Ægina (ē-jī′na), a Greek island in the Gulf of Ægina, south of Athens, triangular in form; area about 32 sq. miles; pop. 8500. It forms part of the nomarchy of Attica and Bœotia. Except in the west, where the surface is more level, the island is mountainous and unproductive. The inhabitants are chiefly engaged in trade, seafaring, and agriculture, the chief crops being almonds, olives, and grain. The greater number of them reside in the seaport town of Ægina. Ægina was anciently colonized by Dorians from the opposite coast of Peloponnesus. In the latter half of the sixth century B.C. it had a flourishing commerce, a large navy, and was the seat of a distinct school of art. At the battle of Salamis (480 B.C.) the Æginetans behaved with great valour. In 456 the island fell under the power of the Athenians, and in 431 the Æginetans were expelled to make room for Athenian settlers, but were afterwards restored. On a hill are the remains of a splendid temple of Athena (Minerva), many of the columns of which are still standing. Here was found in 1811 a considerable amount of sculpture from the pediments (the Æginetan marbles), which is now at the Glyptothek at Munich, and is prized as throwing light on the early history of Greek art. Though in these figures there is a wonderfully exact imitation of nature, yet there is a certain stiffness about them and an unnatural sameness of expression in all. They should probably be assigned to the period 500-480 B.C.
Ægis (ē′jis), the shield of Zeus, according to Homer, but according to later writers and artists a metal cuirass or breastplate, in which was set the head of the Gorgon Medusa, and with which Athena (Minerva) is often represented as being protected. In a figurative sense the word is used to denote some shielding or protecting power.
Ægle (ē′glē), a genus of plants. See Bel.
Ægospot′ami ('goat-rivers'), a place on the Hellespont, of some note in Greek history, the Athenian fleet being here completely defeated in 405 B.C. by the Spartan Lysander, thus ending the Peloponnesian war.
Ælfric (al′frik), Abbot, called Grammaticus (the grammarian), was a celebrated English author of the eleventh century. He became a monk of Abingdon, was afterwards connected with Winchester, and died Abbot of Eynsham. His principal works are two books of homilies, a Treatise on the Old and New Testaments, a translation and abridgment of the first seven books of the Bible, a Latin Grammar and Glossary, &c. He has been frequently confounded both with Ælfric, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Ælfric, Archbishop of York, surnamed Putta, who lived about the same time. There was also an Ælfric of Malmesbury.
Ælia′nus, Claudius, often called simply Ælian, a Roman author who lived about A.D. 221, and wrote in Greek a collection of stories and anecdotes and a natural history of animals.
Ælia′nus Tacticus, so called to distinguish him from Claudius Ælianus, lived at Rome, and wrote a work On the Military Tactics of the Greeks, which he dedicated to the Emperor Hadrian, who was emperor from A.D. 117 to 138. This book was closely studied by soldiers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Aelst (älst), Belgian town, same as Alost.
Æne′as, the hero of Virgil's Ænēid, a Trojan, who, according to Homer, was, next to Hector, the bravest of the warriors of Troy. When that town was taken and set on fire, Æneas, according to the narrative of Virgil, with his father, son, and wife Creusa, fled, but the latter was lost in the confusion of the flight. Having collected a fleet he sailed for Italy, but after numerous adventures he was driven by a tempest to the coast of Africa, where Queen Dido of Carthage received him kindly, and would have married him. Jupiter, however, sent Mercury to Æneas, and commanded him to sail to Italy. Whilst the deserted Dido ended her life on the funeral pile, Æneas set sail with his companions, and after further adventures by land and sea reached the
country of King Latinus, in Italy. The king's daughter Lavinia was destined by an oracle to wed a stranger, this stranger being Æneas, but was promised by her mother to Turnus, King of the Rŭtŭli. This occasioned a war, which was ended by Æneas slaying Turnus and marrying Lavinia. His son by Lavinia, Æneas Sylvius, was the ancestor of the kings of Alba Longa, and of Romulus and Remus, the founders of the city of Rome.