Agylla, a town of Etruria, founded by a colony of Pelasgians, and governed by Mezentius when Æneas came to Italy. It was afterwards called Cære, by the Lydians, who took possession of it. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 652; bk. 8, li. 479.
Agyllæus, a gigantic wrestler of Cleonæ, scarce inferior to Hercules in strength. Statius, Thebiad, bk. 6, li. 837.
Agyrium, a town of Sicily, where Diodorus the historian was born. The inhabitants were called Agyrinenses. Diodorus, bk. 14.—Cicero, Against Verres, bk. 2, ch. 65.
Agyrius, an Athenian general who succeeded Thrasybulus. Diodorus, bk. 14.
Agyrtes, a man who killed his father. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 5, li. 148.——A piper. [♦]Statius, bk. 2, Achilleis, li. 50.
[♦] ‘Sil.’ replaced with ‘Statius’
Agȳrus, a tyrant of Sicily, assisted by Dionysius against the Carthaginians. Diodorus, bk. 14.
Ahāla, the surname of the Servilii at Rome.
Ahenobarbus. See: [Ænobarbus].
Ajax, the son of Telamon by Peribœa or Eribœa daughter of Alcathous, was, next to Achilles, the bravest of all the Greeks in the Trojan war. He engaged Hector, with whom at parting he exchanged arms. After the death of Achilles, Ajax and Ulysses disputed their claim to the arms of the dead hero. When they were given to the latter, Ajax was so enraged that he slaughtered a whole flock of sheep, supposing them to be the sons of Atreus, who had given the preference to Ulysses, and stabbed himself with his sword. The blood which ran to the ground from the wound, was changed into the flower hyacinth. Some say that he was killed by Paris in battle, others that he was murdered by Ulysses. His body was buried at Sigæum, some say on mount Rhœtus, and his tomb was visited and honoured by Alexander. Hercules, according to some authors, prayed to the gods that his friend Telamon, who was childless, might have a son, with a skin as impenetrable as the skin of the Nemæan lion which he then wore. His prayers were heard. Jupiter, under the form of an eagle, promised to grant the petition; and when Ajax was born, Hercules wrapped him up in the lion’s skin, which rendered his body invulnerable, except that part which was left uncovered by a hole in the skin, through which Hercules hung his quiver. This vulnerable part was in his breast, or as some say behind the neck. Quintus Calaber [Smyrnæus], bks. 1 & 4.—Apollodorus, bk. 3, chs. 10 & 13.—Philostratus, Heroicus, ch. 12.—Pindar, Isthmean, ode 6.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 1, &c.; Odyssey, bk. 11.—Dictys Cretensis, bk. 5.—Dares Phrygius, ch. 9.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 13.—Horace, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 197.—Hyginus, fables 107 & 242.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 35; bk. 5, ch. 19.——The son of Oileus king of Locris, was surnamed Locrian, in contradistinction to the son of Telamon. He went with 40 ships to the Trojan war, as being one of Helen’s suitors. The night that Troy was taken, he offered violence to Cassandra, who fled into Minerva’s temple; and for this offence, as he returned home, the goddess, who had obtained the thunders of Jupiter, and the power of tempests from Neptune, destroyed his ship in a storm. Ajax swam to a rock, and said that he was safe in spite of all the gods. Such impiety offended Neptune, who struck the rock with his trident, and Ajax tumbled into the sea with part of the rock and was drowned. His body was afterwards found by the Greeks, and black sheep offered on his tomb. According to Virgil’s account, Minerva seized him in a whirlwind, and dashed him against a rock, where he expired, consumed by thunder. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 1, li. 43, &c.—Homer, Iliad, bks. 2, 13, &c.; Odyssey, bk. 4.—Hyginus, fables 116 & 273.—Philostratus, Imagines, bk. 2, ch. 13.—Seneca, Agamemnon.—Horace, Epodes, poem 10, li. 13.—Pausanias, bk. 10, chs. 26 & 31.——The two Ajaces were, as some suppose, placed after death in the island of Leuce, a separate place reserved only for the bravest heroes of antiquity.