Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/69

Rh was believed to have derived its name. (Plin. Nat. 6.35; Nat. Com. 2.6.)

AE'THLIUS (Ἀέθλιος), the first king of Elis. (Paus. 5.1.2.) He was a son of Zeus and Protogeneia, the daughter of Deucalion (Apollod. 1.7.2; Hyg. Fab. 155), and was married to Calyce, by whom he begot Endymion. According to some accounts Endymion was himself a son of Zeus and first king of Elis. (Apollod. 1.7.5.) Other traditions again made Aethlius a son of Aeolus, who was called by the name of Zeus. (Paus. 5.8.1.)

AE'THLIUS (Ἀέθλιος), the author of a work entitled "Samian Annals" (Ὥροι Σάμιοι), the fifth book of which is quoted by Athenaeus, although he expresses a doubt about the genuineness of the work. (xiv. p. 650d. 653, f.) Aethlius is also referred to by Clemens Alexandrinus (Protr. p. 30a), Eustathius (ad Od. 7.120, p. 1573), and in the Etymologicum Magnum (s. v. νένωται), where the name is written Athlius.

AETHRA (Αἴθρα). 1. A daughter of king Pittheus of Troezen. Bellerophon sued for her hand, but was banished from Corinth before the nuptials took place. (Paus. 2.31.12.) She was surprised on one occasion by Poseidon in the island of Sphaeria, whither she had gone, in consequence of a dream, for the purpose of offering a sacrifice on the tomb of Sphaerus. Aethra therefore dedicated in the island a temple to Athena Apaturia (the Deceitful), and called the island Hiera instead of Sphaeria, and also introduced among the maidens of Troezen the custom of dedicating their girdles to Athena Apaturia on the day of their marriage. (Paus. 2.33.11.) At a later time she became the mother of Theseus by Aegeus. (Plut. Thes. 3; Hyg. Fab. 14.) In the night in which this took place, Poseidon also was believed to have been with her. (Apollod. 3.15.7; Hyg. Fab. 37.) According to Plutarch (Plut. Thes. 6) her father spread this report merely that Theseus might be regarded as the son of Poseidon, who was much revered at Troezen. This opinion, however, is nothing else but an attempt to strip the genuine story of its marvels. After this event she appears living in Attica, from whence she was carried off to Lacedaemon by Castor and Polydeuces, and became a slave of Helen, with whom she was taken to Troy. (Plut. Thes. 34; Hom. Il. 3.144.) At the taking of Troy she came to the camp of the Greeks, where she was recognised by her grandsons, and Demophon, one of them, asked Agamemnon to procure her liberation. Agamemnon accordingly sent a messenger to Helen to request her to give up Aethra. This was granted, and Aethra became free again. (Paus. 10.25.3; Dict. Cret. 5.13.) According to Hyginus (Hyg. Fab. 243) she afterwards put an end to her own life from grief at the death of her sons. The history of her bondage to Helen was represented on the celebrated chest of Cypselus (Paus. 4.19.1 Dion Chrysost. Orat. 11), and in a painting by Polygnotus in the Lesche of Delphi. (Paus. 10.25.2.)

2. A daughter of Oceanus, by whom Atlas begot the twelve Hyades, and a son, Hyas. (Ov. Fast. 5.171; Hyg. Fab. 192.)

AETHU'SA（Αἵθουσα), a daughter of Poseidon and Alcyone, who was beloved by Apollo, and bore to him Eleuther. (Apollod. 3.10.1 ; Paus. 9.20 § 2.)

AETHYIA (Αἴθυια), a surname of Athena, under which she was worshipped in Megaria. (Paus. 1.5.3; 41.6; Lycophr. Cass. 359.) The word αἴθυια signifies a diver, and figuratively a ship, so that the name must have reference to the goddess teaching the art of ship-building or navigation. (Tzetz. ad Lycophr. l.c.)

AE'TION. [CYPSELUS.]

AE'TION (Ἀετίων). 1. A Greek sculptor of Amphipolis, mentioned by Callimachus (Anth. Gr. 9.336) and Theocritus (Epigr. vii.), from whom we learn that at the request of Nicias, a famous physician of Miletus, he executed a statue of Aesculapius in cedar wood. He flourished about the middle of the third century B. C. There was an engraver of the same name; but when he lived is not known. (K. O. Müller, Arch. der Kunst, p. 151.)

2. A celebrated painter, spoken of by Lucian (De Merced. Cond. 42, Herod. or Aetion, 4, &c., Imag. 7), who gives a description of one of his pictures, representing the marriage of Alexander and Roxana. This painting excited such admiration when exhibited at the Olympic games, that Proxenidas, one of the judges, gave the artist his daughter in marriage. Action seems to have excelled particularly in the art of mixing and laying on his colours. It has commonly been supposed that he lived in the time of Alexander the Great; but the words of Lucian (Herod. 4) shew clearly that he must have lived about the time of Hadrian and the Antonines. (K. O. Müller, Arch. der Kunst. p. 240; Kugler, Kunstgeschichte, p. 320.)

AE'TIUS, a Roman general, who with his rival Boniface, has justly been called by Procopius the last of the Romans. He was born at Dorostana in Moesia (Jornandes, de reb. Get. 34), and his father Gaudentius, a Scythian in the employ of the empire, having been killed in a mutiny, he was early given as a hostage to Alaric, and under him learnt the arts of barbarian war. (Philostorgius, 12.12.) After an ineffectual support of the usurper John with an army of 60,000 men (A. D. 424), he became the general of the Roman forces under Placidia, at that time guardian of her son, the emperor Valentinian III. In order to supplant in her favour his rival Boniface, by treacherous accusations of each to the other, Aetius occasioned his revolt and the loss of Africa (Procop. Bell. Vand. 1.3, 4); the empress, however, discovered the fraud, and Aetius, after having met Boniface at Ravenna, and killed him in single combat [BONIFACIUS], was himself compelled to retire in disgrace to the Hunnish army which in 424 he had settled in Pannonia. (Prosper. and Marcellinus, in anno 432.) Restored with their help to Italy, he became patrician and sole director of the armies of the western empire. (Jornandes, de reb. Get. 34.) In this capacity, through his long acquaintance with the barbarian settlers, and chiefly with the Huns and Attila himself, in whose court his son Carpilio was brought up, he checked the tide of barbarian invasion, and maintained the Roman power in peace for seventeen years (433-450) in Italy, Spain, Britain, and Gaul, in which last country especially he established his influence by means of his Hun and Alan allies and by his treaty with Theodoric the Visigoth. (Sidon. Apoll. Paneg. Avit. 300.) And when in 450 this peace was broken by the invasion of Attila, Aetius in concert with