Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/565

AMPHICTYONIC COUNCIL. Androtion. We may at least be sure that the institution was one of great antiquity. Its importance (leelined in the course of time, and by the third century B.C. it had lost much of its old authority. The duties of the Council were primarily religious, and were connected with the care of the temple of Apollo at Delphi and the protection of the holy lands, treasures, and other perquisites of the god. It was also intrusted with the preparation and direction of the Pythian Games. The duty of protecting the property of Apollo carried with it the power to prosecute and punish all who in any way injured the majesty of the god. Thus the Council possessed important judicial rights, and, as it also had power to regulate matters relating to peace and war among the different members of the federation, it in time acquired political importance also. The members bound themselves by an oath not to destroy any city of the Amphictyons or cut off their streams in war or peace; also, if any State should break this oath, to unite in proceeding against and destroying such a State. There were in early times various other amphictyonies, or associations of tribes, among the Greeks, as at Argos, Delos, and elsewhere, but little is known of these. Consult: Tittmann, Ueber den Bund der Amphictyonen (Leipzig, 1880): and Freeman, History of Federal Government (2d ed. London, 1893).

AMPHIL'OCHUS (Gk. Ἀμφίλοχος, Amphilochos). In legend, a son of Amphiaraüs, and, like him, worshiped as a prophet at Oropus and elsewhere: one of the Epigoni (q.v.), and founder of Amphiloehian Argos in Ambracia, Another group of legends connected Amphilochus with Cilicia and Pamphylia, where he was said to have gone after the Trojan War, in which he took part as a suitor of Helen. With Nopsus, he founded Mallus, but later they quarreled and killed each other. Their graves were shown at Mallus, where was also an oracle of Amphilochus.

AM'PHINEU'RA (Gk. aiKpi, amphi, around + I'ei'poi; neuron, sinew, nerve). A class of mollusks, characterized by the peculiar arrange- ment of the nervous system. There are two lateral and two ventral nerve trunks bound to- gether by numerous commissures and provided with ganglion cells throughout their whole length. Anteriorly these cords pass into the cerebral ganglion, which, however, is often hardly more than the upper half of a ring which encir- cles the œsophagus. The araphineura are bi- laterally symmetrical and have the foot some- what like that of the gastropods. They either have a shell of eight pieces or there is no shell at all. They are all marine forms, chiefly of the warmer seas, and rarely reach a large size. There are two distinct orders, the Polyplacophora, or Chitons (q.v.), and the Aplacophora, or Soleno- gastres. The latter are degenerate, worm-like animals of small size, without a shell, the foot, mantle, and mantle-cavity greatly reduced, and in some forms almost wanting. Only a few re- cent species are known.

AMPHI'ON (Gk. Ἀμφίων). In mythology, son of Zeus and Antiope, twin brother of Zethus. The story of Antiope and her sons existed in many local forms, but the accepted version of later times was found in the Antiope of Euripides, of which only fragments have been preserved. Antiope, dragged from her refuge at Sicyon by her uncle, Lycus of Thebes, bore the twins on Mount Cithæron, where they were exposed, but found, and reared by a shepherd. Antiope, cruelly mistreated by Lycus and his wife Dirce, fled to the mountain, where she found her sons. To avenge her wrongs, the twins tied Dirce to the horns of a wild bull, and captured Lycus, who surrendered Thebes, which they fortified. Amphion charmed the stones into place by his lyre. The characters of the brothers are sharply contrasted: Zethus, the rough huntsman, and Amphion, the gentle musician. Aniphion and Zethus were honored at Thebes as Dioscuri, as Castor and Pollux at Sparta. Amphion married Niobe (q.v.), and was killed by Apollo, or committed suicide when his children were killed. The punishment of Dirce is the subject of a celebrated group of statuary — "The Farnese Bull" — by Apollonius and Tauriscus of Tralles, found in the Baths of Caracalla in Rome in 1546, and now in the Naples Museum. It is a work of the early part of the first century B.C., but has been much restored.

AM'PHIOX'US (Gk. i/x,pl, amphi, on both sides + iJ^i'f, ud:ys, sharp). A small, bilateral, translucent, marine animal, about two or three inches long, thought by some to be an offshoot of the primitive vertebrate stock, and by others to be a degenerate, primitive vertebrate. The amphioxus or "lancelet" has no well-defined brain, but a persistent and unsegmented noto- chord. The muscles are arranged in sixty-two V-shaped myomeres dovetailed into one another. The single mouth and anus are in the median line. There are no limbs, eyes, ears, sympathetic nerves, or genital ducts. The gill-slits, which are numerous and supported by bars, open from the mouth into the atrial chamber, which has one opening to the exterior, the atrial pore. The best-known species is Amphioxus lanceolatus, which dwells buried in sand near the seashore line. Its food, which consists mainly of diatoms, is sucked into its mouth. The adults swim about in the evening only, but the young are very ac- tive. The segmentation of the egg is complete, and results in the formation of a blastosphere, which invaginates to form a gastrula. The

AMPHIOXUS. 1. Ventral view of the entire animal lying on its side, 2. Side view, a, anterior end, showing cirri about the hooded mouth; b, caudal fin; c, anus; d, atripore or ex- current orifice for the water constantly taken in at the mouth: e, generative organs; n, notochord.

medullary groove is formed by a sinking of the ectoderm along the mid-dorsal line. The cavity of the gastrula becomes the gut of the adult. In the active early life of the embryo the ectoderm is ciliated. The simplicity of its development has made the amphioxus a favorite object of study for the descriptive and experimental embryologist. If the two cells which are the result of the first segmentation are separated, each cell will develop into a complete individual one-half the size of the normal embryo.