Amy̆clæ, a town of Italy between Caieta and Tarracina, built by the companions of Castor and Pollux. The inhabitants were strict followers of the precepts of Pythagoras, and therefore abstained from flesh. They were killed by serpents, which they thought impious to destroy, though in their own defence. Pliny, bk. 8, ch. 29. Once a report prevailed in Amyclæ that the enemies were coming to storm it; upon which the inhabitants made a law that forbade such a report to be credited, and when the enemy really arrived, no one mentioned it, or took up arms in his own defence, and the town was easily taken. From this circumstance the epithet of tacitæ has been given to Amyclæ. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 10, li. 564.—Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 529.——A city of Peloponnesus, built by Amyclas. Castor and Pollux were born there. The country was famous for dogs. Apollo, called Amyclæus, had a rich and magnificent temple there, surrounded with delightful groves. Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 18.—Statius, Thebiad, bk. 4, li. 223.—Strabo, bk. 8.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 3, li. 345.—Ovid, de Ars Amatoria, bk. 2, li. 5.
Amyclæus, a statuary. Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 13.——A surname of Apollo.
Amyclas, son of Lacedæmon and Sparta, built the city of Amyclæ. His sister Eurydice married Acrisius king of Argos, by whom she had Danae. Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 1; bk. 7, ch. 18.——The master of a ship in which Cæsar embarked in disguise. When Amyclas wished to put back to avoid a violent storm, Cæsar, unveiling his head, discovered himself, and bidding the pilot pursue his voyage, exclaimed, Cæsarem vehis, Cæsarisque fortunam. Lucan, bk. 5, li. 520.
Amy̆cus, son of Neptune by Melia, or Bithynis, according to others, was king of the Bebryces. He was famous for his skill in the management of the cestus, and he challenged all strangers to a trial of strength. When the Argonauts, in their expedition, stopped on his coasts, he treated them with great kindness, and Pollux accepted his challenge, and killed him when he attempted to overcome him by fraud. Apollonius, bk. 2, Argonautica.—Theocritus, Idylls, poem 22.—Apollonius, bk. 1, ch. 9.——One of the companions of Æneas, who almost perished in a storm on the coast of Africa. He was killed by Turnus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 1, li. 225; bk. 9, li. 772.——Another, likewise killed by Turnus. Ibis, bk. 12, li. 509.——A son of Ixion and the cloud.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 12, li. 245.
Amy̆don, a city of Pæonia in Macedonia, which sent auxiliaries to Priam during the Trojan war. Homer, Iliad, bk. 2.
Amȳmōne, daughter of Danaus and Europa, married Enceladus son of Ægyptus, whom she murdered the first night of her nuptials. She wounded a satyr with an arrow which she had aimed at a stag. The satyr pursued her, and even offered her violence, but Neptune delivered her. It was said that she was the only one of the 50 sisters who was not condemned to fill a leaky tub with water in hell, because she had been continually employed, by order of her father, in supplying the city of Argos with water in a great drought. Neptune saw her in this employment, and was enamoured of her. He carried her away, and in the place where she stood, he raised a fountain by striking a rock. The fountain has been called Amymone. She had Nauplius by Neptune. Propertius, bk. 2, poem 26, li. 46.—Apollodorus, bk. 2.—Strabo, bk. 8.—Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 37.—Ovid, Amores, bk. 1, li. 515.—Hyginus, fable 169.——A fountain and rivulet of Peloponnesus, flowing through Argolis into the lake of Lerna. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 2, li. 240.
Amyntas I., was king of Macedonia after his father Alcetas. His son Alexander murdered the ambassadors of Megabyzus, for their wanton and insolent behaviour to the ladies of his father’s court. Bubares, a Persian general, was sent with an army to revenge the death of the ambassadors; but instead of making war, he married the king’s daughter, and defended his possessions. Justin, bk. 7, ch. 3.—Herodotus, bks. 5, 7, & 8.——The second of that name was son of Menelaus, and king of Macedonia after his murder of Pausanias. He was expelled by the Illyrians, and restored by the Thessalians and Spartans. He made war against the Illyrians and Olynthians, and lived to a great age. His wife Eurydice conspired against his life; but her snares were seasonably discovered by one of his daughters by a former wife. He had Alexander, Perdiccas, and Philip, Alexander the Great’s father, by his first wife; and by the other he had Archelaus, Aridæus, and Menelaus. He reigned 24 years; and soon after his death his son Philip murdered all his brothers, and ascended the throne.—Justin, bk. 7, chs. 4 & 9.—Diodorus, bk. 14, &c.—Cornelius Nepos & Plutarch, Pelopidas.——There is another king of Macedonia of the same name, but of his life few particulars are recorded in history.——A man who succeeded Dejotarus, in the kingdom of Gallogræcia. After his death it became a Roman province under Augustus. Strabo, bk. 12.——One of Alexander’s officers.——Another officer who deserted to Darius, and was killed as he attempted to seize Egypt. Curtius, bk. 3, ch. 9.——A son of Antiochus, who withdrew himself from Macedonia, because he hated Alexander.——An officer in Alexander’s cavalry. He had two brothers, called Simias and Polemon. He was accused of a conspiracy against the king, on account of his great intimacy with Philotas, and acquitted. Curtius, bk. 4, ch. 15; bk. 6, ch. 9; bk. 8, ch. 12.——A shepherd’s name in Virgil’s Eclogues.——A Greek writer who composed several works quoted by Athenæus, 10 & 12.
Amyntiānus, an historian in the age of Antoninus, who wrote a treatise in commendation of Philip, Olympias, and Alexander.
Amyntor, a king of Argos, son of Phrastor. He deprived his son Phœnix of his eyes, to punish him for the violence which he had offered to Clytia his concubine. Hyginus, fable 173.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 8, li. 307.—Apollodorus, bk. 3.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 9.——A general of the Dolopes. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 12, li. 364.——A son of Ægyptus, killed by Damone the first night of his marriage. Hyginus, fable 170.
Amyris, a man of Sybaris, who consulted the oracle of Delphi concerning the probable duration of his country’s prosperity, &c.