Anaximander, a Milesian philosopher, the companion and disciple of Thales. He was the first who constructed spheres, asserted that the earth was of a cylindrical form, and taught that men were born of earth and water mixed together, and heated by the beams of the sun; that the earth moved, and that the moon received light from the sun, which he considered as a circle of fire like a wheel, about 28 times bigger than the earth. He made the first geographical maps and sun-dials. He died in the 64th year of his age, B.C. 547. Cicero, Academicæ Quæstiones, bk. 4, ch. 37.—Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers.—Pliny, bk. 2, ch. 70.—Plutarch, Quæstiones Convivales. He had a son who bore his name. Strabo, bk. 1.
Anaximĕnes, a philosopher, son of Erasistratus and disciple of Anaximander, whom he succeeded in his school. He said that the air was the cause of every created being, and a self-existent divinity, and that the sun, the moon, and the stars, had been made from the earth. He considered the earth as a plain, and the heavens as a solid concave figure, on which the stars were fixed like nails, an opinion prevalent at that time, and from which originated the proverb, τι εἰ οὐρανος ἐμπεσοι, if the heavens should fall? to which Horace has alluded, bk. 3, Odes, poem 3, li. 7. He died 504 years B.C. Cicero, Academicæ Quæstiones, bk. 4, ch. 37; de Natura Deorum, bk. 1, ch. 10.—Plutarch, Quæstiones Convivales.—Pliny, bk. 2, ch. 76.——A native of Lampsacus, son of Aristocles. He was pupil to Diogenes the cynic, and preceptor to Alexander the Great, of whose life, and that of Philip, he wrote the history. When Alexander, in a fit of anger, threatened to put to death all the inhabitants of Lampsacus, because they had maintained a long siege against him, Anaximenes was sent by his countrymen to appease the king, who, as soon as he saw him, swore he would not grant the favour he was going to ask. Upon this, Anaximenes begged the king to destroy the city and enslave the inhabitants, and by this artful request the city of Lampsacus was saved from destruction. Besides the life of Philip and his son, he wrote a history of Greece, in 12 books, all now lost. His nephew bore the same name, and wrote an account of ancient paintings. Pausanias, bk. 6, ch. 18.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 7, ch. 3.—Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers.
Anaxipŏlis, a comic poet of Thasos. Pliny, bk. 14, ch. 14.——A writer on agriculture, likewise of Thasos.
Anaxippus, a comic writer in the age of Demetrius. He used to say, that philosophers were wise only in their speeches, but fools in their actions. Athenæus.
Anaxirrhoe, a daughter of Coronus, who married Epeus. Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 1.
Anaxis, a Bœotian historian, who wrote a history down to the age of Philip son of Amyntas. Diodorus, bk. 25.——A son of Castor and Hilaira.
Anaxo, a virgin of Trœzene carried away by Theseus. Plutarch, Theseus.——A daughter of Alceus, mother of Alcmene by Electryon.
Ancæus, the son of Lycurgus and Antinoe, was in the expedition of the Argonauts. He was at the chase of the Calydonian boar, in which he perished. Hyginus, fables 173 & 248.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 8.——The son of Neptune and Astypalæa. He went with the Argonauts, and succeeded Tiphis as pilot of the ship Argo. He reigned in Ionia, where he married Samia daughter of the Mæander, by whom he had four sons, Perilas, Enudus, Samus, Alithersus, and one daughter called Parthenope. Orpheus, Argonauts. He was once told by one of his servants, whom he pressed with hard labour in his vineyard, that he never would taste of the produce of his vines. He had already the cup in his hand, and called the prophet to convince him of his falsehood; when the servant, yet firm in his prediction, uttered this well-known proverb:
Πολλα μεταξυ πελει κυλικος και χειλεος ακρου.
Multa cadunt inter calicem supremaque labra.