Amyrīcus Campus, a plain of Thessaly. Polybius, bk. 3.
Amyrius, a king by whom Cyrus was killed in a battle. Ctesias.
Amy̆rus, a town of Thessaly.——A river mentioned by Valerius Flaccus, bk. 2, li. 11.
Amystis, a river of India falling into the Ganges. Arrian, Indica.
Amythāon, a son of Cretheus king of Iolchos, by Tyro. He married Idomene, by whom he had Bias and Melampus. After his father’s death, he established himself in Messenia with his brother Neleus, and re-established or regulated the Olympic games. Melampus is called Amythaonius, from his father Amythaon. Virgil, Georgics, bk. 3, li. 550.—Diodorus, bk. 4.—Apollodorus, bk. 1.—Homer, Odyssey, bk. 11.——A son of Hippasus, who assisted Priam in the Trojan war, and was killed by Lycomedes. Homer, Iliad, bk. 17.
Amytis, a daughter of Astyages, whom Cyrus married. Ctesias.——A daughter of Xerxes, who married Megabyzus, and disgraced herself by her debaucheries.
Anăces, or Anactes, a name given to Castor and Pollux among the Athenians. Their festivals were called Anaceia. Plutarch, Theseus.—Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 3, ch. 21.
Anacharsis, a Scythian philosopher, 592 B.C., who, on account of his wisdom, temperance, and extensive knowledge, has been called one of the seven wise men. Like his countrymen, he made use of a cart instead of a house. He was wont to compare laws to cobwebs, which can stop only small flies, and are unable to resist the superior force of large insects. When he returned to Scythia from Athens, where he had spent some time in study, and in the friendship of Solon, he attempted to introduce there the laws of the Athenians, which so irritated his brother, who was then on the throne, that he killed him with an arrow. Anacharsis has rendered himself famous among the ancients by his writings, and his poems on war, the laws of Scythia, &c. Two of his letters to Crœsus and Hanno are still extant. Later authors have attributed to him the invention of tinder, of anchors, and of the potter’s wheel. The name of Anacharsis is become very familiar to modern ears, by that elegant, valuable, and truly classical work of Barthelemi, called the travels of Anacharsis. Herodotus, bk. 4, chs. 56, 47, & 48.—Plutarch, Quæstiones Convivales.—Cicero, Tusculanæ Disputationes, bk. 5, ch. 32.—Strabo, bk. 7.
Anacium, a mountain with a temple sacred to the Anaces in Peloponnesus. Polyænus, bk. 1, ch. 21.
Anacreon, a famous lyric poet of Teos in Ionia, highly favoured by Polycrates and Hipparchus son of Pisistratus. He was of a lascivious and intemperate disposition, much given to drinking, and deeply enamoured of a youth called Bathyllus. His odes are still extant, and the uncommon sweetness and elegance of his poetry have been the admiration of every age and country. He lived to his 85th year, and, after every excess of pleasure and debauchery, choked himself with a grape stone and expired. Plato says that he was descended from an illustrious family, and that Codrus, the last king of Athens, was one of his progenitors. His statue was placed in the citadel of Athens, representing him as an old drunken man, singing, with every mark of dissipation and intemperance. Anacreon flourished 532 B.C. All that he wrote is not extant; his odes were first published by H. Stephens, with an elegant translation. The best editions of Anacreon are that of Maittaire, 4to, London, 1725, of which only 100 copies were printed, and the very correct one of Barnes, 12mo, Cambridge, 1721, to which may be added that of Brunck, 12mo, Strasbourg, 1778. Pausanias, bk. 1, chs. 2, 25.—Strabo, bk. 14.—Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 9, ch. 4.—Cicero, Tusculanæ Disputationes, bk. 4, ch. 33.—Horace, epode 14, li. 20.—Pliny, bk. 7, ch. 7.—Herodotus, bk. 3, ch. 121.