Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/398

380 ASCALAPIIUS. despair at seeing his troops desert to Scribonius. Strabo (vii, p. 311) speaks of a wall or a ditcli which Asander constructed across the Isthmus of the Crimea, of 360 stadia in length, to protect the peninsula against the incursions of the nomadic tribes. (Mannert, Geogr. der Griech. u. Rom. iv. p. 293.) [L. S.] ASBAMAEUS {' AaSafiouos), a surname of Zeus, the protector of the sanctity of oaths. It was derived from a well, Asbamaeon near Tyana, in Cappadocia, the water of which was said to be benehcial and pleasant to honest persons, but pes- tilential to those who were guilty of perjury. When perjured persons drank of the water, it pro- duced a disease of the eyes, dropsy, and lameness, so that the guilty persons were unable to walk away from the well, and were obliged to own their cnme, (Philostr. Vit. Apollon. i. 6. ; Pseudo- Aristot. Mirab. AuscuU. 163 ; Ammian. Marcellin. xxiii. 6.) [L. S.] A'SBOLUS ("Ao-goXos), a centaur, w^hom Hesiod {Scuf. Here. 185) calls o/wfio-TTj's, probably from liis skill in observing or prophesying from the flight of birds. He fought against the Lapithae at the nuptials of Peirithous, and was subsequently nailed to a cross by Heracles, who is said to have made an epigram upon him, which is preserved in Philostratus. (Her. xix. § 17 ; comp. Tzetz. Chil. V. 22.) ^ [L. S.] ASCA'LABUS ('A<r/caA.agos), a son of ^lisme. When Demeter on her wanderings in search of her daughter Persephone came to Misme in Attica, the goddess was received kindly, and being exhausted and thirsty, Misme gave her something to drink. As the goddess emptied the vessel at one draught, Ascalabus laughed at her, and ordered a whole cask to be brought. Demeter indignant at his conduct, sprinkled the few remaining drops from her vessel upon him and thereby changed him into a lizard. ( Antonin. Lib. 24 ; Ov. Mel. v. 447, where a similar story is related, though without the name either of Misme or Ascalabus ; Welcker, Das Kunst-Museum zu Bonn, p. 74, &c.) For dififer- cnt legends respecting what happened to Demeter on her arrival in Attica, see Baubo, Iambe, and Metaneira. [L. S.] ASCA'LAPHUS {'AaKdKocpos). 1. A son of Ares and Astyoche, and brother of lalmenus, together with whom he led the Minyaiis of Orcho- raenos against Troy, in thirty sliips. (Hom. //. ii. 511, &c.) In the war against Troy, he was slain by the hand of Deiphobus, at which Ares was filled with anger and indignation. {11. xiii. 519, &c., XV. 110, &c. ; comp. Paus. ix. 37- § 3.) According to Apollodorus (i. 9. § 16, iii. 10. § 8) Ascalaphus was one of the Argonauts, and also one of the suitors of Helen. Hyginus in one passage (Faf). 97) calls Ascalaphus and lalmenus sons of Lycus of Argos, while in another {Fab. 159) he agrees with the common account. One tradition described Ascalaphus as having gone from Troy to Samareia, and as having been buried there by Ares. The name of Samareia itself was derived from this occurrence, that is, from aafxa or aijfia and "Aprjs. (Eustath. ad Hom. p. 1009.) 2. A son of Acheron by Gorgvra ( Apollod. i. 5. § 3) or by Orphne. (Ov. Met. V. 540.) Servius (ad Aen. iv. 462 ) calls him a son of Styx. When Persephone was in the lower world, and Pluto gave her pennission to return to the upper, pro- vided she had not eaten anything, Ascalaphus ASCLEPIADES. declared that she had eaten part of a pomegranate. Demeter (according to Apollodorus, /. c, ii. 5. § 12) punished him by burying him under a huge stone, and when subsequently this stone was removed by Heracles, she changed Ascalaphus into an owl. According to Ovid, Persephone herself changed him into an owl by sprinkling him with water of the river Phlegethon. There is an evident resem- blance between the mythus of Ascalabus and that of Ascalaphus. The latter seems to be only a modification or continuation of the former, and the confusion may have arisen from the resemblance between the words ocr/caAo§os, a lizard, and da- Kda(pos^ an owl. [L. S.] A'SCALUS CAaKoXos), a son of Hymenaeus, and a general of the Lydian king Aciamus, who is said to have built the town of Ascalon in Syria. (Steph. Byz. s. v. 'AarKdXwi/.) [L. S.J ASCA'NIUS ('Aff-KctJ/ios), a son of Aeneas by Creusa (Virg. Aen. ii. 666), or by Lavinia. (Liv. i. 1, 3 ; Serv. ad Aen. vi. 760.) From Livy it would seem that some traditions distinguished be- tween an earlier and a later Ascanius, the one a son of Creusa, and the other of Lavinia. After the fall of Troy, Ascanius and some Phrygian allies of the Trojans were sent by Aeneas to the country of DascyUtis, whose inhabitants made Ascanius their king ; but he soon returned to Troy, and ruled there after the death of his father, who, ac- cording to some traditions, had likewise returned to Troy. (Dionys. Hal. i. 47, 53.) Another legend made Ascanius found a new kingdom at Scepsis in Troas, in conjunction with Scamandrius, the son of Hector. (Strab. xiii. p. 607.) Others again, according to whom his original name was Euryleon, made him accompany his father to Italy and succeed him as king of the Latins. (Dionys. i. 65.) Livy states that on the death of his father Ascanius was yet too young to undertake the go- vernment, and that after he had attained the age of manhood, he left Lavinium in the hands of his mother, and migrated to Alba Longa. Here he was succeeded by his son Silvius. According to Dionysius (i. 70), Silvius was a younger brother of Ascanius, and disputed the succession with Julus, a son of Ascanius. The dispute was decided in favour of Silvius. Servius (ad Ae7i. i. 271) states, that Ascanius was also called Ilus, Julus, Dar- danus, and Leontodamus. The gens Julia at Rome traced its pedigree up to Julus and Ascanius. (Heyne, Excurs. viii., ad Aen. i.) In the stories about Troy there occur thiee other personages of the name Ascanius. (Apollod. iii. 12. § 5 ; Hom. //. ii. 862, xiii. 792.) [L. S.] A'SCARUS ("Ao-K-apos ), a Theban statuary, who made a statue of Zeus, dedicated by the Thessalians at Olympia. (Pans. v. 24. § 1.) Thiersch (Epochen der bild. Kunst, p. 160, Sic. Anm.) endeavours to shew that he was a pupil of Ageladas of Sicyon. [Ageladas.] [C. P. M.J A'SCLAPO, a physician of Patrae, in Achaia, who attended on Cicero's freedman, Tiro, during an illness, b. c. 51. (Cic. ad Fam. xvi. 9.) Cicero was so much pleased by his kindness and his medical skill, that he wrote a letter of recommen- dation for him to Servius Sulpicius, B. c. 47. (xiii. 20.) [W.A.G.] ASCLEPI'ADAE. [Aesculapius.] ASCLEPI'ADES CAo-KATjTTidoT/s). 1. Of Alex- andria, seems to have been a grammarian, as the Scholiast on Aristophanes {Nuh. 37) quotes him