Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/197

Rh G I G I 181 of the largest port. The Venetians resigned possession of the island to the Turks in 1715, under whom it became the prey of Mainote and other pirates, until the emancipa tion of Greece made it, in 1828-29, the seat of the Greek government. On a hill near the N.E. corner of the island stands the modern little town of J^gina (as it is pronounced by the modern Greeks). It is separated by a ravine from the hill, on which rise in lonely majesty the ruins of a noble temple, supposed to be that of Jupiter Panhellenius, though the point has been disputed. The temple occupies the rocky summit of a hill, in the midst of a forest of pines, at the extremity of the Panhellenian ridge. It was a ruin in the days of Cicero, as mentioned in one of his letters, and seems to have been thrown down by an earth quake at an unknown epoch. This temple is conspicuous from a distance, and was visited by Chandler in the last century; but has been chiefly known to us by the success ful excavations of our countrymen Cockerell and Foster, assisted by Baron Haller and M. Linckh of Stuttgard, in 1811. These gentlemen united in clearing away the rub bish which the lapse of 2000 years had accumulated on the basement and floor of the cella ; and after twenty days exertion they were rewarded by the discovery not only of many interesting details relating to Grecian architecture, but also of many statues, in wonderfully energetic atti tudes, that had once adorned the fallen pediments of this celebrated temple. These consist of the eleven figures of the eastern and five statues of the western pediment, almost entire, besides fragments of the rest, and two statuettes, and other ornaments of the acroteria. These sculptures supply an important link in the history of ancient art, and connect the schools of early Greece with that of Etruscan sculpture. The efforts of Messrs Cockerell and Foster to secure those treasures to their country are well known, as well as their failure through an unlucky mistake of the agent sent out to purchase them for the British Museum. They now form one of the most interest ing acquisitions of the magnificent Glyptothek of Munich. The temple stands on a stylobate of 94 feet by 45 feet. The original number of columns in the peristyle w r as thirty- two, of which twelve were ranged on each side, and six in each front, 17 feet 2 inches high, including the wide spreading ovolo of the capital, and a diameter of 3 feet 3 inches at the base. Two other columns, of 3 feet 2 inches between antas, are in the pronaos, and two similar in the opisthodomos or posticum. The cella had a door at each end; a double row of smaller columns, 2 feet 4 inches in diameter, were within the cella to support its partial roof; but the greatest portion of the cella was open, as this temple was hy/xethral. There still remain twenty-one columns of the peristyle, with their architraves; six of the eastern front, and continuously with them are five columns of the north side ; the four columns of the pronaos and opisthodomos, and the lower part of the shafts of five within the cella. The tympana had been painted of a bright azure, to give relief to the statues ; and the drapery of Minerva, the middle figure of each group, had been painted red and blue. The whole of the ornaments on the cornices and upper mouldings of the pediment had been painted in encaustic, not carved. The subject of the groups of statuary appears to be the contest for the body of Patroclus, one of the ^Eacidce (or royal progeny of yEgina of old), as described by Homer. (Cockerell On the ^Egina Marbles; Brand s Journal.) This magnificent structure was erected most probably in the Gth century B.C., but, at all events, un doubtedly belongs to the brilliant period of yEginetan power, when its navy and its commerce were the pride of Greece, and carried its citizens to the remotest shores of the Mediterranean and the Euxine. Silver money is said to have been struck at ^Egina long before it was coined even at Athens. The victory of Salamis was in a great measure owing to the thirty ships of ^Egina, and the voice of grateful Greece assigned to her warriors on that event ful day the prize of valour. Yet not long after, the rivalry of Athens began to cloud the prosperity of the haughty islanders, whose fleet she had before defeated; and ^Egina at length sunk under the enmity of a relentless commercial rival, that banished her citizens and supplied their place with Attic colonists. After the close of the Peloponnesian war Lysander restored the banished inhabitants, but JEgina never recovered its ancient prosperity. ^EGINETA, PAULUS, a celebrated surgeon of the island of ^Egina, whence he derived his name. According to Le Clerc s calculation, he lived in the 4th century; but Abulfaragius the Arabian places him with more probability in the 7th. His knowledge in surgery was very great, and his works are deservedly famous. The title of the most important of them, as given by Suidas, is ETTU-OPJS larpiKTJs Bi/3Ata &quot;Eirra (Synopsis of Medicine in Seven Books). The sixth book, which treats of surgery, is par ticularly interesting. The whole work in the original Greek was published at Venice in 1528, and another edition appeared at Basle in 1538. Several Latin trans lations have been published, that of J. Cornarius (Basle, 1556) being accompanied by a commentary, ^gineta is the first writer who takes notice of the cathartic property of rhubarb, and, according to Dr Milward, is the first in all antiquity who deserves the title of accoucheur. ^EGIS, in Classical Mythology, a name given to the shield or buckler of Jupiter. The goat Amaltheea, which had suckled that god, being dead, he is said to have covered his buckler with the skin, or used the skin as a buckler; whence the appellation aegis, from ai, dtyos, goat. Jupiter afterwards restored the animal to life, covered it with a new skin, and placed it among the stars. A full description of the aegis of Jupiter is given -by Homer, II. v. 738, sqq. Apollo is also represented as bearing the wgis, and Minerva still more frequently. After Perseus killed Medusa, Minerva nailed her head in the middle of the aegis, which thence forth had the faculty Medusa herself had during her life of converting all who looked on it into stone. Later writers regard the aegis sometimes as a buckler, but oftener as a cuirass or breastplate. The aegis of Pallas, described by Virgil (JEn. lib. viii. v. 435), must have been a cuirass, since the poet says expressly that Medusa s head was on the breast of the goddess. But the aBgis of Jupiter, mentioned a little before (v. 354), seems from the description to have been a buckler. The ajgis appears to have been really the goat s skin used, as well as the skins of other animals, as a belt to support the shield. When so used it would usually be fastened on the right shoulder, and would partially envelope the chest as it passed obliquely round in front and behind to be attached to the shield under the left arm. Hence, by transference, it would be employed to denote at times the shield which it supported, and at other times a lorica or cuirass, the purpose of which it in part served. Illustrations of the assumption of the aegis by the Roman emperors may be seen in ancient statues and cameos. yEGISTHUS, in Ancient History, was the son of Thy- estes by his own daughter Pelopea, who to conceal her shame exposed him in the woods. Some say he was taken up by a shepherd and suckled by a goat ; whence he was called JEgisthus. After he grew up he was recognised by his father, and on the death of the latter he became king of Mycenae. He did not join the expedition against Troy; and after the departure of the expedition he seduced Clytemnestra, the wife of Agamemnon, and lived with her during the siege of Troy. Afterwards, with her assistance, he slew her husband, and reigned seven years in Mycenae. He was slain, together with Clytemnestra, by Orestes.