Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/84

ACHELOUS ACHILLES from the sea, on a river that empties at Acheen head, the extreme N. W. point of Su- matra. The roadstead is good, being safely sheltered by several small islands. A bar at the mouth of the river prevents all but vessels of three or four feet draught from entering it. Most of the houses are built of bamboos and rough timber raised on piles, to escape inunda- tion. The city contains many fine buildings, among which are numerous mosques and other public edifices, and the fortified palace of the king. It had formerly about 36,000 in- habitants, but is now on the decline. ACHELOUS (now Aspropotamo), a river of Greece, which rises in Mount Pindus, flows S., separates vEtolia from Acarnania, and falls into the Ionian sea. Homer calls it the " king of rivers." It is the largest stream in Greece, its length being 130 miles. ACHEKBACH. I. Andreas, a German land- scape painter, born in Cassel, Sept. 29, 1815. He studied at Dusseldorf, under Schirmer and Schadow, and at the age of 18 produced land- scapes of merit. He afterward travelled over many parts of Europe in search of subjects, and took particular delight in reproducing the scenery of Norway, the Alps, and the Tyrol. His Italian landscapes are also impressed with a fine feeling for the picturesque. As a painter of the grand and savage aspects of nature, he holds a high rank. His works are widely scattered over Europe, and a number are owned in the United States. II. Oswald, brother of the preceding, also a painter of the Dusseldorf school, born in that city, Feb. 2, 1827. Since 1863 he has been professor of landscape painting at the Dusseldorf academy. His best pictures are of Italian scenery. His "Funeral of Palestrina " was rewarded with a medal at the Paris exposition of 1861. ACHERON, in antiquity, the name of several rivers, all believed to be connected with the lower world. I. A river in Epirus, which flowed through Acherusia lake into the Ionian sea. II. A river in Elis, an affluent of the Alpheus. III. A river in Bruttium, S. Italy. IV. The river of the lower world, around which the shades were believed to hover. The name was also used for the lower world in general. ACHERl'SIA, in antiquity, the name of several lakes believed to be connected with the lower world. The principal ones were those in Epi- rus and Campania, the latter between Cumae and Cape Misennm. Acherusia was also the name of a chasm in Bithynia, into which Her- cules descended to bring up Cerberus. ACHfSRY, Dom Jean Lnc d a French savant, born in 1609, died April 24, 1685. He was a Benedictine monk, librarian of the abbey of St. Germain des Pr6s at Paris, and devoted his life chiefly to collecting and editing documents relating to mediaeval ecclesiastical history. His principal work was Veterum aliquot Scripto- rum qui in Oallice Bibliothecis maxime Bene- dictinorum latuerant Spicilegium (13 vols. 4to, 1655-'77; afterward reedited by Barre, 3 vols. fol., 1723). He also assisted in the Ada Sanctorum Ordinis S. Benedicti (9 vols. fol.). ACHILLES, properly AehUlens, the hero of the Iliad, was the son of Peleus, king of the Myr- midons in Phthiotis hi Thessaly, grandson of yEacus, and thus third in descent from Zeus. His mother was the sea goddess Thetis, daughter of Nereus ; hence he is often called Pelides, Pelei'ades, and ^Eacides. The story of his early life is told in different ways. One account is, that his mother, foreseeing his early death, endeavored to save him by dipping him in the river Styx, whose waters had the prop- erty of rendering the human frame invulner- able. The heel by which she held the babe was not wetted, and remained the sole vulner- able point of the hero. He was educated by Phoenix, who taught him war and eloquence, and by Chiron the centaur, who taught him the healing art. To keep him out of danger, Thetis disguised him as a maiden, and sent him to the court of Lycomedes, king of Scyros. Here his real character was soon discovered by the birth of a son to him, named Neoptolemus or Pyrrhus, by Deidamia, the daughter of Lycomedes. The prophecy was that Troy would never be taken in the absence of Achilles, and the crafty Ulysses was sent to discover him. Disguised as a peddler, he offered the Scyrian maidens female trinkets and wea- pons of war ; all of them chose ornaments, but the disguised hero clutched the sword and shield. He went to Troy, accompanied by his tutor Phoenix and his friend Patroclus, and at the head of his Myrmidons, in 50 ships of war. Previous to his dispute with Agamemnon he ravaged the country round Troy, and took and destroyed 12 towns on the coast and 11 in the interior. BriseJs was his favorite female slave and concubine, whom he had captured at the sack of Lyrnessus. The commander-in-chief, Agamemnon, claimed her as indemnity for his slave Chrysels. Achilles obeys on the entreaty of Minerva, but retires to his tent in wrath and resentment, refusing to take further part in the campaign. The Greeks suffer a myriad of woes in his absence, but no calamity will change his decision. At last his bosom friend Patroclus gains his permission to put on the armor of Achilles, and show himself to the Trojans. Believing that Achilles has come, they flee in panic. Patroclus presses on, and is slain by Hector. Then Achilles, in the desire to avenge his friend, reconciles himself with Agamemnon, receives Brise'is again, gets a new suit of armor from Vulcan, including the far-famed shield, which is brought to him by his mother, and rushes into the fight. He slaughters a grwit number of Trojans, contends with the river god Xanthus, whose course he has heaped with corpses and defiled with blood, and drives all the Trojans within the walls of their city. Hector alone dares to withstand his course. Achilles chases him three times around the walls of Troy, slays him, and, tying the body to his chariot, drags it into the camp of the