Argus, a king of Argos, who reigned 70 years.——A son of Arestor, whence he is often called Arestorides. He married Ismene the daughter of the Asopus. As he had 100 eyes, of which only two were asleep at one time, Juno set him to watch Io, whom Jupiter had changed into a heifer: but Mercury, by order of Jupiter, slew him, by lulling all his eyes asleep with the sound of his lyre. Juno put the eyes of Argus on the tail of the peacock, a bird sacred to her divinity. Moschus, Idyl.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 1, fables 12 & 13.—Propertius, bk. 1, li. 585, &c.; poem 3.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 9; bk. 2, ch. 1.——A son of Agenor. Hyginus, fable 145.——A son of Danaus, who built the ship Argo. Hyginus, fable 14.——A Son of Jupiter and Niobe, the first child which the father of the gods had by a mortal. He built Argos, and married Evadne the daughter of Strymon. Hyginus, fable 145.——A son of Pyras and Callirhoe. Hyginus, fable 145.——A son of Phryxus. Hyginus, fable 3.——A son of Polybus. Hyginus, fable 14.——One of Actæon’s dogs. Apollodorus.——A dog of Ulysses, which knew his master after an absence of 20 years. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 17, li. 300.
Argyllæ, an ancient name of Cære in Etruria. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 652; bk. 8, li. 478.
Argynnis, a name of Venus, which she received from Argynnus, a favourite youth of Agamemnon, who was drowned in the Cephisus. Propertius, bk. 3, poem 5, li. 52.
Argy̆ra, a nymph greatly beloved by a shepherd called Selimnus. She was changed into a fountain, and the shepherd into a river of the same name, whose waters made lovers forget the object of their affections. See: [Selimnus]. Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 23.——A city of Troas.——Also the native place of Diodorus Siculus in Sicily.
Argy̆raspĭdes, a Macedonian legion which received this name from their silver helmets. Curtius, bk. 4, ch. 13.
Argy̆re, an island beyond the mouth of the river Indus, abounding in metal. Mela, bk. 3, ch. 7.
Argyrĭpa, a town of Apulia built by Diomedes after the Trojan war, and called by Polybius Argipana. Only ruins remain to show where it once stood, though the place still preserves the name of Arpi. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 11, li. 246.
Aria, a country of Asia, situate at the east of Parthia. Mela, bk. 1, ch. 2; bk. 2, ch. 7.——The wife of Pætus Cecinna of Padua, a Roman senator who was accused of conspiracy against Claudius, and carried to Rome by sea. She accompanied him, and in the boat she stabbed herself, and presented the sword to her husband, who followed her example. Pliny, bk. 7.
Ariadne, daughter of Minos II. king of Crete by Pasiphae, fell in love with Theseus, who was shut up in the labyrinth to be devoured by the Minotaur, and gave him a clue of thread, by which he extricated himself from the difficult windings of his confinement. After he had conquered the Minotaur, he carried her away according to the promise he had made, and married her; but when he arrived at the island of Naxos he forsook her, though she was already pregnant, and repaid his love with the most endearing tenderness. Ariadne was so disconsolate upon being abandoned by Theseus, that she hung herself, according to some; but Plutarch says that she lived many years after, and had some children by Onarus the priest of Bacchus. According to some writers, Bacchus loved her after Theseus had forsaken her, and he gave her a crown of seven stars, which, after her death, was made a constellation. The Argives showed Ariadne’s tomb, and when one of their temples was repaired, her ashes were found in an earthen urn. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 11, li. 320, says that Diana detained Ariadne at Naxos. Plutarch, Theseus.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 8, fable 2; Heroides, poem 10; De Ars Amatoria, bk. 2; Fasti, bk. 3, li. 462.—Catullus, Marriage of Peleus and Thetis; poem 61.—Hyginus, fables 14, 43, 270.—Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 1.
Ariæus, an officer who succeeded to the command of the surviving army after the death of Cyrus the younger, after the battle of Cunaxa. He made peace with Artaxerxes. Xenophon.