo all his predecessors, erected a pyramid of brick for his monument, with the following inscription: "Do not despise me in comparison with the pyramids of stone, which I excel as much as Jupiter surpasses the other gods; for, dipping down to the bottom of the lake with long poles, and then collecting the mire that stuck to them, men made bricks and formed me in this manner." (Herod., 2, 136.) The pyramid here referred to is thought to be the same with the one seen at the present day near El Lahun, not far from the beginning of the canal that leads to Medinat-el-Fayoum. (Descrip. de l'Egypt, livrais. iii., vol. 2, c. 17, p. 23.)—Diodorus Siculus does not agree with Herodotus. He does not mention Asychis, or his successor Anysis, but puts in their place Bocchoris. Larcher considers him to be

ATABYRION, a fortified town on the summit of a mountain in Galilæa Inferior. Both the town and mountain answer to the Thabor of Scripture. Polybius (5, 70) gives an account of the capture of the place by Antiochus the Great. The Septuagint version writes the name 'Irabúpiov (Hos., 5, 1), and so also Josephus (Bell. Jud., 4, 1, 8, &c.). Reiske thinks, that the initial vowel in the Greek name arises from the Hebrew article; but if this were so, the Greek translator of Hosea, and Josephus also, being both Hebrews, would have written 'Arabúpiov, not 'Irabúpiov. Polybius describes Mount Thabor as a round or breast-like hill (2ópos μaoroɛidns), while Dr. Clarke gives it a conical form. According to the latter, it is entirely detached from any neighbouring mountain, and stands upon one side of the great plain of Esdraelon. (Clarke's Travels, vol. 4, p. 239, Lond. ed., 1817.)

ATACINI, a people of Gallia Narbonensis, south and southeast of the Volsce Tectosages. They inhabited the banks of the Atax, or Aude, whence their name. Their capital was Narbo, now Narbonne. (Mannert, Geogr., vol. 2, p. 63.)

She

ATALANTA, daughter of Iasos or Iasion, a descendant of Arcas and Clymene the daughter of Minyas. Her father reigned in Arcadia. He was anxious for male offspring, and, on his wife's bringing forth a fe male, he exposed the babe in the mountains, where she was suckled by a bear, and at last found by some hunters, who named her Atalanta, and reared her. She followed the chase, and was alike distinguished for beauty and courage. The centaurs, Rhæcos and Hylæos, attempting her honour, perished by her arrows. took part in the Argonautic expedition; was at the Calydonian hunt (vid. Meleager); and at the funerai games of Pelias she won the prize in wrestling from Peleus. (Apollod., 3, 9, 2.-Callim., 3, 215.-Elian, V. H., 13, 1.) Atalanta was afterward recognised by her parents. Her father wishing her to marry, she consented, but only on condition that her suiters should run a race with her in the following man. ner: They were to run without arms, and she was to carry a dart in her hand. Her lovers were to start first, and whoever arrived at the goal before her would be made her husband; but all those whom she overtook were to be killed by the dart with which she had armed herself. As she was almost invincible in running, many of her suiters perished in the attempt, and

their heads were fixed round the place of contest, | mer under a figure entirely female. Creuzer seeks to when Meilanion, her cousin, offered himself as a com- reconcile this difficulty by supposing that Atergatis petitor. Venus had presented him with three golden and Derceto, though originally the same, were at a apples from the garden of the Hesperides, or, accord- subsequent period represented under forms that differing to others, from an orchard in Cyprus; and, as ed from each other. (Symbolik, par Guigniaut, vol. soon as he had started in the course, he artfully threw 2, p. 28, seqq.) down the apples at some distance one from the other. ATARNEUS, I. a town of Mysia, opposite to Lesbos. While Atalanta, charmed at the sight, stopped to It was ceded to the Chians by the Persians, in the gather the apples, Meilanion won the race. Atalanta reign of Cyrus, for having delivered into their hands became his wife, and they had a son named Partheno- the Lydian Pactyas. (Herod., 1, 160.) .The land peus. It is added, that while hunting together on around Atarneus was rich, and productive in corn. one occasion, they profaned the temenos, or sacred (Cramer's Asia Minor, vol. 1, p. 133.)-II. A place enclosure of Jove, with their love, for which offence near Pitane, in Mysia, and called "Atarneus under they were turned into lions. (Apollod., l. c., where for Pitane," to distinguish it from the town of the same un inpevovτas we must read, with Canter, ovvon-name mentioned in the previous article. It was oppopetorras.-Theognis, 1279, seqq.-Hygin., fab., 185. -Ovid, Met., 10, 560, seqq.-Schol. ad Theocr., 3, 40.- Musaus, 153.) Other authorities, however, make the name of the victor Hippomenes, and say, that on his neglecting to give thanks to Venus for her aid, she inspired him with a sudden passion, which led to the profanation of the sanctuary of Jove, and the transformation of himself and his bride. (Ovid, l. c. -Schol. ad Theocr., l. c.) According to other accounts, Atalanta was the daughter of Schoneus, son of Athamas, and therefore a Boeotian. (Hesiod, ap. | Apollod., l. c.-Ovid, 1. c.-Hygin., l. c.) There is ATE, the goddess of evil, and daughter of Jupiter. no necessity for supposing two of the same name, as When Jupiter had been deceived by Juno into making has usually been done. They are both connected with the rash oath that rendered Hercules subject to the the Minyans, and are only examples of different ap-command of Eurystheus, the monarch of the skies laid propriations of the same legend. (Keightley's Mythology, p. 427, seq.)

site the island of Elæussa. The bricks made here are said to be so light as to float in the water. (Strab., 614.)

ATAX, a river of Gallia Narbonensis, rising in the Pyrenean mountains, and falling into the Lacus Rubrensis or Rubresus, at the city of Narbo (now Narbonne), for which the lake served as a harbour, an outlet or canal being cut to the Mediterranean. The Atax (otherwise called Adax) is now the Aude, and the modern name of the lake is l'etang de Sigean. (Plin., 3, 4.- Mela, 2, 5.—Lucan, 1, 403.)

the whole blame on Ate, and, having seized her by the hair, flung her to earth, declaring with an oath that ATARANTES, a people of Africa, ten days' journey she should never return to Olympus. Thenceforward from the Garamantes. There was in their country a she took up her abode among men. Her feet, accordhill of salt, with a fountain issuing out of the summit. ing to Homer, are tender, and she therefore does not (Herod., 4, 184.)-All the MSS. have 'Arλavres (At- walk on the ground, but on the heads of mortals (kar' lantes), which Salmasius (in Solin., p. 292) first alter-άvôрův крúата Baível). The name is derived from ed to 'Arápavres, an emendation now almost univer- douai (Poetic dúopai), to injure, or, to adopt the lansally adopted. Rennell thinks, that the people meant guage of Homer, 'Atn, î návraç áàtal. (ll., 19, 91, here are the same with the Hammanientes of Pliny seqq.) (5, 5). What Pliny, however, says of the Atlantes suits the case better (5, 8). Castiglioni makes the Atlantes and Atarantes the same people. (Mem. Geogr. et Numism., &c., Paris, 1826.) Heeren, on the other hand, places the Atarantes in the vicinity of Tegeny, the last city of Fezzan. (Ideen, vol. 2, pt. 1, p. 239.) Herodotus says, that the Atarantes were destitute of names for individuals; and they cursed the sun as he passed over their heads, because he consumed both the inhabitants and the country with his scorching heat. (Herod., l. c.)

ATARBECHIS, a city of Egypt, sacred to Venus, in one of the small islands of the Delta called Prosopitis. The name of the city is said to be derived from Atur or Athar (Etymol. Mag., s. v. 'A0vp), which signified "Venus," and Bek, "a city;" as Balbeck, "the city of the Sun," called by the Greeks Heliopolis. Baki is still found in the same sense among the Copts, and in their language a is pronounced as e. Strabo and Pliny call the city Aphroditespolis. (Herod., 2, 41.Larcher, ad Herodot., l. c.)

ATELLA, a town of Campania, to the west of Suessula, the ruins of which, as Holstenius reports (Adnot., p. 260), are still to be seen near the village of St. Elpidio or St. Arpino, about two miles from the town of Aversa. Atella is known to have been an Oscan city, and it has acquired some importance in the history of Roman literature, from the circumstance of the name and origin of the farces called Fabula Atellana being derived from thence. We are told that these comic representations were so much relished by the Roman people, that the actors were allowed privileges not usually extended to that class of persons; but these amusements having at length given rise to various excesses, were prohibited under the reign of Tiberius, and the players banished from Italy. (Liv., 7, 2.-Strabo, 233-Tacit., Ann., 4, 14.) Atella, in consequence of having joined the Carthaginians after the battle of Cannæ, was reduced, with several other Campanian towns, to the condition of a præfectura on the surrender of Capua to the Romans. (Liv., 22, 61.-Id., 26, 34.) Subsequently, however, it is mentioned by Cicero as a municipal town (Ep ad Fum., 13, 7), and Frontinus states that it was colonized by Augustus. (Cramer's Ancient Italy, vol. 2, p. 208.)

ATARGATIS OF ATERGATIS, an Eastern deity, the same with the Great Goddess of Syria. She was worshipped principally at Mabog or Bambyce (Edessa), and at a later period at Hierapolis. Strabo informs us ATHAMANES, a rude mountaineer race of Epirus, that her true name was Athara. (Compare Xanth., whose territory lay between Pindus on the east and Lyd. ap. Hesych, s. v. 'ATTayάon.—Creuzer, fragm. a parallel chain on the west. They were at first of hist. Græc. antiquiss., p. 183.) Ctesias calls her Der- little importance, either from their numbers or territoceto. It is probable that this latter name is only a cor- rial extent, but they subsequently acquired great powruption of Atargatis or Atergatis, and that these three er and influence by the conquest or extirpation of appellations designate one and the same divinity. Lu- several small Thessalian and Epirotic tribes, and they cian, however (de Dea Syria, c. 14.-Op., ed. Bip., appear in history as valuable allies to the Etolians, vol. 9, p. 96), distinguishes expressly between the and formidable enemies to the sovereigns of Macedon. goddess worshipped at Hierapolis and the Phoenician (Strab., 427.-Liv., 33, 13.-Id., 36, 9.) The rude Derceto, stating that the latter was represented with habits of this people may be inferred from the custom the lower extremities like those of a fish, and the for-that prevailed among them, of assigning to their fe

ATH

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| refused to listen to anything but an express command of the emperor, when he was one day preparing to celebrate a festival in the church, a body of soldiers suddenly rushed in to make him prisoner. But the surroundATHAMAS, king of Thebes, in Boeotia, was son of ing priests and monks placed him in security. AthaEolus. He married Nephele, and by her had Phrixus nasius, displaced for a third time, fled into the deserts and Helle. Some time after, having divorced Neph- of Egypt. His enemies pursued him even here, and ele, he married Ino, the daughter of Cadmus, by set a price on his head. To relieve the hermits, who whom he had two sons, Learchus and Melicerta. Ino dwelt in these solitary places, and who would not bebecame jealous of the children of Nephele, because tray his retreat, from suffering on his account, he went they were to ascend their father's throne in preference into those parts of the desert which were entirely uninto her own; therefore she resolved to destroy them; habited. He was followed by a faithful servant, who, but they escaped from her fury to Colchis on a golden at the risk of his life, supplied him with the means of ram. (Vid. Argonauta.) Athamas, through the en- subsistence. In this undisturbed spot Athanasius commity of Juno towards Ino, who had suckled the infant posed many writings, full of eloquence, to strengthen Bacchus, was afterward seized with madness. In his the faith of the believers or expose the falsehoods of phrensy he shot his son Learchus with an arrow, or, his enemies. When Julian the apostate ascended the as others say, dashed him against a rock. Ino fled throne, he allowed the orthodox bishops to return to with her other son, and, being closely pursued by her their churches. Athanasius, therefore, returned after. furious husband, sprang with her child from the cliff an absence of six years. The mildness which he exof Moluris, near Corinth, into the sea. The gods took ercised towards his enemies was imitated in Gaul, pity on her, and made her a sea-goddess, under the Spain, Italy, and Greece, and restored peace to the name of Leucothea, and Melicerta a sea-god, under church. But this peace was interrupted by the comthat of Palemon. Athamas subsequently, in accord-plaints of the heathen, whose temples the zeal of Athaance with an oracle, settled in a place where he built the town of Athamantia. This was in Thessaly, in the Phthiotic district. Here he married Themisto, daughter of Hypseus, and had by her four children, Leucon, Erythroe, Schoneus, and Ptoos. (Apollod., 1, 9.) Such is the account of Apollodorus. There are, however, many variations in the tale in different writers, especially in the tragic poets. (Keightley's Mythology, p. 333.)

nasius kept always empty. They excited the emperor against him, and he was obliged to fly to the Thebais to save his life. The death of the emperor and the accession of Jovian again brought him back; but, Valens becoming emperor eight months after, and the Arians recovering their superiority, he was once more compelled to fly. He concealed himself in the tomb of his father, where he remained four months, until Valens, moved by the pressing entreaties and threats of the Alexandreans, allowed him to return. From this period he remained undisturbed in his office till he died, A.D. 373. Of the 46 years of his official life, he spent ATHANASIUS, a celebrated Christian bishop of the 20 in banishment, and the greater part of the remainfourth century. He was a native of Egypt, and a der in defending the Nicene Creed. Athanasius is one deacon of the church of Alexandrea under Alexander of the greatest men of whom the church can boast. the bishop, whom he succeeded in his dignity A.D. His deep mind, his noble heart, his invincible courage, 326. Previous to his obtaining this high office he had his living faith, his unbounded benevolence, sincere been private secretary to Alexander, and had also led humility, lofty eloquence, and strictly virtuous life, for some time an ascetic life with the renowned an- gained the honour and love of all. His writings are chorite St. Anthony. Alexander had also taken him on polemical, historical, and moral subjects. The poto the council at Nice, where he gained the highest lemical treat chiefly of the mysterious doctrines of the esteem of the fathers by the talents which he dis- Trinity, the incarnation of Christ, and the divinity of played in the Arian controversy. He had a great the Holy Spirit. The historical ones are of the greatshare in the decrees passed here, and thereby drew est importance for the history of the church. In all his on himself the hatred of the Arians. On his ad- writings, the style is distinguished, considering the age vancement to the prelacy he dedicated all his time in which they were produced, for clearness and modand talents to the defence of the doctrine of the Trini- eration. His apology, addressed to the Emperor Conty, and resolutely refused the request of Constantine stantine, is a master-piece. The Creed which bears for the restoration of Arius to the Catholic communion. his name is now generally allowed not to have been In revenge for this refusal, the Arian party brought his. Dr. Waterland supposes it was made by Hilary, several accusations against him before the emperor. bishop of Arles. It was first printed in Greek in 1540, Of these he was acquitted in the first instance; and several times afterward to 1671. It has been but, on a new charge of having detained ships at Alex- questioned whether this Creed was ever received by andrea, laden with corn for Constantinople, either from the Greek and Oriental churches. In America, the conviction or policy, he was found guilty and banished episcopal church has rejected it. As to its matter, it to Gaul. Here he remained an exile eighteen months, is given as a summary of the true orthodox faith: unor, as some accounts say, upward of two years, his see happily, however, it has proved a fruitful source of unin the mean time being unoccupied. On the death of profitable controversy.-The best edition of his works Constantine he was recalled, and restored to his func-is that of Montfaucon, Paris, 1698, 3 vols. fol. As a tions by Constantius; but the Arian party made new complaints against him, and he was condemned by 90 Arian bishops assembled at Antioch. On the opposite side, 100 orthodox bishops, assembled at Alexandrea, declared him innocent; and Pope Julius confirmed this sentence, in conjunction with more than 300 bishops assembled at Sardis from the East and West. In consequence of this, he returned a second time to his diocese. But when Constans, emperor of the West, died, and Constantius became master of the whole empire, the Arians again ventured to rise up against Athanasius. They condemned him in the councils of Arles and Milan, and, as the worthy patriarch

supplement to this may be added the second vol. of the Bibliotheca Patrum, from the same editor, 1706. (Encyclop. Americ, vol. 1, p. 440, seqq.)

ATHENA, the name of Minerva among the Greeks ('A0nva and 'A0vn).

ATHENE, I. the celebrated capital of Attica, founded, according to the common account, by Cecrops, 1550 B.C. The town was first erected on the summit of a high rock, probably as a protection against atThe primitive name of this early tacks from the sea. settlement was Cranaë, from Cranaus, as is said, from whom the Pelasgi took the name of Cranai, and all Attica that of Cranae. At a later period it was called