ARCA′DIA, a delightful country in the centre of Peloponnessus, a
favourite place of the gods. Apollo was reputed to have been King of
Arcadia.
AR′CAS, a son of Calistro, was turned into a he-bear; and afterwards
into the constellation called Ursa Minor.
ARCHER, see Chiron.
AREOP′AGI′TÆ, the judges who sat at the Areopagus.
AREOP′AGUS, the hill at Athens where Mars was tried for murder before
twelve of the gods.
A′RES. The same as Mars, the god of war.
ARETHU′SA was one of the nymphs of Diana. She fled from Alpheus, a
river god, and was enabled to escape by being turned by Diana into a
rivulet which ran underground. She was as virtuous as she was beautiful.
AR′GONAUTS. This name was given to the fifty heroes who sailed to
Colchis in the ship Argo under the command of Jason, to fetch the
Golden Fleece.
AR′GUS was a god who had a hundred eyes which slept and watched by
turns. He was charged by Juno to watch Io, but, being slain by Mercury,
was changed by Juno into a peacock.
ARIAD′NE, daughter of Minos, King of Crete. After enabling Theseus to
get out of the Labyrinth by means of a clew of thread, she fled with
him to Naxos, where he ungratefully deserted her; but Bacchus wooed her
and married her, and the crown of seven stars which he gave her was
turned into a constellation.
ARI′ON was a famous lyric poet of Methymna, in the Island of Lesbos,
where he gained great riches by his art. There is a pretty fable which
has made the name of Arion famous. Once when travelling from Lesbos
his companions robbed him, and proposed to throw him into the sea. He
entreated the seamen to let him play upon his harp before they threw
him overboard, and he played so sweetly that the dolphins flocked
round the vessel. He then threw himself into the sea, and one of the
dolphins took him up and carried him to Taenarus, near Corinth. For
this act the dolphin was raised to heaven as a constellation.
ARISTÆ′US, son of Apollo and Cyrene, was the god of trees; he also
taught mankind the use of honey, and how to get oil from olives. He was
a celebrated hunter. His most famous son was Actæon.
ARMA′TA, one of the names of Venus, given to her by Spartan women.
AR′TEMIS. This was the Grecian name of Diana, and the festivals at
Delphi were called Artemesia.
ARTS and SCIENCES, see Muses.
ARUS′PICES, sacrificial priests.
ASCAL′APHUS was changed into an owl, the harbinger of misfortune, by
Ceres, because he informed Pluto that Proserpine had partaken of food
in the infernal regions, and thus prevented her return to earth.
ASCA′NIUS, the son of Æneas.
ASCOL′IA, Bacchanalian feasts, from a Greek word meaning a leather
bottle. The bottles were used in the games to jump on.
ASO′PUS. A son of Jupiter, who was killed by one of his father’s
thunderbolts.
ASSABI′NUS, the Ethiopian name of Jupiter.
ASSES-EARS, see Midas.
ASTAR′TE, one of the Eastern names of Venus.
ASTE′RIA, daughter of Cæus, was carried away by Jupiter, who assumed
the shape of an eagle.
ASTRE′A, mother of Nemesis, was the goddess of justice; she returned to
heaven when the earth became corrupt.
“... Chaste Astrea fled,
And sought protection in her native sky.”