Adobes. Bricks manufactured by the ancient Peruvians.
Adramire, Med. To challenge to a duel or tournament. (Meyrick.)
Fig. 9. Plan of a Roman temple, showing the adytum.
Adytum or Adyton, Gr. and R. (ἄδυτον, from α, priv., and δύω, to enter). An obscure and secret sanctuary in certain temples from which the public was excluded, and into which the priests alone might enter. The little temple of Pompeii possessed an adytum, and it was here that was discovered the Portici Diana now in the Naples Museum. There was also an adytum in the temple of Delphi, which was burnt down in the first year of the 58th Olym., and rebuilt by the Corinthian Spintharus. The temple of Paphos contained in its adytum a representation of the goddess under the form of a column pointed at the top and surrounded by candelabra. The engraving shows the position of the adytum of a small Doric temple, now destroyed, which once stood near the theatre of Marcellus at Rome. The adytum was the name given to the cella of a temple, in which oracles were given, or the worship was connected with mysteries. See Abaton and Cella.
Ædicula, R. (dimin. of Ædes, q.v.). A small house, temple, chapel, tabernacle, or even shrine. Thus the name was given to a small wooden shrine, constructed to imitate the front of a temple, and in which were preserved the ancestors of the family (imagines majorum), together with the Lares and tutelar divinities.
Ægicranes, Gr. (αἴγειος, of a goat; κρανίον, the skull). A goat’s [or ram’s] head employed as a decoration by ancient sculptors. It was used chiefly to adorn altars which were dedicated to rural divinities.
Æginetan marbles. Two remarkable groups of very early (archaic) Greek sculpture, in the Glyptothek at Munich—discovered in the temple of Pallas-Athene at Ægina, and arranged by Thorwaldsen. They illustrate “the infancy of art, which lingers round symbolic representation, and has not yet grasped the full meaning and truth of nature.” (Butler’s Imitative Art.) The anatomy of the bodies and limbs at this period is greatly superior to the expression of the heads.
Ægis, Gr. In its primary meaning, a goat-skin. The primitive inhabitants of Greece used the skins of goats and other animals for clothing, and defence. At a later period the Ægis became a protective mantle; the shield of Minerva, beneath which the goddess sheltered those whom she wished to protect from the enemy’s missiles. Later still the Ægis denoted the breastplate of a divinity, in especial that of Jupiter or Minerva, as opposed to the lorica, which was the breastplate of a mere mortal. The ægis bore in its centre the Gorgon’s head, of which the serpents were arranged round the border. Minerva is generally represented wearing it, either as a cuirass or a scarf passed over the right shoulder.
Aëneator (Lat. aëneus, brazen). The name given to any musician who played on an instrument of brass (aëneum); such as the buccinatores, cornicines, liticines, tubicines, &c. They formed a college.