Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/45

Rh to be surprised by the return of Agamemnon, he sent out spies, and when Agamemnon came, Aegisthus invited him to a repast at which he had him treacherously murdered. (Hom. Od. 4.524, &c.; Paus. 2.16.5.) After this event Aegisthus reigned seven years longer over Mycenae, until in the eighth Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, returned home and avenged the death of his father by putting the adulterer to death. (Hom. Od. 1.28, &c.; compare AGAMEMNON, CLYTEMNESTRA, ORESTES.)

AEGLE (Αἴγλη). 1. The most beautiful of the Naiads, daughter of Zeus and Neaera (Verg. Ecl. 6.20), by whom Helios begot the Charites. (Paus. 9.35.1.)

2. A sister of Phaeton, and daughter of Helios and Clymene. (Hygin. Fab 154, 156.) In her grief at the death of her brother she and her sisters were changed into poplars.

3. One of the Hesperides. (Apollod. 2.5.11; Serv. ad Aen. 4.484; comp. HESPERIDES. 4. A nymph, daughter of Panopeus, who was beloved by Theseus, and for whom he forsook Ariadne. (Plut. Thes. 20; Athen. 13.557.)

AEGLE (Αἴγλη), one of the daughters of Aesculapius (Plin. Nat. 35.40.31) by Lampetia, the daughter of the Sun, according to Hermippus (apud Schol. in Aristoph. Plut. 701), or by Epione, according to Suidas. (s. v. Ἠπιόνη.) She is said to have derived her name Aegle, " Brightness," or " Splendour," either from the beauty of the human body when in good health, or from the honour paid to the medical profession. (J. H. Meibom. Comment. in Hippocr. " Jusjur." Lugd. Bat. 1643, 4to. 6.7, p. 55.)

AEGLE'lS (Αἰγληίς), a daughter of Hyacinthus who had emigrated from Lacedaemon to Athens. During the siege of Athens by Minos, in the reign of Aegeus, she together with her sisters Antheis, Lytaea, and Orthaea, were sacrificed on the tomb of Geraestus the Cyclop, for the purpose of averting a pestilence then raging at Athens. (Apollod. 3.15.8.)

AEGLES (Αἴγλης), a Samian athlete, who was dumb, recovered his voice when he made an effort on one occasion to express his indignation at an attempt to impose upon him in a public contest. (Gel. 5.9; V. Max. 1.8, ext. 4.)

AEGLE'TES（Αἰγλήτης), that is, the radiant god, a surname of Apollo. (Apollon. 4.1730; Apollod. 1.9.26; Hesych. s. v.)

Aego'bolus (Αἰγοβόλος), the goat-killer, a surname of Dionysus, at Potniae in Boeotia. (Paus. 9.8.1.)

AEGO'CERUS（Αἰγόκερως), a surname of Pan, descriptive of his figure with the horns of a goat, but is more commonly the name given to one of the signs of the Zodiac. (Lucan, 9.536; Lucret. 5.614; C. Caes. Germ. in Arat. 213.)

AEGO'PHAGUS (Αἰγοφάγος), the goat-eater, a surname of Hera, under which she was worshipped by the Lacedaemonians. (Paus. 3.15.7 ; Hesych. and Etym. M. s. v.)

AEGUS and ROSCILLUS, two chiefs of the Allobroges, who had served Caesar with great fidelity in the Gallic war, and were treated by him with great distinction. They accompanied him in his campaigns against Pompey, but having been reproved by Caesar on account of depriving the cavalry of its pay and appropriating the booty to themselves, they deserted to Pompey in Greece. (Caes. Civ. 3.59, 60.) Aegus was afterwards killed in an engagement between the cavalry of Caesar and Pompey. (3.84.)

AEGYPTUS (Αἴγυπτος), a son of Belus and Anchinoe or Achiroe, and twin-brother of Danaus. (Apollod. ii. 50.4; Tzetz. ad Lycophr. 382, 1155.) Euripides represented Cepheus and Phineus likewise as brothers of Aegyptus. Belus assigned to Danaus the sovereignty of Libya, and to Aegyptus he gave Arabia. The latter also subdued the country of the Melampodes, which he called Aegypt after his own name. Aegyptus by his several wives had fifty sons, and it so happened that his brother Danaus had just as many daughters. (Apollod. 2.1.5; Hyg. Fab. 170.) Danaus had reason to fear the sons of his brother, and fled with his daughters to Argos in Peloponnesus. Thither he was followed by the sons of Aegyptus, who demanded his daughters for their wives and promised faithful alliance. Danaus complied with their request, and distributed his daughters among them, but to each of them he gave a dagger, with which they were to kill their husbands in the bridal night. All the sons of Aegyptus were thus murdered with the exception of Lynceus, who was saved by Hypermnestra. The Danaids buried the heads of their murdered husbands in Lerna, and their bodies outside the town, and were afterwards purified of their crime by Athena and Hermes at the command of Zeus. Pausanias (2.24.3), who saw the monument under which the heads of the sons of Aegyptus were believed to be buried, says that it stood on the way to Larissa, the citadel of Argos, and that their bodies were buried at Lerna. In Hyginus (Fath. 168) the story is somewhat different. According to him, Aegyptus formed the plan of murdering Danaus and his daughters in order to gain possession of his dominions. When Danaus was informed of this he fled with his daughters to Argos. Aegyptus then sent out his sons in pursuit of the fugitives, and enjoined them not to return unless they had slain Danaus. The sons of Aegyptus laid siege to Argos, and when Danaus saw that further resistance was useless, he put an end to the hostilities by giving to each of the besiegers one of his daughters. The murder of the sons of Aegyptus then took place in the bridal night. There was a tradition at Patrae in Achaia, according to which Aegyptus himself came to Greece, and died at Aroe with grief for the fate of his sons. The temple of Serapis at Patrae contained a monument of Aegyptus. (Paus. 7.21.6.)

AEIMNESTUS (Ἀείμνηστος), a Spartan, who killed Mardonius in the battle of Plataea, B. C. 479, and afterwards fell himself in the Messenian war. (Hdt. 9.64.) The Spartan who killed Mardonius, Plutarch (Plut. Arist. 19) calls Arimnestus (Ἀρίμνηστος).

AE'LIA GENS, plebeian, of which the family-names and surnames are CATUS, GALLUS, (GRACILIS, LAMIA, LIGUR, PAETUS, STAIENUS, STILO, TUBERO. On coins this gens is also written Ailia, but Ailia seems to be a distinct gens. The only family-names and surnames of the Aelia gens upon coins are Bala, Lamia, Paetus, and Sejanus. Of Bala nothing is known. Sejanus is the name of the favorite of Tiberius, who was adopted by one of the Aelii. [SEJANUS, AELIUS.] The first member of this gens, who obtained the consulship, was P. Aelius Paetus in B. C. 337.