Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/75

Rh Origen replied. This letter is extant, and has been published, together with Origen's answer, by Wetstein, Basle, 1674, 4to. It is also contained in De la Rue's edition of Origen. Africanus also wrote a letter to Aristeides on the genealogies of Christ in Matthew and Luke (Phot. Bibl. 34 ; Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 6.23), of which some extracts are given by Eusebius. (1.7.)

There is another work attributed to Africanus, entitled, that is, embroidered girdles, so called from the celebrated κεστός of Aphrodite. Some modern writers suppose this work to have been written by some one else, but it can scarcely he doubted that it was written by the same Africanus, since it is expressly mentioned among his other writings by Photius (l.c.), Suidas (l.c.), Syncellus (l.c.), and Eusebius. (6.23.) The number of books of which it consisted, is stated variously. Suidas mentions twenty-four, Photius fourteen, and Syncellus nine. It treated of a vast variety of subjects--medicine, agriculture, natural history, the military art, &c., and seems to have been a kind of common-place book, in which the author entered the results of his reading Some of the books are said to exist still in manuscript. (Fabricius, Bibl. Graec. vol. iv. pp. 240, &c.)

Some extracts from them are published by Thevenot in the " Mathematici Veteres," Paris, 1693, fo., and also in the Geoponica of Cassianus Bassus. (Needham, Prolegom. ad Geopon.）The part relating to the military art was translated into French by Guichard in the third volume of " Mémoires crit. et hist. sur plusieurs Points d'Antiquités militaires," Berl. 1774. Compare Dureau de la Malle, " Poliorcétique des Anciens," Paris, 1819, 8vo.

 AFRICA′NUS, T. SE′XTIUS, a Roman of noble rank, was deterred by Agrippina from marrying Silana. In 62, he took the census in the provinces of Gaul, together with Q. Volusius and Trebellius Maximus. (Tac. Ann. xiii. 19, xiv. 46.) His name occurs in a fragment of the Fratres Arvales. (Gruter, p. 119.) There was a T. Sextius Africanus consul with Trajan in A. D. 112, who was probably a descendant of the one mentioned above.

 AGA′CLYTUS, the author of a work about Olympia , which is referred to by Suidas and Photius. (s. v. .)

 AGA′LLIAS. [.]

 AGALLIS of Corcyra, a female grammarian, who wrote upon Homer. (Athen. i. p. 14, d.) Some have supposed from two passages in Suidas (s. v. and ), that we ought to read Anagallis in this passage of Athenaeus. The scholiast upon Homer and Eustathius (ad Il. xviii. 491) mention a grammarian of the name of Agallias, a pupil of Aristophanes the grammarian, also a Corcyraean and a commentator upon Homer, who may be the same as Agallis or perhaps her father.

 AGAME′DE. 1. A daughter of Augeias and wife of Mulius, who, according to Homer (Il. xi, 739), was acquainted with the healing powers of all the plants that grow upon the earth. Hyginus (Fab. 157) makes her the mother of Belus, Actor, and Dictys, by Poseidon.

2. A daughter of Macaria, from whom Agamede, a place in Lesbos, was believed to have derived its name. (Steph. Byz. s. v. .)

2em

 AGAME′DES, a son of Stymplialus and great-grandson of Areas. (Paus. viii. 4. §5, 5. §3.) He was father of Cercyon by Epicaste, who also brought to him a step-son, Trophonius, who was by some believed to be a son of Apollo. According to others, Agamedes was a son of Apollo and Epicaste, or of Zeus and Iocaste, and father of Trophonius. The most common story however is, that he was a son of Erginus, king of Orchomenus, and brother of Trophonius. These two brothers are said to have distinguished themselves as architects, especially in building temples and palaces. Among others, they built a temple of Apollo at Delphi, and a treasury of Hyrieus, king of Hyria in Boeotia. (Paus. ix. 37. §3; Strab. ix. p. 421.) The scholiast on Aristophanes (Nub. 508) gives a somewhat different account from Charax, and makes them build the treasury for king Augeias. The story about this treasury in Pausanias bears a great resemblance to that which Herodotus (ii. 121) relates of the treasury of the Egyptian king Rhampsinitus. In the construction of the treasury of Hyrieus, Agamedes and Trophonius contrived to place one stone in such a manner, that it could be taken away outside, and thus formed an entrance to the treasury, without any body perceiving it. Agamedes and Trophonius now constantly robbed the treasury; and the king, seeing that locks and seals were uninjured while his treasures were constantly decreasing, set traps to catch the thief. Agamedes was thus ensnared, and Trophonius cut off his head to avert the discovery. After this, Trophonius was immediately swallowed up by the earth. On this spot there was afterwards, in the grove of Lebadeia, the so-called cave of Agamedes with a column by the side of it. Here also was the oracle of Trophonius, and those who consulted it first offered a ram to Agamedes and invoked him. (Paus. ix. 39. §4; compare Dict. of Ant. p. 673.) A tradition mentioned by Cicero (Tusc. Quaest. i. 47; comp. Plut. De consol. ad Apollon. 14), states that Agamedes and Trophonius, after having built the temple of Apollo at Delphi, prayed to the god to grant them in reward for their labour what was best for men. The god promised to do so on a certain day, and when the day came, the two brothers died. The question as to whether the story about the Egyptian treasury is derived from Greece, or whether the Greek story was an importation from Egypt, has been answered by modern scholars in both ways; but Müller (Orchom. p. 94, &c.) has rendered it very probable that the tradition took its rise among the Minyans, was transferred from them to Augeias, and was known in Greece long before the reign of Psammitichus, during which the intercourse between the two countries was opened.

2em

 AGAMEMNON. 1. A son of Pleisthenes and grandson of Atreus, king of Mycenae, in whose house Agamemnon and Menelaus were educated after the death of their father. (Apollod. iii. 2. §2; Schol. ad Eurip. Or. 5; Schol. ad Iliad. ii. 249.) Homer and several other writers call him a son of Atreus, grandson of Pelops, and great-grandson of Tantalus. (Hom. Il. xi. 131; Eurip. Helen. 396; Tzetz. ad Lycophr. 147; Hygin. Fab. 97.) His mother was, according to most accounts, Aerope; but some call Eriphyle the wife of Pleisthenes and the mother of Agamemnon. Besides his brother Menelaus, he had a sister, who is called Anaxibia, Cyndragora, or Astyocheia. (Schol. Eurip. Or. 5; Hygin. Fab. 17.) <section end="Agamemnon" />