Absy′rtus, brother of Medea.
Achelo′us was a son of Oceanus and Terra. He had the power of assuming all shapes, and in a conflict with Hercules he turned himself into a serpent, and then into a bull, but he was finally defeated, and he then turned himself into a river, which has since been called Achelous.
Ach′eron. One of the rivers of the infernal regions to which the spirits of the dead resorted, and waited there till Charon the ferryman took them over.
“Infernal rivers that disgorge
Into the burning lake their baleful streams.
... Sad Acheron, of sorrow black and deep.”
Milton.
Achil′les was the most valiant of the Greek heroes in the Trojan War. He was the son of Peleus, King of Thessaly. His mother, Thetis, plunged him, when an infant, into the Stygian pool, which made him invulnerable wherever the waters had washed him; but the heel by which he was held was not wetted, and that part remained vulnerable. He was shot with an arrow in the heel by Paris, at the siege of Troy, and died of his wound.
Acida′lia, a name given to Venus from a fountain in Bœotia.
A′cis. A Sicilian shepherd, loved by the nymph Galatea. One of the Cyclops who was jealous of him crushed him by hurling a rock on him. Galatea turned his blood into a river—the Acis at the foot of Mount Etna.