Alcmæŏnĭdæ, a noble family of Athens, descended from Alcmæon. They undertook for 300 talents to rebuild the temple of Delphi, which had been burnt, and they finished the work in a more splendid manner than was required, in consequence of which they gained popularity, and by their influence the Pythia prevailed upon the Lacedæmonians to deliver their country from the tyranny of the Pisistratidæ. Herodotus, bks. 5 & 6.—Thucydides, bk. 6, ch. 59.—Plutarch, Solon.
Alcman, a very ancient lyric poet, born in Sardinia, and not at Lacedæmon, as some suppose. He wrote in the Doric dialect six books of verses, besides a play called Colymbosas. He flourished B.C. 670, and died of the lousy disease. Some of his verses are preserved by Athenæus and others. Pliny, bk. 11, ch. 33.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 41; bk. 3, ch. 15.—Aristotle, History of Animals, bk. 5, ch. 31.
Alcmēna, was daughter of Electryon king of Argos, by Anaxo, whom Plutarch, [♦]Theseus calls Lysidice, and Diodorus, bk. 2, Eurymede. Her father promised his crown and his daughter to Amphitryon, if he would revenge the death of his sons, who had been all killed, except Licymnius, by the Teleboans, a people of Ætolia. While Amphitryon was gone against the Ætolians, Jupiter, who was enamoured of Alcmena, resolved to introduce himself into her bed. The more effectually to insure success in his amour, he assumed the form of Amphitryon, declared that he had obtained a victory over Alcmena’s enemies, and even presented her with a cup, which he said he had preserved from the spoils for her sake. Alcmena yielded to her lover what she had promised to her future husband; and Jupiter, to delay the return of Amphitryon, ordered his messenger, Mercury, to stop the rising of Phœbus, or the sun, so that the night he passed with Alcmena was prolonged to three long nights. Amphitryon returned the next day; and after complaining of the coldness with which he was received, Alcmena acquainted him with the reception of a false lover the preceding night, and even showed him the cup which she had received. Amphitryon was perplexed at the relation, and more so upon missing the cup from among his spoils. He went to the prophet Tiresias, who told him of Jupiter’s intrigue; and he returned to his wife proud of the dignity of his rival. Alcmena became pregnant by Jupiter, and afterwards by her husband; and when she was going to bring forth, Jupiter boasted in heaven that a child was to be born that day to whom he would give absolute power over his neighbours, and even over all the children of his own blood. Juno, who was jealous of Jupiter’s amours with Alcmena, made him swear by the Styx, and immediately prolonged the travails of Alcmena, and hastened the bringing forth of the wife of Sthenelus king of Argos, who, after a pregnancy of seven months, had a son called Eurystheus. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 8, fable 5, &c., says that Juno was assisted by Lucina to put off the bringing forth of Alcmena, and that Lucina, in the form of an old woman, sat before the door of Amphitryon with her legs and arms crossed. This posture was the cause of infinite torment to Alcmena, till her servant, Galanthis, supposing the old woman to be a witch, and to be the cause of the pains of her mistress, told her that she had brought forth. Lucina retired from her posture, and immediately Alcmena brought forth twins, Hercules conceived by Jupiter, and Iphiclus by Amphitryon. Eurystheus was already born, and therefore Hercules was subjected to his power. After Amphitryon’s death, Alcmena married Rhadamanthus, and retired to Ocalea, in Bœotia. This marriage, according to some authors, was celebrated in the island of Leuce. The people of Megara said that she died [♠]on her way from Argos to Thebes, and that she was buried in the temple of Jupiter Olympius. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 41; bk. 5, ch. 18; bk. 9, ch. 16.—Plutarch, [♦]Theseus & Romulus.—Homer, Odyssey, bk. 11; Iliad, bk. 19.—Pindar, Pythian, [♣]poem 4.—Lucian, Dialogi Deorum.—Diodorus, bk. 4.—Hyginus, fable 29.—Apollodorus, bk. 2, chs. 4, 7; bk. 3, ch. 1.—Plautus, Amphitruo.—Herodotus, bk. 2, chs. 43 & 45.——See: [Amphitryon], [Hercules], [Eurystheus].
[♦] ‘de Reb. Græc.’ replaced with ‘Theseus’
[♠] ‘in’ replaced with ‘on’
[♣] ‘9’ replaced with ‘4’
Alcon, a famous archer, who one day saw his son attacked by a serpent, and aimed at him so dexterously that he killed the beast without hurting his son.——A silversmith. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 13, fable 5.——A son of Hippocoon. Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 14.——A surgeon under Claudius, who gained much money by his profession, in curing hernias and fractures.——A son of Mars.——A son of Amycus. These two last were at the chase of the Calydonian boar. Hyginus, fable 173.
[♦]Alcyŏna, a pool of Greece, whose depth the emperor Nero attempted in vain to find. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 37.
[♦] Resorted into proper alphabetical order
Alcyŏne, or Halcyŏne, daughter of Æolus, married Ceyx, who was drowned as he was going to Claros to consult the oracle. The gods apprised Alcyone in a dream of her husband’s fate; and when she found, on the morrow, his body washed on the sea-shore, she threw herself into the sea, and was with her husband changed into birds of the same name, who keep the waters calm and serene, while they build and sit on their nests on the surface of the sea, for the space of 7, 11, or 14 days. Virgil, Georgics, bk. 1, li. 399.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 7.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 11, fable 10.—Hyginus, fable 65.——One of the Pleiades, daughter of Atlas. She had Arethusa by Neptune, and Eleuthera by Apollo. She, with her sisters, was changed into a constellation. See: [Pleiades]. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 30; bk. 3, ch. 18.—Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 10.—Hyginus, fable 157.——The daughter of Evenus, carried away by Apollo after her marriage. Her husband pursued the ravisher with his bow and arrows, but was not able to recover her. Upon this, her parents called her Alcyone, and compared her fate to that of the wife of Ceyx. Homer, Iliad, bk. 9, li. 558.——The wife of Meleager. Hyginus, fable 174.——A town of Thessaly, where Philip, Alexander’s father, lost one of his eyes.