Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/115

ACHILLEA. leaves were formerly used used for healing wounds, and are still so employed by the common people in the Highlands of Scotland and in some parts of the Continent of Europe. The expressed juice is a popular spring medicine in Germany. Yarrow is often sown along with grasses intended to form permanent pasture for sheep, but in the United States it is generally considered a weed in pastures. Achillea moschata, called Musk Milfoil, is cultivated as food for cattle in Switzerland. Achillea moschata, atrata, and nana — all natives of the Alps — are very aromatic, and hear the name of Genipi or Genip. The inhabitants of the Alps value them very highly, and use them for making what is called Swiss tea. Achillea nana is said to be used in making chartreuse. They are very stimulating and tonic; as are also Achillea setacea and Achillea nobilis, both natives of Switzerland and other middle parts of Europe, and Achillea ageratum, a native of the south of Kuroi)e. used by the French as a vulnerary, and called herbe au charpentier. Sneezewort (Achillea ptarmica) is a native of Europe, and somewhat introduced into the United States, one to three feet high, with lanceolate leaves, and much larger flowers than the common Milfoil. It grows in meadows and damp places. The root, which is aromatic, is used as a substitute for Pellitory of Spain, and the whole plant is pungent and provokes a flow of saliva.

ACHILLES, a-kil'lez (Gk. Ἀχιλλεύς, Achilleus). The hero of Homer's Iliad, and the type of glorious youth. In the Homeric poems his story is simple. The son of King Peleus and the sea-goddess Thetis, he was brought up at his father's court in Phthia until induced to take part in the Trojan War, preferring an early death with fame to a long but inglorious life. This fate gives Achilles a tinge of melancholy charac- teristic of the Greek mind. While the Greeks were in camp before Troy, Achilles plundered the surrounding country and secured as his booty the beautiful Briseis. The Iliad narrates the wrath of Achilles because Agamemnon deprived him of his fair slave to replace Chryseis, whom he had been forced to restore to her father in order to avert the wrath of Apollo from the Greeks. In the absence of Achilles the Trojans drive the Greeks to their ships, and their destruction is averted only when Achilles allows his friend, Patroclus, to lead his Myrmidons to the rescue. Pursuing the Trojans to their walls, Patroclus is slain by Hector, and Achilles, overwhelmed with grief, becomes reconciled with Agamemnon, that he may hasten to obtain revenge. He returns to the fight, and after driving the Trojans within the city, slays Hector and drags his body to the ships. After celebrating the funeral of Patroclus with great pomp, he yields to the command of Zeus and allows Priam to ransom the body of his son. In the Odyssey we have allusions to the death of Achilles, his splendid burial, and the renown of his son, Neoptolemus. Later epic poems and other compositions add many details. According to some, his mother rendered him invulnerable by dipping him in the River Styx; but his heel, by which she held him, was not immersed, and here he received his death wound from an arrow. He was educated by the centaur Chiron, and was afterward hidden by his mother at Sevros, among the daughters of Lycomedes. He was needed, however, in the expedition against Troy, and was detected by the craft of Odysseus, who offered a sword, as well as trinkets, to the maidens. When a trumpet sounded an alarm Achilles at once seized the sword, and, being recognized, was then easily induced to join the Greeks. His combats with Penthesilea, Queen of the Amazons, and with Memnon (q.v.), who came to aid Priam after the death of Hector, were favorite subjects with Greek artists. He met his death at the hands of Apollo and Paris before the Seæan gate, or in the temple of Apollo, where he had gone to meet Polyxena, daughter of Priam. She was slaughtered on his grave after the capture of Troy. After his death he was transported to the Islands of the Blessed, where he was united with Medea. Achilles was worshiped in Laconia and other parts of Greece, and it is probable that, like other Greek heroes, he was originally a god, honored especially by the Achæans of Phthiotis. See the articles and.

ACHILLES TATIUS, ta'shi-us (Gk. Ἀχιλλεὺς Τάτιος, Achilleus Tatios). A Greek writer, a native of Alexandria, who probably lived in the fifth or sixth century A.D. He was the author of a romance in eight books, entitled The History of Leucippe and Clitophon, in which he borrowed freely from the work of his predecessor Heliodorus, by whom alone he was surpassed in popularity. While his work is graceful in style, it is inferior to that of his model: and for us it is marred in passages by the grossest pagan immorality. It was, however, freely imitated by later writers, especially by Eustathius and Nieetes Eugenianus in the Byzantine period. Suidas says that the author became a Christian and attained to the office of bishop, but the truth of his statement is doubtful. The work has been edited with commentary by Jacobs (Leipzig, 1821); Hirschig (Paris, 1856); Hercher (Leipzig, 1858). Consult Rohde, Der griechische Roman und seine Vorläufer (Leipzig, 1876).

ACHILLES TEN'DON (Lat. Tendo Achillis). A tendon (a) which attaches the soleus (b) and gastrocnemius muscles of the calf of the leg to the heel-bone. It is capable of resisting a force equal to 1000 pounds weight, and yet is occasionally ruptured by the contraction of these muscles in sudden extension of the foot. The name was given with reference to the death of Achilles by a wound in the heel.

ACHILLES TENDON.

ACHIMENES, .•i-klm'^ nez (probably from Lat. Achæmenis, Gk. n,v"'/"'"'Vi achaimenis; an amber-col- ored plant in India used in magical arts). A genus of plants of the order Ges- neraceæ (q.v.), much culti- vated as a greenhouse herb. The species are numerous — natives of tropical Amer- ica. Achimenes is propa- gated either by the natural increase of the rhizome or by cuttings. If the rhizomes are potted by April 1, the drooping plant comes