Artaxerx´es (Old Pers. Artakhsathra, 'the mighty'), the name of several Persian kings:—1. Artaxerxes, surnamed Longimănus, succeeded his father Xerxes I, 465 B.C. He subdued the rebellious Egyptians, terminated the war with Athens, governed his subjects in peace, and died 425 B.C.—2. Artaxerxes, surnamed Mnemon, succeeded his father Darius II in the year 405 B.C. After having vanquished his brother Cyrus he made war on the Spartans, who had assisted his enemy, and forced them to abandon the Greek cities and islands of Asia to the Persians. On his death, 359 B.C., his son Ochus ascended the throne under the name of—3. Artaxerxes Ochus (359 to 339 B.C.). After having overcome the Phœnicians and Egyptians, and displayed great cruelty in both countries, he was poisoned by his general Bagoas.
Arte´di, Peter, a Swedish naturalist, born 1705, drowned at Amsterdam 1735. He studied at Upsala, turned his attention to medicine and natural history, and was a friend of Linnæus. His Bibliotheca Ichthyologica and Philosophia Ichthyologica, together with a life of the author, were published at Leyden in 1738.
Artel, a name for co-operative associations in Russia. These associations were known in ancient Russia as drushina or wataga. The artels originally consisted of bodies of men associating for the purpose of jointly undertaking a piece of work and dividing the profits. Artels were formed in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries for the co-operation of their members in hunting and fishing. Inspired and stimulated by the Schulze-Delitzsch associations established in Germany, the Russian artels have extended their activity to various branches of industrial life. There are now consum artels, credit artels, and insurance artels, but the most important are the artisan and industrial artels. Some of the artels, however, are little more than trade guilds with mutual responsibility.
Ar´tĕmis, an ancient Greek divinity, identified with the Roman Diana. She was the daughter of Zeus (Jupiter) and Leto or Latona, and was the twin sister of Apollo, born in the Island of Delos. She is variously represented as a huntress, with bow and arrows; as a goddess of the nymphs, in a chariot drawn by four stags; and as the moon-goddess, with the crescent of the moon above her forehead. She was a maiden divinity, never conquered by love, except when Endymion made her feel its power. She demanded the strictest chastity from her worshippers, and she is represented as having changed
Actæon into a stag, and caused him to be torn in pieces by his own dogs, because he had secretly watched her as she was bathing. The Artemisia was a festival celebrated in her honour at Delphi. The famous temple of Artemis at Ephesus was considered one of the wonders of the world, but the goddess worshipped there was very different from the huntress goddess of Greece, being of Eastern origin, and regarded as the symbol of fruitful nature.
Artemi´sia, Queen of Caria, in Asia Minor, about 352-350 B.C., sister and wife of Mausōlus, to whom she erected in her capital, Halicarnassus, a monument, called the Mausolēum, which was reckoned among the seven wonders of the world.
Artemi´sia, a genus of plants of numerous species, nat. ord. Compositæ, comprising mugwort, southernwood, and wormwood. Certain alpine species are the flavouring ingredient in absinthe. See Wormwood.
Artemi´sium, a promontory in Eubœa, an island of the Ægean, near which several naval battles between the Greeks and Persians were fought, 480 B.C.
Ar´temus Ward. See Browne, Charles Farrar.
Ar´teries, the system of cylindrical vessels or tubes, membranous, elastic, and pulsatile, which convey the blood from the heart to all parts of the body, by ramifications which, as they proceed, diminish in size and increase in number, and terminate in minute capillaries uniting the ends of the arteries with the beginnings of the veins. There are two principal arteries or arterial trunks: the aorta, which rises from the left ventricle of the heart and ramifies through the whole body, sending off great branches to the head, neck, and upper limbs, and downwards to the lower limbs, &c.; and the pulmonary artery, which conveys venous blood from the right ventricle to the lungs, to be purified in the process of respiration.