Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/111

Rh A C H A C H 95 ( f imcyil. i .3 ; of. Iliad, ii. 684, where the more usual name of Myrmidones also occurs) ; that in vEgina Zeus was styled &quot;Hellanios;&quot; and that the name of Selloi, applied to the priesthood at Dodona, is apparently identical with the name Hellenes. Whether from this local connection the derivation of the name of Achilles from the same root as A^e^wos should be preferred to the other derivations, such as Axi-Aei s = Exe Aao?, &quot; ruler,&quot; or Ax-tAev s, = &quot; the bane of the Ilians,&quot; remains undecided. But this is gained, that we see in what manner the legend of Achilles had its root in the earlier Pelasgic religion, his adherence to which in the prayer just cited would otherwise appear very strange on the part of a hero who, through the influence of Homer and his successors, is completely identified with the Olympian system of gods. According to the genealogy, ^Eacus had two sons, Peleus and Telamon, of whom the former became the father of Achilles the latter, of Ajax ; but of this relationship between Achilles and Ajax there is no sign in the Iliad. Peleus ruled in Phthia ; and the gods remark ing his piety, rewarded him with, among other presents, a wife in the person of the beautiful nereid Thetis. After her son was born, Thetis appears to have returned to her life in the sea. The boy was placed under his father s friend, the centaur Cheiron. When six years old he slew lions and boars, and could run down a stag. When nine, he was removed from his instructor to the island of Scyrus, where, dressed as a girl, he was to be brought up among the daughters of Lycomedes, his mother preferring for him a long inglorious life to a brief but splendid career. The same desire for his safety is apparent in other legends, which describe her as trying to make him invulnerable when a child by placing him in boiling water or in a fire, and then salving him with ambrosia ; or again, in later story, by dipping him in the river Styx, from which he came out, all but the heel which she held, proof against wounds. When the aid of Achilles was found indispensable to the expedition against Troy, Odysseus set out for Scyrus as a pedlar, spread his wares, including a shield and spear, before the king s daughters, among whom was Achilles in disguise. Then he caused an alarm of danger to be sounded, upon which, while the girls fled, Achilles seized the arms, and thus revealed himself. Provided with a contingent of 50 ships, and accompanied by the aged Phoenix and Patroclus, he joined the expedition, which after occupying nine years in raids upon the towns in the neighbourhood of Troy and in Mysia, as detailed in the epic poem entitled the Cypria, culminated in the regular siege of Troy, as described in the Iliad, the grand object of which is the glorification of our hero. Estranged from his comrades, because his captive Briseis had been taken from him, Achilles remained inexorable in his tent, while defeat attended the Greeks. At length, at their greatest need, he yielded so far as to allow Patroclus to take his chariot and to assume his armour. Patroclus fell, and the news of his death roused Achilles, who, now equipped with new armour fashioned by Hephaestus, drove back the Trojans, slew Hector, and after dragging his body thrice round the Trojan walls, restored it to Priam. With the funeral rites of Patroclus the Iliad concludes, and the story is taken up by the jEtkiopis, a poem by Arctinus of Miletus, in which is described the combat of Achilles first with the amazon Penthesilea, and next with Memnon. When the latter fell, Achilles drove back the Trojans, and, impelled by fate, himself advanced to the Scasan gate, where an arrow from the bow of Paris struck his vulnerable heel, and he fell, bewailed through the whole camp. (A. s. M.) ACHILLES TATIUS, a Greek writer, born at Alexan dria. The precise time when he flourished is uncertain, but it cannot have been earlier than the 5th century, as in his principal work he evidently imitates Heliodorus. Suidas. who calls him Achilles Statius, says that he was converted from heathenism and became a Christian bishop, but this is doubtful, the more so that Suidas also attributes to him a work on the sphere (Trept o-^atpas) which is referred to by Firmicus (330-50), and must, therefore, have been written by another person. The erotic romance of Achilles Tatius, entitled Tlie Loves of Clitophon and Leucippe, is almost certainly the work of a heathen writer. The style of the work is ornate and rhetorical, while the story is often unnatural, and sometimes coarse, and the develop ment of the plot irregular and frequently interrupted. Its popularity at the time it appeared is proved by the many manuscripts of it which still exist, and the value attached to it by modern scholars and critics is seen in the frequency with which it has been reprinted and translated. A Latin translation by Annibal Crucceius was published, first in part at Leyden in 1544, and then complete at Basel in 1554. The Greek text was first printed by Commelin, at Heidelberg, in 1 601. Other editions by Salmasius (Leyden, 1640), Mitscherlich (Biponti, 1792), and Jacobs (Leipsic, 1821), have been superseded by the editions of Hirschig (Paris, 1856), and Hercher (Leipsic, 1857). An English translation by A. H. (Anthony Hodges) appeared at Oxford in 1638. ACHILLINI, ALEXANDER (1463-1512), a native of Bologna, was celebrated as a lecturer both in medicine and in philosophy, and Avas styled the second Aristotle. He and Mundinus were the first at Bologna to avail themselves of the permission given by Frederick II. to dissect dead bodies. His philosophical works were printed in one volume folio, at Venice, in 1508, and reprinted with con siderable additions in 1545, 1551, and 1568. He also wrote several medical works, chiefly on anatomy. ACHiN (pronouncedly/tern), a town and also a state of Northern Sumatra; the one state of that island which has been powerful at any time since the discovery of the Cape route to the East, and the only one that still remains indepen dent of the Dutch, though that independence is nowmenaced. De Barros names Achin among the twenty-nine states that divided the sea-board of Sumatra when the Portuguese took Malacca. Northern Sumatra had been visited by several European travellers in the Middle Ages, such as Marco Polo, Friar Odorico, and Nicolo Conti. Some of these as well as Asiatic writers mention Lambri, a state which must have nearly occupied the position of Achin. But the first voyager to visit Achin, by that name, was Alvaro Tellez, a captain of Tristan d Acunha s fleet, in 1506. It was then a mere dependency of the adjoining state of Pedir; and the latter, with Pasei, formed the only states on the coast whose chiefs claimed the title of Sultan. Yet before twenty years had passed Achin had not only gained independence, but had swallowed up all other states of Northern Sumatra. It attained its climax of power in the time of Sultan Iskandar Muda (1607-1636), under whom the subject coast extended from Am opposite Malacca round by the north to Padang on the west coast, a sea-board of not less than 1100 miles; and besides this, the king s supremacy was owned by the large island of Nyas, and by the continental Malay states of Johor, Pdhang, Quedah, and Perak. The present limits of Achin supremacy in Sumatra are reckoned to be, on the east coast the River Tamiang, in about 4 25 N. lat., which forms the frontier of territories tributary to Siak; and on the west coast a line in about 2 48 N., the frontier of Trumon, a small modern state lying between Achin and the Dutch government of Padang. Even within these limits the actual power of Achin ia pre carious, and the interior boundary can be laid down only from conjecture. This interior country is totally unex plored. It is believed to be inhabited by tribes kindred