In this practice, how- Alcmene became the mother of
Heracles
by Zenis,
erer, he had been preceded by Archilochus, from and of Iphicles by Amphitryon.
erer, he had been preceded by Archilochus, from and of Iphicles by Amphitryon.
William Smith - 1844 - Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities - a
) The restored family
second branch, became a noble and the ancestor of the found themselves in an isolated position, between
Alcmeonidae. Alcmaeon was the great-grandson the nobles, who appear to have been opposed to
of Nestor. (Paus. ii. 18. $ 7. ) Among the archons them, and the popular party which had been hi-
for life, the sixth is named Megacles, and the last tberto attached to the Peisistratids. Cleisthenes,
Alcmacon. But, as the archons for life appear now the head of the Alcmaeonidae, joined the lat-
to have been always taken from the family of Meter party, and gave a new constitution to Atheus.
don, it is probable that these were only Alcmaeo- Further particulars respecting the family are
nids on the mother's side. The first remarkable given under the names of its members. (Herod.
man among the Alcmaeonids was the archon Me vi. 121-131 ; Pindar, Pyth. vii. , and Böckh's notes;
gacles, who brought upon the family the guilt of Clinton's Fasti, ii. p. 4, 299. ) [P. S. ]
sacrilege by his treatment of the insurgents under ALCMAN ('Annuav), called by the Attic and
Cylon. (B. C. 612. ) (Cimon MEGACLES. ] The ex- later Greek writers Alcmaeon ('Almpalwv), the
pulsion of the Alcmaeonids was now loudly de- chief lyric poet of Sparta, was by birth a Lydian
manded, and Solon, who probably saw in such an of Sardis. His father's name was Damas or Tita-
event an important step towards his intended re- rus. He was brought into Laconia as a slave, evi-
formis, advised them to submit their cause to a dently when very young. His master, whose
tribunal of three hundred nobles. The result was name was Agesidas, discovered his genius, and
that they were banished from Athens and retired emancipated him; and he then began to distinguish
to Phocis, probably about 596 or 595 B. C. Their himself as a lyric poet. (Suidas, s. r. ; Heraclid.
wealth having been augmented by the liberality of Pont. Pulit. p. 206 ; Vell. Pat. i. 18; Alcman, fr.
Croesus to Alcmaeon, the son of Megacles (ALC-11, Welcker; Epigrams by Alexander Aetolus,
MAEON), and their influence increased by the mar- Leonidas, and Antipater Thess. , in Jacob's Anthol.
riage of Megacles, the son of Alcmaeon, to Agariste, Graec. i. p. 207, No. 3, p. 175, No. 80, ii. p. 110,
the daughter of Cleisthenes, tyrant of Sicyon, they No. 56; in the Anthol. Palat. vii. 709, 19, 18. )
took advantage of the divided state of Athens, and in the epigram last cited it is said, that the two
by joining the party of Lycurgus, they effected continents strove for the honour of his birth; and
their return ; and shortly afterwards, by a similar Suidas (l. c. ) calls him a Laconian of Messoa,
union, they expelled Peisistratus soon after he had which may mean, however, that he was enrolled
seized the government. (B. c. 559. ) [Peisistratus) as a citizen of Messoa after his emancipation. The
This state of things did not last long; for, at the end above statements seem to be more in accordance
of five years, Megacles gave his daughter Coesyra in with the authorities than the opinion of Bode, that
marriage to Peisistratus, and assisted in his restora-Alcman's father was brought from Sardis to Sparta
tion to Athens. But a new quarrel immediately as a slave, and that Aleman himself was born at
arose out of the conduct of Peisistratus towards his Messoa. It is not known to what extent he ob
wife, and the Alcmaeonids once more expelled him. tained the rights of citizenship.
During the following ten years, Peisistratus col- The time at which Alcman lived is rendered
lected an army, with which he invaded Attica, somewhat doubtful by the different statements of
and defeated the Alcinaeonids, who were now once the Greek and Armenian copies of Eusebius, and
more driven into exile. They were, however, still of the chronographers who followed him. On the
formidable enemies. After the death of Hippar- whole, however, the Greek copy of Eusebius ap-
chus, they took possession of Lipsydicum, a fort- pears to be right in placing him at the second year
ress on the frontier of Attica, and made an at- of the twenty-seventh Olyinpiad. (B. C. 671. ) He
tempt to restore themselves, but were defeated by was contemporary with Ardys, king of Lydia,
Hippias. They had, however, a more important who reigned from 678 to 629, B. C. , with Lesches,
source of influence. In the year 548 B. C. the the author of the “ Little Iliad," and with 'Ter-
temple of Apollo at Delphi was burnt, and the pander, during the later years of these two poets ;
Alemaconids having contracted with the Amphic- he was older than Siesichorus, and he is said to
tyonic council to rebuild it, executed the work in have been the teacher of Arion. Froin these cir-
a style of magniticence which much exceeded their cumstances, and from the fact which we learn
engagement. They thus gained great popularity from himself (Fr. 29), that he lived to a great age,
throughout Greece, while they contrived to bring we may conclude, with Clinton, that he tourished
the Peisistratids into odiun loy charging them with from about 671 to about 63] B. C. (Clinton, l'usi.
having caused the fire. The oracle, besides, fa- ' i. pp. 189, 191, 365; Flermann, Antij. Lucon. PP
## p. 107 (#127) ############################################
ALCMAN.
107
ALCMENE.
76, 77. ) He is said to have died, like Sulli, of choral character we might conclude that they some-
the morbus pelicularis. (Aristot. llist. Anim. F. times bad an antistrophic forin, and this seems to
31 or 25; Plut. Sulla, 36 ; Plin. H. N. xi. 33. be confirmed by the statement of Hephaestion
§ 39. )
(p. 134, Gaisf. ), that he composed odes of fourteen
The period during which most of Alcman's strophes, in which there was a change of metre
poems were composed, was that which followed after the seventh strophe. There is no trace of an
the conclusion of the second Messenian war. Dur epode following the strophe and autistrophe, in his
ing this period of quict, the Spartans began to poems.
cherish that taste for the spiritual enjoyments of The dialect of Alcman was the Spartan Doric,
poctry, which, though felt hy them long before, with an intermixture of the Aeolic. The popular
had never attained to a high state of cultivation, idioms of Laconia appear most frequently in his
while their attention was absorbed in war. In more familiar poems.
this process of improvement Alcman was imme- The Alexandrian grammarians placed Alcman
diately preceded by Terpander, an Aeolian poet, at the head of their canon of the nine lyric poets.
who, before the year 676 B. C. , had removed from Among the proofs of his popularity may be men-
Lesbos to the mainland of Greece, and had intro tioned the tradition, that his songs were sung,
duced the Aeolian lyric into the Peloponnesus. with those of Terpander, at the first performance
This new style of poetry was speedily adapted to of the gymnopaedia at Sparta (B. C. 665, Aelian,
the choral form in which the Doric poetry had hither. V. H. xii
. 50), and the ascertained fact, that they
to been cast, and gradually supplanted that earlier were frequently afterwards used at that festivni.
style which was nearer to the epic. In the 33rd (Athen. xv. p. 678. ) The few fragments which
or 34th Olympiad, Terpander made his great im- remain scarcely allow us to judge how far he de-
provements in music. [TERPANDER. ) Hence served his reputation ; but some of them display a
arose the peculiar character of the poetry of his true poetical spirit.
younger contemporary, Alcman, which presented Alcman's poems comprised six books, the ex-
the choral lyric in the highest excellence which tant fragments of which are included in the col-
the music of Terpander enabled it to reach. But lections of Neander, H. Stephens, and Fulvius
Alcman had also an intimate acquaintance with Ursinus. The latest and best edition is that of
the Phrygian and Lydian styles of music, and he Welcker, Giessen, 1815.
[P. S. )
was himself the inventor of new forms of rhythm, ALCME'NE ('Alkuunn), a daughter of Elec-
some of which bore his name.
tryon, king of Messene, by Anaxo, the daughter
A large portion of Alcman's poetry was erotic. of Alcaeus. (Apollod. ii. 4. & 5. ) According to
In fact, he is said by some ancient writers to have other accounts her mother was called Lysidice
been the inventor of erotic poetry. (Athen. xüi. (Schol. ad Pind. Ol. vii. 49; Plut. Thes. 7), or
p. 600 ; Suidas, s. v. ). From his poems of this Eurydice. (Diod. iv. 9. ) The poet Asius repre-
class, which are marked by a freedom bordering on sented Alcmene as a daughter of Amphiaraus and
licentiousness, he obtained the epithets of “ sweet" Eriphyle. (Paus. v. 17. & 4. ) Apollodorus men-
and “ pleasant" (yukús, xapleis). Among these tions ten brothers of Alcmene, who, with the ex-
poems were many hymencal pieces. But the Par ception of one, Licymnius, fell in a contest with
thenia, which form a branch of Alcman's poems, the sons of Pterelaus, who had carried off the cattle
must not be confounded with the erotic. They of Electryon. Electryon, on setting out to avenge
were so called because they were composed for the the death of his sons, left his kingdom and his
purpose of being sung by choruses of virgins, and daughter Alcmene to Amphitryon, who, unin-
not on account of their subjects, which were very tentionally, killed Electryon. Sthenelus there
various, sometimes indeed erotic, but often reli- upon expelled Amphitryon, who, together with
gious. Alcman's other poems embrace hymns to Alcmene and Licymnius, went to Thebes. Alc-
the gods, Paeans, Prosodia, songs adapted for diffe mene declared that she would marry him who
rent religious festivals, and short ethical or philo should avenge the death of her brothers. Amphi-
sophical pieces. It is disputed whether he wrote tryon undertook the task, and invited Creon of
any of those Anapaestic war-songs, or marches, Thebes to assist him. During his absence, Zeus,
which were called èubatúpia ; but it seems very in the disguise of Amphitryon, visited Alcmene,
unlikely that he should have neglected a kind of and, pretending to be her husband, related to her
composition which had been rendered so popular in what way he had avenged the death of her
by 'Tyrtaeus.
brothers. (Apollod. ii. 4. § 6–8; Ov. Amor. i.
llis metres are very various. He is said by 13. 45; Diod. iv. 9; Hygin. Fab. 29; Lucian,
Suidas to have been the first poet who composed Dialog. Deor. 10. ) When Amphitryon himself
any verses but dactylic hexameters. This state- returned on the next day and wanted to give an
nient is incorrect; but Suidas seems to refer to the account of his achievements, she was surprised at
shorter dactylic lines into which Alcman broke up the repetition, but Teiresias solved the mystery.
the Homeric hexameter.
In this practice, how- Alcmene became the mother of Heracles by Zenis,
erer, he had been preceded by Archilochus, from and of Iphicles by Amphitryon. Hera, jealous
whom he borrowed several others of his peculiar of Alcmene, delayed the birth of Heracles for
metres: others he invented bimself. Among his seven days, that Eurysthens might be born first,
metres we find various forms of the dactylic, ana- and thus be entitled to greater rights, according to
paestic, trochaic, and iambic, as well as lines com- a vow of Zeus himself. (Hom. Il. xix. 95, &c. ;
posed of different metres, for example, iambic and Ov. Met. ix. 273, &c. ; Diod. l. c. ) After the
anapestic. The Cretic hexameter was named death of Amphitryon, Alcmene married Rhadaman-
Alemanic, from his being its inventor. The poems thys, a son of Zeus, at Ocalein in Boeotia. (Apollod.
of Alcman were chiefly in strophes, composed of ii. 4. § 11. ) After Heracles was mised to the
lices sometimes of the same metre throughout the rank of a god, Alemenc and his sons, in dread of
strophe, sometimes of different metres. l'rom their Eurystheus, fied to Trachis, and thence to Athens,
## p. 108 (#128) ############################################
108
ALCYONE.
ALEA.
oneus.
and when Ilyllus had cut off the head of Eurys-11. A Plejad, a daughter of Atlas and Pleionc, by
theus, Alcmene satisfied her revenge by picking whom l'oscidon begot Aethus. Hyrieus and Hya
the eyes out of the head. (Apollod. ii. 8. § 1. ) perenor. (Apollod. iii. 10. § 1; Hygil. . l'ruif.
The accounts of her death are very discrepant. Ful. p. 11, ed. Suveren; Ov. Heroid. xix. 133. )
According to Pausanias (i. 41. & 1), she died in To these children Pausanias (ii. 30. $ 7) adds two
Megaris, on her way from Argos to Thebes, and others, Hyperes and Anthas.
as the sons of Heracles disagreed as to whether 2. A daughter of Aeolus and Enarete or Aegiale.
she was to be carried to Argos or to Thebes, she She was married to Ceyx, and lived so happy with
was buried in the place where she had died, at the him, that they were presumptuous enough to call
command of an oracle. According to Plutarch, each other Zeus and Heram for which Zeus meta-
(De Gen. Socr. p. 578,) her tomb and that of Rhada- morphosed them into birds, darvar and anus.
manthys were at Haliartus in Boeotia, and hers (Apollod. i. 7. 8 3, &c. ; Hygin. Fab. 65. ) Hyginus
was opened by Agesilaus, for the purpose of carry relates that Ceyx perished in a shipwreck, that
ing ber remains to Sparta. According to Phere- Alcyone for grief threw herself into the sea, and
cydes (Cap. Anton. Lit. 33), she lived with her that the gods, out of compassion, changed the two
sons, after the death of Eurystheus, at Thebes, into birds. It was fabled, that during the seven
and died there at an advanced age. When the days before, and as many after, the shortest day of
sons of Heracles wished to bury her, Zeus sent the year, while the bird akvuv was breeding,
Hermes to take her body away, and to carry it to there always prevailed calms at sea. An embel-
the islands of the blessed, and give her in marriage lished form of the same story is given by Ovid.
there to Rhadamanthys. Hermes accordingly took (Met. xi. 410, &c. ; comp. Virg. Geory. i. 399. )
her out of her coffin, and put into it a stone so 3. A surname of Cleopatra, the wife of Melea-
heavy that the Heraclids could not move it from ger, who died with grief at her husband being
the spot. When, on opening the coffin, they found killed by Apollo. (Hom. I. ix. 562; Eustath.
the stone, they erected it in a grove near Thebes, ad Iom. p. 776 ; Hygin. Fub. 174. ) [L. S. ).
which in later times contained the sanctuary of ALCY'ONEUS ('AA voreús). 1. A giant, who
Alcmene. (Paus. ix. 16. $ 4. ) At Athens, too, kept possession of the Isthmus of Corinth at the
she was worshipped as a heroine, and an altar was time when Heracles drove away the oxen of
erected to her in the temple of Heracles. (Cynosarges, Geryon. The giant attacked him, crushed twelve
Paus. i. 19. & 3. ) She was represented on the chest waggons and twenty-four of the men of Heracles
of Cypselus (Paus. v. 18. & 1), and epic as well as with a huge block of stone. Heracles himself
tragic poets made frequent use of her story, though warded off the stone with his club and slew Alcy-
no poem of the kind is now extant. (Hes. Scut. Herc. The block, with which the giant had ai-
init. ; Paus. v. 17. § 4, 18. § 1. ) (L. S. ) tempted the life of Heracles, was shewn on the
ALCON or ALCO ("Akwv). 1. A son of Hip | Isthmus down to a very late period. (Pind. Nem.
pocoon, and one of the Calydonian hunters, was iv. 44, with the Schol. ) In another passage (Isth.
killed, together with his father and brothers, by vi. 45, &c. ) Pindar calls Alcyoneus a Thracian
Heracles, and baul a heroum at Sparta. (Apollod. shepherd, and places the struggle with him in the
ii. 10. $ 5; Hygin. Fab. 173; Paus. ii. 14. $ 7, Phlegraean plains.
15. § 3. )
2. One of the giants. (GIGANTES. ) (L. S. )
2. A son of Erechtheus, king of Athens, and ALCYONIDES ('AA KUovides), the daughters
father of Phalerus the Argonaut. (Apollon. Rhod. of the giant Alcyoneus (2). After their father's
i. 97; Hygin. Fab. 14. ) Valerius Flaccus (i. 399, death, they threw themselves into the sea, and
&c. ) represents him as such a skilful archer, that were changed into ice-birds. Their names are
once, when a serpent bad entwined his son, he Phthonján Anthe, Methone, Alcippe, Pallene,
shot the serpent without hurting his child. Virgil Drimo, and Asteria (Eustath. ad Hom. p. 776;
(Eclog. v. 11) mentions an Alcon, whom Servius Suidas, s. v. 'Alvovides. )
(L. S. ]
calls a Cretan, and of whom he relates almost the A'LEA ('Alba), a sumame of Athena, under
same story as that which Valerius Flaccus ascribes which she was worshipped at Alea, Mantineia,
to Alcon, the son of Erechtheus.
and Tegea. (Paus. viii. 23. & 1, 9. $ 3, ii. 17. $ 7. )
Two other personages of the same name occur in The temple of Athena Alea at Tegea, which was
Cicero (de Nat. Deor. iii. 21), and in Hyginus. the oldest, was said to have been built by Aleus,
(Fab. 173. )
(L. S. ] the son of Apheidas, from whom the goddess pro-
ALCON, a surgeon (vulnerum medicus) at Rome bably derived this surname. (Paus. viii. 4. & 5. )
in the reign of Claudius, a.
second branch, became a noble and the ancestor of the found themselves in an isolated position, between
Alcmeonidae. Alcmaeon was the great-grandson the nobles, who appear to have been opposed to
of Nestor. (Paus. ii. 18. $ 7. ) Among the archons them, and the popular party which had been hi-
for life, the sixth is named Megacles, and the last tberto attached to the Peisistratids. Cleisthenes,
Alcmacon. But, as the archons for life appear now the head of the Alcmaeonidae, joined the lat-
to have been always taken from the family of Meter party, and gave a new constitution to Atheus.
don, it is probable that these were only Alcmaeo- Further particulars respecting the family are
nids on the mother's side. The first remarkable given under the names of its members. (Herod.
man among the Alcmaeonids was the archon Me vi. 121-131 ; Pindar, Pyth. vii. , and Böckh's notes;
gacles, who brought upon the family the guilt of Clinton's Fasti, ii. p. 4, 299. ) [P. S. ]
sacrilege by his treatment of the insurgents under ALCMAN ('Annuav), called by the Attic and
Cylon. (B. C. 612. ) (Cimon MEGACLES. ] The ex- later Greek writers Alcmaeon ('Almpalwv), the
pulsion of the Alcmaeonids was now loudly de- chief lyric poet of Sparta, was by birth a Lydian
manded, and Solon, who probably saw in such an of Sardis. His father's name was Damas or Tita-
event an important step towards his intended re- rus. He was brought into Laconia as a slave, evi-
formis, advised them to submit their cause to a dently when very young. His master, whose
tribunal of three hundred nobles. The result was name was Agesidas, discovered his genius, and
that they were banished from Athens and retired emancipated him; and he then began to distinguish
to Phocis, probably about 596 or 595 B. C. Their himself as a lyric poet. (Suidas, s. r. ; Heraclid.
wealth having been augmented by the liberality of Pont. Pulit. p. 206 ; Vell. Pat. i. 18; Alcman, fr.
Croesus to Alcmaeon, the son of Megacles (ALC-11, Welcker; Epigrams by Alexander Aetolus,
MAEON), and their influence increased by the mar- Leonidas, and Antipater Thess. , in Jacob's Anthol.
riage of Megacles, the son of Alcmaeon, to Agariste, Graec. i. p. 207, No. 3, p. 175, No. 80, ii. p. 110,
the daughter of Cleisthenes, tyrant of Sicyon, they No. 56; in the Anthol. Palat. vii. 709, 19, 18. )
took advantage of the divided state of Athens, and in the epigram last cited it is said, that the two
by joining the party of Lycurgus, they effected continents strove for the honour of his birth; and
their return ; and shortly afterwards, by a similar Suidas (l. c. ) calls him a Laconian of Messoa,
union, they expelled Peisistratus soon after he had which may mean, however, that he was enrolled
seized the government. (B. c. 559. ) [Peisistratus) as a citizen of Messoa after his emancipation. The
This state of things did not last long; for, at the end above statements seem to be more in accordance
of five years, Megacles gave his daughter Coesyra in with the authorities than the opinion of Bode, that
marriage to Peisistratus, and assisted in his restora-Alcman's father was brought from Sardis to Sparta
tion to Athens. But a new quarrel immediately as a slave, and that Aleman himself was born at
arose out of the conduct of Peisistratus towards his Messoa. It is not known to what extent he ob
wife, and the Alcmaeonids once more expelled him. tained the rights of citizenship.
During the following ten years, Peisistratus col- The time at which Alcman lived is rendered
lected an army, with which he invaded Attica, somewhat doubtful by the different statements of
and defeated the Alcinaeonids, who were now once the Greek and Armenian copies of Eusebius, and
more driven into exile. They were, however, still of the chronographers who followed him. On the
formidable enemies. After the death of Hippar- whole, however, the Greek copy of Eusebius ap-
chus, they took possession of Lipsydicum, a fort- pears to be right in placing him at the second year
ress on the frontier of Attica, and made an at- of the twenty-seventh Olyinpiad. (B. C. 671. ) He
tempt to restore themselves, but were defeated by was contemporary with Ardys, king of Lydia,
Hippias. They had, however, a more important who reigned from 678 to 629, B. C. , with Lesches,
source of influence. In the year 548 B. C. the the author of the “ Little Iliad," and with 'Ter-
temple of Apollo at Delphi was burnt, and the pander, during the later years of these two poets ;
Alemaconids having contracted with the Amphic- he was older than Siesichorus, and he is said to
tyonic council to rebuild it, executed the work in have been the teacher of Arion. Froin these cir-
a style of magniticence which much exceeded their cumstances, and from the fact which we learn
engagement. They thus gained great popularity from himself (Fr. 29), that he lived to a great age,
throughout Greece, while they contrived to bring we may conclude, with Clinton, that he tourished
the Peisistratids into odiun loy charging them with from about 671 to about 63] B. C. (Clinton, l'usi.
having caused the fire. The oracle, besides, fa- ' i. pp. 189, 191, 365; Flermann, Antij. Lucon. PP
## p. 107 (#127) ############################################
ALCMAN.
107
ALCMENE.
76, 77. ) He is said to have died, like Sulli, of choral character we might conclude that they some-
the morbus pelicularis. (Aristot. llist. Anim. F. times bad an antistrophic forin, and this seems to
31 or 25; Plut. Sulla, 36 ; Plin. H. N. xi. 33. be confirmed by the statement of Hephaestion
§ 39. )
(p. 134, Gaisf. ), that he composed odes of fourteen
The period during which most of Alcman's strophes, in which there was a change of metre
poems were composed, was that which followed after the seventh strophe. There is no trace of an
the conclusion of the second Messenian war. Dur epode following the strophe and autistrophe, in his
ing this period of quict, the Spartans began to poems.
cherish that taste for the spiritual enjoyments of The dialect of Alcman was the Spartan Doric,
poctry, which, though felt hy them long before, with an intermixture of the Aeolic. The popular
had never attained to a high state of cultivation, idioms of Laconia appear most frequently in his
while their attention was absorbed in war. In more familiar poems.
this process of improvement Alcman was imme- The Alexandrian grammarians placed Alcman
diately preceded by Terpander, an Aeolian poet, at the head of their canon of the nine lyric poets.
who, before the year 676 B. C. , had removed from Among the proofs of his popularity may be men-
Lesbos to the mainland of Greece, and had intro tioned the tradition, that his songs were sung,
duced the Aeolian lyric into the Peloponnesus. with those of Terpander, at the first performance
This new style of poetry was speedily adapted to of the gymnopaedia at Sparta (B. C. 665, Aelian,
the choral form in which the Doric poetry had hither. V. H. xii
. 50), and the ascertained fact, that they
to been cast, and gradually supplanted that earlier were frequently afterwards used at that festivni.
style which was nearer to the epic. In the 33rd (Athen. xv. p. 678. ) The few fragments which
or 34th Olympiad, Terpander made his great im- remain scarcely allow us to judge how far he de-
provements in music. [TERPANDER. ) Hence served his reputation ; but some of them display a
arose the peculiar character of the poetry of his true poetical spirit.
younger contemporary, Alcman, which presented Alcman's poems comprised six books, the ex-
the choral lyric in the highest excellence which tant fragments of which are included in the col-
the music of Terpander enabled it to reach. But lections of Neander, H. Stephens, and Fulvius
Alcman had also an intimate acquaintance with Ursinus. The latest and best edition is that of
the Phrygian and Lydian styles of music, and he Welcker, Giessen, 1815.
[P. S. )
was himself the inventor of new forms of rhythm, ALCME'NE ('Alkuunn), a daughter of Elec-
some of which bore his name.
tryon, king of Messene, by Anaxo, the daughter
A large portion of Alcman's poetry was erotic. of Alcaeus. (Apollod. ii. 4. & 5. ) According to
In fact, he is said by some ancient writers to have other accounts her mother was called Lysidice
been the inventor of erotic poetry. (Athen. xüi. (Schol. ad Pind. Ol. vii. 49; Plut. Thes. 7), or
p. 600 ; Suidas, s. v. ). From his poems of this Eurydice. (Diod. iv. 9. ) The poet Asius repre-
class, which are marked by a freedom bordering on sented Alcmene as a daughter of Amphiaraus and
licentiousness, he obtained the epithets of “ sweet" Eriphyle. (Paus. v. 17. & 4. ) Apollodorus men-
and “ pleasant" (yukús, xapleis). Among these tions ten brothers of Alcmene, who, with the ex-
poems were many hymencal pieces. But the Par ception of one, Licymnius, fell in a contest with
thenia, which form a branch of Alcman's poems, the sons of Pterelaus, who had carried off the cattle
must not be confounded with the erotic. They of Electryon. Electryon, on setting out to avenge
were so called because they were composed for the the death of his sons, left his kingdom and his
purpose of being sung by choruses of virgins, and daughter Alcmene to Amphitryon, who, unin-
not on account of their subjects, which were very tentionally, killed Electryon. Sthenelus there
various, sometimes indeed erotic, but often reli- upon expelled Amphitryon, who, together with
gious. Alcman's other poems embrace hymns to Alcmene and Licymnius, went to Thebes. Alc-
the gods, Paeans, Prosodia, songs adapted for diffe mene declared that she would marry him who
rent religious festivals, and short ethical or philo should avenge the death of her brothers. Amphi-
sophical pieces. It is disputed whether he wrote tryon undertook the task, and invited Creon of
any of those Anapaestic war-songs, or marches, Thebes to assist him. During his absence, Zeus,
which were called èubatúpia ; but it seems very in the disguise of Amphitryon, visited Alcmene,
unlikely that he should have neglected a kind of and, pretending to be her husband, related to her
composition which had been rendered so popular in what way he had avenged the death of her
by 'Tyrtaeus.
brothers. (Apollod. ii. 4. § 6–8; Ov. Amor. i.
llis metres are very various. He is said by 13. 45; Diod. iv. 9; Hygin. Fab. 29; Lucian,
Suidas to have been the first poet who composed Dialog. Deor. 10. ) When Amphitryon himself
any verses but dactylic hexameters. This state- returned on the next day and wanted to give an
nient is incorrect; but Suidas seems to refer to the account of his achievements, she was surprised at
shorter dactylic lines into which Alcman broke up the repetition, but Teiresias solved the mystery.
the Homeric hexameter.
In this practice, how- Alcmene became the mother of Heracles by Zenis,
erer, he had been preceded by Archilochus, from and of Iphicles by Amphitryon. Hera, jealous
whom he borrowed several others of his peculiar of Alcmene, delayed the birth of Heracles for
metres: others he invented bimself. Among his seven days, that Eurysthens might be born first,
metres we find various forms of the dactylic, ana- and thus be entitled to greater rights, according to
paestic, trochaic, and iambic, as well as lines com- a vow of Zeus himself. (Hom. Il. xix. 95, &c. ;
posed of different metres, for example, iambic and Ov. Met. ix. 273, &c. ; Diod. l. c. ) After the
anapestic. The Cretic hexameter was named death of Amphitryon, Alcmene married Rhadaman-
Alemanic, from his being its inventor. The poems thys, a son of Zeus, at Ocalein in Boeotia. (Apollod.
of Alcman were chiefly in strophes, composed of ii. 4. § 11. ) After Heracles was mised to the
lices sometimes of the same metre throughout the rank of a god, Alemenc and his sons, in dread of
strophe, sometimes of different metres. l'rom their Eurystheus, fied to Trachis, and thence to Athens,
## p. 108 (#128) ############################################
108
ALCYONE.
ALEA.
oneus.
and when Ilyllus had cut off the head of Eurys-11. A Plejad, a daughter of Atlas and Pleionc, by
theus, Alcmene satisfied her revenge by picking whom l'oscidon begot Aethus. Hyrieus and Hya
the eyes out of the head. (Apollod. ii. 8. § 1. ) perenor. (Apollod. iii. 10. § 1; Hygil. . l'ruif.
The accounts of her death are very discrepant. Ful. p. 11, ed. Suveren; Ov. Heroid. xix. 133. )
According to Pausanias (i. 41. & 1), she died in To these children Pausanias (ii. 30. $ 7) adds two
Megaris, on her way from Argos to Thebes, and others, Hyperes and Anthas.
as the sons of Heracles disagreed as to whether 2. A daughter of Aeolus and Enarete or Aegiale.
she was to be carried to Argos or to Thebes, she She was married to Ceyx, and lived so happy with
was buried in the place where she had died, at the him, that they were presumptuous enough to call
command of an oracle. According to Plutarch, each other Zeus and Heram for which Zeus meta-
(De Gen. Socr. p. 578,) her tomb and that of Rhada- morphosed them into birds, darvar and anus.
manthys were at Haliartus in Boeotia, and hers (Apollod. i. 7. 8 3, &c. ; Hygin. Fab. 65. ) Hyginus
was opened by Agesilaus, for the purpose of carry relates that Ceyx perished in a shipwreck, that
ing ber remains to Sparta. According to Phere- Alcyone for grief threw herself into the sea, and
cydes (Cap. Anton. Lit. 33), she lived with her that the gods, out of compassion, changed the two
sons, after the death of Eurystheus, at Thebes, into birds. It was fabled, that during the seven
and died there at an advanced age. When the days before, and as many after, the shortest day of
sons of Heracles wished to bury her, Zeus sent the year, while the bird akvuv was breeding,
Hermes to take her body away, and to carry it to there always prevailed calms at sea. An embel-
the islands of the blessed, and give her in marriage lished form of the same story is given by Ovid.
there to Rhadamanthys. Hermes accordingly took (Met. xi. 410, &c. ; comp. Virg. Geory. i. 399. )
her out of her coffin, and put into it a stone so 3. A surname of Cleopatra, the wife of Melea-
heavy that the Heraclids could not move it from ger, who died with grief at her husband being
the spot. When, on opening the coffin, they found killed by Apollo. (Hom. I. ix. 562; Eustath.
the stone, they erected it in a grove near Thebes, ad Iom. p. 776 ; Hygin. Fub. 174. ) [L. S. ).
which in later times contained the sanctuary of ALCY'ONEUS ('AA voreús). 1. A giant, who
Alcmene. (Paus. ix. 16. $ 4. ) At Athens, too, kept possession of the Isthmus of Corinth at the
she was worshipped as a heroine, and an altar was time when Heracles drove away the oxen of
erected to her in the temple of Heracles. (Cynosarges, Geryon. The giant attacked him, crushed twelve
Paus. i. 19. & 3. ) She was represented on the chest waggons and twenty-four of the men of Heracles
of Cypselus (Paus. v. 18. & 1), and epic as well as with a huge block of stone. Heracles himself
tragic poets made frequent use of her story, though warded off the stone with his club and slew Alcy-
no poem of the kind is now extant. (Hes. Scut. Herc. The block, with which the giant had ai-
init. ; Paus. v. 17. § 4, 18. § 1. ) (L. S. ) tempted the life of Heracles, was shewn on the
ALCON or ALCO ("Akwv). 1. A son of Hip | Isthmus down to a very late period. (Pind. Nem.
pocoon, and one of the Calydonian hunters, was iv. 44, with the Schol. ) In another passage (Isth.
killed, together with his father and brothers, by vi. 45, &c. ) Pindar calls Alcyoneus a Thracian
Heracles, and baul a heroum at Sparta. (Apollod. shepherd, and places the struggle with him in the
ii. 10. $ 5; Hygin. Fab. 173; Paus. ii. 14. $ 7, Phlegraean plains.
15. § 3. )
2. One of the giants. (GIGANTES. ) (L. S. )
2. A son of Erechtheus, king of Athens, and ALCYONIDES ('AA KUovides), the daughters
father of Phalerus the Argonaut. (Apollon. Rhod. of the giant Alcyoneus (2). After their father's
i. 97; Hygin. Fab. 14. ) Valerius Flaccus (i. 399, death, they threw themselves into the sea, and
&c. ) represents him as such a skilful archer, that were changed into ice-birds. Their names are
once, when a serpent bad entwined his son, he Phthonján Anthe, Methone, Alcippe, Pallene,
shot the serpent without hurting his child. Virgil Drimo, and Asteria (Eustath. ad Hom. p. 776;
(Eclog. v. 11) mentions an Alcon, whom Servius Suidas, s. v. 'Alvovides. )
(L. S. ]
calls a Cretan, and of whom he relates almost the A'LEA ('Alba), a sumame of Athena, under
same story as that which Valerius Flaccus ascribes which she was worshipped at Alea, Mantineia,
to Alcon, the son of Erechtheus.
and Tegea. (Paus. viii. 23. & 1, 9. $ 3, ii. 17. $ 7. )
Two other personages of the same name occur in The temple of Athena Alea at Tegea, which was
Cicero (de Nat. Deor. iii. 21), and in Hyginus. the oldest, was said to have been built by Aleus,
(Fab. 173. )
(L. S. ] the son of Apheidas, from whom the goddess pro-
ALCON, a surgeon (vulnerum medicus) at Rome bably derived this surname. (Paus. viii. 4. & 5. )
in the reign of Claudius, a.
