Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/44

26 AEGIDUCHOS or AEGI'OCHOS (Αἰγιδοῦχος or Αἰγίοχος), a surname of Zeus, as the bearer of the Aegis with which he strikes terror into the impious and his enemies. (Hom. Il. 1.202, 2.157, 375, &c.; Pind. I. 4.99; Hygin. Poet. Astr. 2.13.) Others derive the surname from αἴξ and ὀχή, and take it as an allusion to Zeus being fed by a goat. (Spanh. ad Callim. hymn. in Jov. 49.)

AE'GIMUS, or AEGI'MIUS (Αἴγιμος, or Αἰγίμιος), one of the most ancient of the Greek physicians, who is said by Galen (De Differ. Puls. 1.2, 4.2. 11. vol. viii. pp. 498, 716, 752) to have been the first person who wrote a treatise on the pulse. He was a native of Velia in Lucania, and is supposed to have lived before the time of Hippocrates, that is, in the fifth century before Christ. His work was entitled Περὶ Παλμῶν, De Palpitationibus, (a name which alone sufficiently indicates its antiquity,) and is not now in existence. Callimachus (apud Athen. xiv. p. 643e.) mentions an author named Aegimius, who wrote a work on the art of making cheesecakes (πλακουντοπουκὸν σύγγραμμα, and Pliny mentions a person of the same name (H. N. 7.49), who was said to have lived two hundred years; but whether these are the same or different individuals is quite uncertain

AEGI'MIUS (Αἰγίμιος), the mythical ancestor of the Doric race, who is described as their king and lawgiver at the time when they were yet inhabiting the northern parts of Thessaly. (Pind. P. 1.124, 5.96.) When involved in a war with the Lapithae, he called Heracles to his assistance, and promised him the third part of his territory, if he delivered him of his enemies. The Lapithae were conquered, but Heracles did not take for himself the territory promised to him by Aegimius, and left it in trust to the king who was to preserve it for the sons of Heracles. (Apollod. 2.7.7; Diod. 4.37.) Aegimius had two sons, Dymas and Pamphylus, who migrated to Peloponnesus and were regarded as the ancestors of two branches of the Doric race (Dymanes and Pamphylians), while the third branch derived its name from Hyllus (Hylleans), the son of Heracles, who had been adopted by Aegimius. (Apollod. 2.8.3; Schol. ad Pind. Pyth. 1.121.) Respecting the connexion between Aegimius and Heracles, see Müller, Dor. 1.35, &c. There existed in antiquity an epic poem called " Aegimius," of which a few fragments are still extant, and which is sometimes ascribed to Hesiod and sometimes to Cercops of Miletus. (Athen. 11.503; Steph. Byz. s. v. Ἀβαντίς) The main subject of this poem appears to have been the war of Aegimius and Heracles against the Lapithae. (Groddeck, Biblioth. der alt. Lit. und Kunst, 2.84, &c.; Müller, Dor. 1.33, &c.; Welcker, Der Epische Cyclus, p. 266, &c. The fragments are collected in Düntzer, Die Fragm. d. episch. Poes. der Griech. bis zeit Alexand. p. 56, &c.)

AEGI'NA. [AEACUS.]

AEGINAEA (Αἰγιναία), a surname of Artemis, under which she was worshipped at Sparta. (Paus. 3.14.3.) It means either the huntress of chamois, or the wielder of the javelin (αἰγανέα).

AEGINE'TA, a modeller (fictor) mentioned by Pliny. (H. N. 35.11. s. 40.) Scholars are now pretty well agreed, that Winckelmann was mistaken in supposing that the word Aeginetae in the passage of Pliny denoted merely the country of some artist, whose real name, for some reason or other, was not given. His brother Pasias, a painter of some distinction, was a pupil of Erigonus, who had been colour-grinder to the artist Nealces. We learn from Plutarch (Plut. Arat. 13), that Nealces was a friend of Aratus of Sicyon, who was elected praetor of the Achaean league B. C. 243. We shall not be far wrong therefore in assuming, that Aegineta and his brother flourished about Ol. CXL. B. C. 220. (K. O. Müller, Arch. der Kunst. p. 151.)

AEGINETA PAULUS. [PAULUS AEGINETA.]

AEGI'OCHUS. [AEGIDUCHOS.]

AE'GIPAN (Αἰγίπαν), that is, Goat-Pan, was according to some statements a being distinct from Pan, while others regard him as identical with Pan. His story appears to be altogether of late origin. According to Hyginus (Hyg. Fab. 155) he was the son of Zeus and a goat, or of Zeus and Aega, the wife of Pan, and was transferred to the stars. (Hygin. Poet. Astr. 2.13.28.) Others again make Aegipan the father of Pan, and state that he as well as his son was represented as half goat and half fish. (Eratosth. Catast. 27.) When Zeus in his contest with the Titans was deprived of the sinews of his hands and feet, Hermes and Aegipan secretly restored them to him and fitted them in their proper places. (Apollod. 1.6.3 ; Hygin. Poet. Astr. l.c.) According to a Roman tradition mentioned by Plutarch (Parallel. 22), Aegipan had sprung from the incestuous intercourse of Valeria of Tusculum and her father Valerius, and was considered only a different name for Silvanus. (Comp. PAN, and Voss, Mythol. Briefe, i. p. 80, &c.)

AEGISTHUS (Αἴγισθος), a son of Thyestes, who unwittingly begot him by his own daughter Pelopia. Immediately after his birth he was exposed by his mother, but was found and saved by shepherds and suckled by a goat, whence his name Aegisthus (from αἴξ; Hyg. Fab. 87, 88; Aelian, Ael. VH 12.42). Subsequently he was searched after and found by Atreus, the brother of Thyestes, who had him educated as his own child, so that every body believed Aegisthus to be his son. In the night in which Pelopia had shared the bed of her father, she had taken from him his sword which she afterwards gave to Aegisthus. This sword became the means by which the incestuous intercourse between her and her father was discovered, whereupon she put an end to her own life. Atreus in his enmity towards his brother sent Aegisthus to kill him; but the sword which Aegisthus carried was the cause of the recognition between Thyestes and his son, and the latter returned and slew his uncle Atreus, while he was offering a sacrifice on the sea-coast. Aegisthus and his father now took possession of their lawful inheritance from which they had been expelled by Atreus. (Hygin. l.c. and 252.) Homer appears to know nothing of all these tragic occurrences, and we learn from him only that, after the death of Thyestes, Aegisthus ruled as king at Mycenae and took no part in the Trojan expedition. (Od. 4.518, &c.) While Agamemnon, the son of Atreus, was absent on his expedition against Troy, Aegisthus seduced Clytemnestra, the wife of Agamemnon, and was so wicked as to offer up thanks to the gods for the success with which his criminal exertions were crowned. (Hom. Od. 3.263, &c.) In order not