Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/272

254 purple. His daughter was greatly skilled in the art of weaving, and, proud of her talent, she even ventured to challenge Athena to compete with her. Arachne produced a piece of cloth in which the amours of the gods were woven, and as Athena could find no fault with it, she tore the work to pieces, and Arachne in despair hung herself. The goddess loosened the rope and saved her life, but the rope was changed into a cobweb and Arachne herself into a spider (dpdxvn)-, the animal most odious to Athena. (Ov. Met. vi. 1 — 145; Virg. Georg. iv. 246.) This fable seems to suggest the idea that man learnt the art of weaving from the spider, and that it was invented in Lydia. [L. S.]

 ARAETHY'REA {'ApaiOvpea), a daughter of Aras, an autochthon who was believed to have built Arantea, the most ancient tOAvn in Phliasia. She had a brother called Aoris, and is said to have been fond of the chase and warlike pursuits. When she died, her brother called the country of Phliasia after her Araethvrea. (Hom. //. ii. 571 ; Strab. viii. p. 382.) She was the mother of Phlias. The monuments of Araethyrea and her brother, consist- ing of round pillars, were still extant in the time of Pausanias ; and before the mysteries of Demeter were commenced at Phlius, the people always in- voked Aras and his two children with their faces turned towards their monuments. (Pans. ii. 12. §§ 4-6.) [L. S.]

 A'RACUS ("ApaKos), Ephor, b.c. 409, (HeU. ii. 3. § 10,) was appointed admiral of the Lace- daemonian fleet in B. c. 405, with Lysander for vice-admiral (eTrio-ToAeus), who was to have the real power, but who had not the title of admiral (vavdpxos), because the laws of Sparta did not allow the same person to hold this office twice. (Plut. Li/c. 7 ; Xen. HeU. ii. 1. § 7 ; Diod. xiii. 100 ; Pans. x. 9. § 4.) In 398 he was sent into Asia as one of the commissioners to inspect the state of things there, and to prolong the command of Dercyllidas (iii. 2. § 6) ; and in 369 he was one of the ambassadors sent to Athens, (vi. 5. § 33, where "ApoKos should be read instead of "Aparos.)

 ARACY'NTHIAS {'ApaKweids), a surname of Aphrodite, derived from mount AracjTithus, the position of which is a matter of uncertainty, and on which she had a temple. (Rhianus, ap. Steph. Byz. s.v. 'ApaKvvdos.) [L. S.]

 ARA'RSIUS, PATRI'CIUS {UarpiKm'Apdp- (TLOs), a Christian writer, was the author of a discourse in Greek entitled Oceanus., a passage out of which, relating to Meletius and Arius, is quoted in the Sjinodicon Vettis (32, ap. Fabric. BiOl. Graec. xii. p. 369). The title of this fragment is Uarpi- k'iov 'ApapfTiov Tov (xaKapos, €K rov yov avTOv rov 4mKeyoix€vov TlKeavov. Nothing more is known of the writer. [P. S.]

 ARA′ROS, an Athenian comic poet of the middle comedy, was the son of Aristophanes, who first introduced him to public notice as the principal actor in the second Plutus (B. C. 388), the last play which he exhibited in his own name: he wrote two more comedies, the and the , which were brought out in the name of Araros (Arg, ad Plut. iv. Bekker), probably very soon after the above date. Araros first exhibited in his own name B. C. 375. (Suidas, s. v.) Suidas mentions the following as his comedies:, , , , ,. All that we know of his dramatic character is contained in the following passage of Alexis (Athen. iii p. 123, e.), who, however, was his rival:

.

 ARAS. [.]

 ARASPES ('Apao-TTT/s), a Mede, and a friend of the elder Cyrus from his youth, contends with Cyrus that love has no power over him, but shortly afterwards refutes himself by falling in love with Pantheia, whom Cyrus had committed to his charge. [Abradatas.] He is afterwards sent to Croesus as a deserter, to inspect the condition of the enemy, and subsequently commands the right wing of Cyrus' army in the battle with Croesus. (Xen. Ct/r. v. 1. § 1, 8, &c., vi. 1. § 36, &c., 3. § 14, 21.)

<section end="Araspes"/> <section begin="Aratus 1."/>ARA'TUS ("ApoTos), of Sicyon, lived from b. c. 271 to 213. The life of this remarkable man, as afterwards of Philopoemen and Lycortas, was devoted to an attempt to unite the several Grecian states together, and by this uniofi to assert the national independence against the dangers with which it was threatened by Macedonia and Rome. Aratus was the son of Cleinias, and was born at Sicyon, B. c. 271. On the murder of his father by Abantidas [Abantidas], Aratns was saved from the general extirpation of the family by Soso, his uncle's widow, who conveyed him to Argos, where he was brought up. When he had reached the age of twenty, he gained possession of his native city by the help of some Argians, and the cooperation of the remainder of his party in Sicyon itself, without loss of life, and deprived the usurper Nicocles of hi« power, B. c. 251. (Corap. Polyb. ii. 43.)

Through the influence of Aratus, Sicyon now joined the Achaean league, and Aratus himself sailed to Egypt to obtain Ptolemy's alliance, in which he succeeded. In b. c. 245 he was elected general ((rTpaTriy6i) of the league, and a second time in 243. In the latter of these years he took the citadel of Corinth from the Macedonian gar- rison, and induced the Corinthian people to join the league. It was chiefly through his instru- mentality that Megara, Troezen, Epidaurus, Argos, Cleonae, and Megalopolis, were soon afterwards added to it. It was about this time that the Aetolians, who had made a plundering expedition into Peloponnesus, were stopped by Aratus at Pellene (Polyb. iv. 8), being surprised at the sack of that town, and 700 of their number put to the sword. But at this very thne, at which the power of the league seemed most secure, the seeds of its ruin were laid. The very prospect, which now for the first time opened, of the hitherto scattered powers of Greece being united in the league, awakened the jealousj' of Aetolia, and of Cleomenes, who was too read}' to have a pretext for war. [Cleomenes.] Aratus, to save the league from this danger, contrived to win the alliance of Antigonus Doson, on the condition, as it afterwards appeared, of the surrender of Corinth. Ptolemy, as might be expected, joined Cleomenes ; and in a succession of actions at Lj'caeum, Megalopolis, and Hecatom- baeum, near Dyme, the Achaeans were well nigh destroyed. By these Aratus lost the confidence of. the people, who passed a public censure on his con- duct, and Sparta was placed at the head of a con- federacy, fully able to dictate to the whole of Greece, <section end="Aratus 1."/>