Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/296

Rh A G A A G A Aulis, whence they had set out, the fleet was storm-bound. He had slain a deer sacred to Artemis, and boasted himself a better hunter than the goddess. This, as Calchas the seer read the divine will, could only be atoned for by his offering up his daughter Iphigcnia in sacrifice. Compelled by his duty to the expedition, he allowed her to be sent for, the pretext given to Clytsemnestra being that she was to be married to Achilles. But when the moment of sacri- fice came, the goddess substituted a stag, carried her off to the Tauri, and made her immortal The fleet now sailed ; and except the quarrel between him and Achilles at Tenedus or Lemnus, there was no incident in which Agamemnon figured particularly, until, in one of the raids on the towns round Troy, Briseis and Chryseis were brought captives, and assigned, the former to Achilles, the latter to Aga memnon, who, having to yield up his captive to appease Apollo, claimed and took the other. Upon this Achilles withdrew from the war, and Agamemnon endeavoured at first to maintain it without him. In the face of disaster he repented, and offered reparation sending costly presents by the hands of Phoenix, Ajax, and Ulysses. His offer rejected, he took the field himself, and did marvels of bravery, but was wounded and defeated. When Troy was finally taken and the captives distributed, he obtained Cassandra, and with her returned home; but before sailing the shade of Achilles appeared to him, foretold what would happen, and sought to restrain him. In his absence Clytremnestra had yielded to the temptations of ^Egisthus, and, to cover her shame, planned with him the death of her husband. The approach of Agamemnon being an nounced by a spy, a feast and an affected welcome were prepared for him and his followers. At the feast they were fallen upon by hired murderers, assisted by vEgisthus and Clytsemnestra, the latter herself slaying Cassandra (Odyssey, iv. 512-537; xi. 385-461). According to ./Eschylus, Agamemnon was slain in his bath, his wife first throwing a piece of cloth over him to prevent resistance. For his death vengeance was taken by his son Orestes. In the legends of the Peloponnesus, Agamemnon was re garded as the highest type of a powerful monarch, and in Sparta he was worshipped under the title of Zeus Agamem non. His tomb was pointed out among the ruins of Mycenae (Pausanias ii. 16. 5). (A. s. M.) AGAPE, plur. AGAP^E, the love-feast, or feast of charity, which among the primitive Christians usually accompanied the Eucharist. The word (aya-n-r), love) is first employed in this sense in the Epistle of Jude, verse 12. The sug gestion of a connection between Christian love-feasts and the epavoi and eratptai of Greece and Rome is both im probable and unnecessary. The feelings of love and brotherhood fostered by the new faith, strengthened as these must have been by the complete isolation of the little Christian community, are quite sufficient to account for the existence of the Agapse, without referring them to other more or less similar institutions. According to Chrysostom, the Agape was a common feast, symbolising the community of goods when it no longer really existed, to which the rich brought provisions, and the poor, who brought nothing, were invited. At first it was observed probably every evening in immediate connection with the celebration of the Lord s Supper, though whether before or after is a point that has been much disputed. It closed with the holy kiss (&amp;lt;j&amp;gt;[Xrjfj.a ayiov, ^)tXT7/i,a ayaTnys). The Corinthian church was the first to pervert the Agape by destroying the community between rich and poor (1 Cor. xi. 21). Partly perhaps on account of such irregularities extending and partly to escape the notice of persecutors, it became usual about the middle of the 2d century to separate the Lord s Supper from the Agape by celebrating the former at the close of morning service on Sunday, and the latter by itself after a considerable interval. Abuses becoming more frequent, love-feasts were gradually put under greater restrictions. The rich began habitually to absent themselves from the Agapse, which came thus to be regarded as a provision for the poor alone ; and the Council of Gangra (360), to correct the abuse, pronounced an anathema upon any who should despise the Agapse. A number of synods and councils in succession condemned the holding of these feasts in churches, as well as the par ticipation of the clergy in them, and at length the observ ance altogether died out. In modern times it has been revived in one form or other by the Moravian Brethren, the Wesleyan Methodists, and, in Scotland, by the followers of Robert Sandeman. AGAPETUS, deacon of the St Sophia Church at Con stantinople, presented to the Emperor Justinian a work entitled Cliarta Regia, composed in 527, which con tained advice on the duties of a Christian prince. It is highly valued, and has been several times reprinted. The best edition is that contained in Bandauri s Impcrium Orientale (Paris, 1711). There is an English translation by Thomas Paynell (1550); and a French translation, executed from a Latin version by Louis XIII., with the assistance of his tutor, David Rivault. AGARDE, ARTHUR, a learned English antiquary, born at Foston, in Derbyshire, about 1540. He was trained a lawyer; but entering the exchequer as a clerk, he became deputy-chamberlain in 1570. This office, which he held for forty-five years, gave him unrivalled opportunities for carrying on his favourite study. Along with his intimate friends, Sir Robert Cotton and Camden, he was one of the original members of the Society of Antiquaries. He made a special study of the Domesday Book, and prepared an explanation of its more obscure terms, which is of little worth. Hearne, in his Collection of Curious Discourses u ritten by Eminent Antiquaries (Oxford, 1720), includes six by Agarde on such subjects as the origin of parliament, the antiquity of shires, the authority and privileges of heralds, &c. Agarde died in 1615, and was buried in the cloister of Westminster Abbey. He bequeathed to the exchequer all his papers relating to that court, and to his friend Sir Robert Cotton his other manuscripts, amounting to twenty volumes. AGASIAS, son of Dositheus, a famous sculptor of Ephesus, who is supposed to have lived about the 4th century. His celebrated work, known erroneously as the Boryhese Gladiator, was discovered at the commencement of the 13th century in the ruins of an imperial palace at Antium, where the Apollo Belvidere was also found. It represents a figure in action, with the head uplifted as if to meet the attack of a horseman. According to Winckel- mann, the representation of the figure is intensely real, without a touch of imagination. The statue forms part of the Louvre collection. AGASSIZ, Louis JOHN RUDOLPH, was the son of a Swiss Protestant clergyman. His father was the pastor of the parish of Metiers, a small town situated near the north eastern angle of the Little Murtensee, and not far from the eastern extremity of the Lake of Neuchatel. Agassiz was born at this retired place on May 28, 1807. Educated first at home, then spending four years at the gymnasium of Bienne, he completed his elementary studies at the academy of Lausanne. Whilst at this latter place he already be came conspicuous amongst his fellow-students, not only for his love of the natural sciences, but for the manifest talent he displayed in pursuing them. The close alliance between these subjects and the science of medicine led him to adopt the latter as his profession, for which he studied successively at the universities of Zurich, Heidelberg, and Munich; at the same time availing himself of the advantages afforded