ATHE′NA, a name obtained by Minerva as the tutelary goddess of Athens.
ATLAS, was King of Mauritania, now Morocco, in Africa. He was also a
great astronomer. He is depicted with the globe on his back, his name
signifying great toil or labour. For his inhospitality to Perseus that
king changed him into the mountain which bears his name of Atlas.
A chain of mountains in Africa is called after him, and so is the
Atlantic Ocean. He had seven daughters by his wife Pleione, they were
called by one common name, Pleiades; and by his wife Æthra he had seven
more, who were, in the same manner, called Hyades. Both the Pleiades
and the Hyades are celestial constellations.
AT′REUS, the type of fraternal hatred. His dislike of his brother
Thyestes went to the extent of killing and roasting his nephews, and
inviting their father to a feast, which Thyestes thought was a sign
of reconciliation, but he was the victim of his brother’s detestable
cruelty.
“Medea must not draw her murdering knife,
Nor Atreus there his horrid feast prepare.”