ACHIL′LES was the most valiant of the Greek heroes in the Trojan War.
He was the son of Peleus, King of Thessaly. His mother, Thetis,
plunged him, when an infant, into the Stygian pool, which made him
invulnerable wherever the waters had washed him; but the heel by which
he was held was not wetted, and that part remained vulnerable. He was
shot with an arrow in the heel by Paris, at the siege of Troy, and died
of his wound.
ACIDA′LIA, a name given to Venus from a fountain in Bœotia.
A′CIS. A Sicilian shepherd, loved by the nymph Galatea. One of the
Cyclops who was jealous of him crushed him by hurling a rock on him.
Galatea turned his blood into a river--the Acis at the foot of Mount
Etna.
ACTÆ′ON was the son of Aristæus, a famous huntsman. He intruded himself
on Diana while she was bathing, and was changed by her into a deer, in
which form he was hunted by his own dogs and torn in pieces.
A′DES, see Hades.
ADO′NIS, the beautiful attendant of Venus, who held her train. He was
killed by a boar, and turned by Venus into an anemone.
“Even as the sun with purple-coloured face
Had ta’en his last leave of the weeping morn,
Rose-cheeked Adonis hied him to the chase;
Hunting he loved, but love he laughed to scorn.”