Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/77

Rh inferior to Achilles. But he nevertheless rises above all the Greeks by his dignity, power, and majesty (Il. 3.166, &c.), and his eyes and head are likened to those of Zeus, his girdle to that of Ares, and his breast to that of Poseidon. (Il. 2.477, &c.) Agamemnon is among the Greek heroes what Zeus is among the gods of Olympus. This idea appears to have guided the Greek artists, for in several representations of Agamemnon still extant there is a remarkable resemblance to the representations of Zeus. The emblem of his power and majesty in Homer is a sceptre, the work of Hephaestus, which Zeus had once given to Hermes, and Hermes to Pelops, from whom it descended to Agamemnon. (Il. 2.100, &c.; comp. Paus. ix.40. §6.) His armour is described in the Iliad. (Il.19, &c.)

The remaining part of the story of Agamemnon is related in the Odyssey, and by several later writers. At the taking of Troy he received Cassandra, the daughter of Priam, as his prize (Od. 11.421; Dict. Cret. v.13), by whom, according to a tradition in Pausanias (ii.16. §5), he had two sons, Teledamus and Pelops. On his return home he was twice driven out of his course by storms, but at last landed in Argolis, in the dominion of Aegisthus, who had seduced Clytemnestra during the absence of her husband. He invited Agamemnon on his arrival to a repast, and had him and his companions treacherously murdered during the feast (Od. 3.263) [AEGISTHUS], and Clytemnestra on the same occasion murdered Cassandra. (Od. 11.400, &c. 422, 24.96, &c.) Odysseus met the shade of Agamemnon in the lower world. (Od. 11.387, 24.20.) Menelaus erected a monument in honour of his brother on the river Aegyptus. (Od. 4.584.) Pausanias (2.16.5) states, that in his time a monument of Agamemnon was still extant at Mycenae. The tragic poets have variously modified the story of the murder of Agamemnon. Aeschylus (Aesch. Ag. 1492, &c.) makes Clytemnestra alone murder Agamemnon : she threw a net over him while he was in the bath, and slew him with three strokes. Her motive is partly her jealousy of Cassandra, and partly her adulterous life with Aegisthus. According to Tzetzes (ad Lycophr. 1099), Aegisthus committed the murder with the assistance of Clytemnestra. Euripides (Eur. Orest. 26) mentions a garment which Clytemnestra threw over him instead of a net, and both Sophocles (Elect. 530) and Euripides represent the sacrifice of Iphigeneia as the cause for which she murdered him. After the death of Agamemnon and Cassandra, their two sons were murdered upon their tomb by Aegisthus. (Paus. 2.16.5.) According to Pindar (Pind. P. 11.48) the murder of Agamemnon took place at Amyclae, in Laconica, and Pausanias (l.c.) states that the inhabitants of this place disputed with those of Mycenae the possession of the tomb of Cassandra. (Comp. Paus. 3.19.5.) In later times statues of Agamemnon were erected in several parts of Greece, and he was worshipped as a hero at Amyclae and Olympia. (Paus. 3.19.5, 5.25.5.) He was represented on the pedestal of the celebrated Rhamnusian Nemesis (1.33.7), and his fight with Coon on the chest of Cypselus. (5.19.1.) He was painted in the Lesche of Delphi, by Polygnotus. (10.25.2; compare Plin. Nat. 35.36.5; Quint. Inst. 2.13.13; V. Max. 8.11.6.) It should be remarked that several Latin poets mention a bastard son of Agamemnon, of the name of Halesus, to whom the foundation of the town of Falisci or Alesium is ascribed. (Ov. Fast. 4.73; Amor. 3.13. 31; comp. Serv. ad Aen. 7.695; Sil. Ital. 8.476.)

2. A surname of Zeus, under which he was worshipped at Sparta. (Lycophr. 335, with the Schol.; Eustath, ad Il. ii. 25.) Eustathius thinks that the god derived this name from the resemblance between him and Agamemnon; while others believe that it is a mere epithet signifying the Eternal, from and. 2em

 AGAMEMNO'NIDES (Ἀγαμεμνονίδης), a patronymic form from Agamemnon, which is used to designate his son Orestes. (Hom. Od. 1.30; Juv. 8.215.)

 AGANI'CE or AGLAONI'CE (Ἀγανίκη or Ἀγλαονίκη), daughter of Hegetor, a Thessalian, who by her knowledge of Astronomy could foretell when the moon would disappear, and imposed upon credulous women, by saying that she could draw down the moon. (Plut. de Off. Conjug. p. 145, de Defect. Orac. p. 417.)

 AGANIPPE (Ἀγανίππη). 1. A nymph of the well of the same name at the foot of Mount Helicon, in Boeotia, which was considered sacred to the Muses, and believed to have the power of inspiring those who drank of it. The nymph is called a daughter of the river-god Permessus. (Paus. ix. 29. § 3; Virg. Eclog. x. 12.) The Muses are sometimes called Aganippides.

2. The wife of Acrisius, and according to some accounts the mother of Danae, although the latter is more commonly called a daughter of Eurydice. (Hyg. Fab. 63; Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. 4.1091.)

 AGANIPPIS, is used by Ovid (Ov. Fast. 5.7) as an epithet of Hippocrene; its meaning however is not quite clear. It is derived from Agnippe, the well or nymph, and as Aganippides is used to designate the Muses, Aganippis Hippocrene may mean nothing but "Hippocrene, sacred to the Muses."

 AGAPE'NOR (Ἀγαπήνωρ), a son of Ancaeus, and grandson of Lycurgus. He was king of the Arcadians, and received sixty ships from Agamemnon, in which he led his Arcadians to Troy. (Hom. Il. 2.609, &c.; Hyg. Fab. 97.) He also occurs among the suitors of Helen. (Hyg. Fab. 81; Apollod. 3.10.8.) On his return from Troy he was cast by a storm on the coast of Cyprus, where he founded the town of Paphus, and in it the famous temple of Aphrodite. (Paus. 8.5.2, &c.) He also occurs in the story of HARMONIA. (Apollod. 3.7.5, &c.

 AGAPE'TUS (Ἀγαπητός). 1. Metropolitan Bishop of Rhodes, A. D. 457. When the Emperor Leo wrote to him for the opinion of his suffragans and himself on the council of Chalcedon, he defended it against Timotheus Aelurus, in a letter still extant in a Latin translation, Conciliorum Nova Collectio à Mansi, vol. vii. p. 580.

2. St., born at Rome, was Archdeacon and raised to the Holy See A. D. 535. He was no sooner consecrated than he took off the anathemas pronounced by Pope Boniface II. against his deceased rival Dioscorus on a false charge of Simony. He received an appeal from the Catholics of Constantinople when Anthimus, the Monophysite, was made their Bishop by Theodora. [ANTHI- 