[Athanasian Creed], a statement, in the form of a confession, of the orthodox creed of the Church as against the Arians, and damnatory of every article of the heresy severally; ascribed to Athanasius at one time, but now believed to be of later date, though embracing his theology in affirmation of the absolute co-equal divinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost in the Trinity.
[Athanasius], Christian theologian, a native of Alexandria, and a deacon of the Church; took a prominent part against Arius in the Council at Nice, and was his most uncompromising antagonist; was chosen bishop of Alexandria; driven forth again and again from his bishopric under persecution of the Arians; retired into the Thebaïd for a time; spent the last 10 years of his life as bishop at Alexandria, where he died; his works consist of treatises and orations bearing on the Arian controversy, and in vindication of the doctrine of the Trinity viewed in the most absolute sense (296-373).
[Atheism], disbelief in the existence of God, which may be either theoretical, in the intellect, or practical, in the life, the latter the more common and the more fatal form of it.
[Atheism, Modern], ascribed by Ruskin to "the unfortunate persistence of the clergy in teaching children what they cannot understand, and in employing young consecrate persons to assert in pulpits what they do not know."
[Athelney, Isle of], an island in a marsh near the confluence of the Tone and Parret, Somerset; Alfred's place of refuge from the Danes.
[Athe`na], the Greek virgin goddess of wisdom, particularly in the arts, of war as of peace, happily called by Ruskin the "'Queen of the Air,' in the heavens, in the earth, and in the heart"; is said to have been the conception of Metis, to have issued full-armed from the brain of Zeus, and in this way the child of both wisdom and power; wears a helmet, and bears on her left arm the ægis with the Medusa's head; the olive among trees, and the owl among animals, were sacred to her.
[Athenæum], a school of learning established in Rome about 133 by Hadrian.
[Athenæus], a Greek writer of the 3rd century, wrote a curious miscellany of a book entitled "Deipnosophistæ, or the Suppers of the Learned," extant only in an imperfect state.
[Athenag`oras], an able Christian apologist of the 2nd century, was Athenian and a pagan by birth, but being converted to Christianity, wrote an apology in its defence, and a treatise on the resurrection of the dead.
[Ath`ens], the capital of Attica, and the chief city of ancient Greece, at once the brain and the heart of it; the resort in ancient times of all the able and wise men, particularly in the domain of literature and art, from all parts of the country and lands beyond; while the monuments of temple and statue that still adorn it give evidence of a culture among the citizens such as the inhabitants of no other city of the world have had the genius to surpass, though the name Athens has been adopted by or applied to several cities, Edinburgh in particular, that have been considered to rival it in this respect, and is the name of over twenty places in the United States. The two chief monuments of the architecture of ancient Athens, both erected on the Acropolis, are the [Parthenon] (q. v.), dedicated to Athena, the finest building on the finest site in the world, and the Erechtheum, a temple dedicated to Poseidon close by; is the capital (100) of modern Greece, the seat of the government, and the residence of the king.