A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

136 AMALTHEIA.
C. AMAFA'NIUS or AMAFI'NIUS was one
of the earliest Roman writers in favour of the Epicurean philosophy. He wrote several works, which
are censured by Cicero as deficient in arrangement
and style. He is mentioned by no other writer
but Cicero. (A cad. i. 2, Tusc. iv. 3.)
AMALTHEIA ('AaA.hOeia). 1. The nurse of
the infant Zeus after his birth in Crete. The ancients themselves appear to have been as uncertain
about the etymology of the name as about the
real nature of Amaltheia. Hesychius derives it
from the verb dojaNXeVivw, to nourish or to enrich;
others from d4idA0acros, i. e. firm or hard; and
others again from adtaXj and efea, according to
which it would signify the divine goat, or the
tender goddess. The common derivation is from
d,ucA-7Yw, to milk or suck. According to some
traditions Amaltheia is the goat who suckled the
infant Jove (Hygin. Poet. Astr. ii. 13; Arat.
Phaen. 163; Callim. IHymn. in Jov. 49), and who
was afterwards rewarded for this service by being
placed among the stars. (Comp. Apollod. i. 1. ~
6.) [AEGA.] According to another set of traditions Amaltheia was a nymph, and daughter of
Oceanus, Helios, Haemonius, or of the Cretan
king Melisseus (Schol. ad Horn. II. xxi. 194;
Eratosth. Catast. 13; Apollod. ii. 7. ~ 5; Lactant. Instit. i. 22; Hygin. 1. c., and Fab. 139,
where he calls the nymph Adamanteia),and is said
to have fed Zeus with the milk of agoat. When this
goat once broke off one of her horns, the nymph
Amaltheia filled it with fresh herbs and fruit and
gave it to Zeus, who transplaced it together with
the goat among the stars. (Ovid, Fast. v. 115,
&c.) According to other accounts Zeus himself
broke off one of the horns of the goat Amaltheia,
gave it to the daughters of Melisseus, and endowed it with such powers that whenever the possessor wished, it would instantaneously become filled
with whatever might be desired. (Apollod. 1. c.;
Schol. ad Callim. 1. c.) This is the story about
the origin of the celebrated horn of Amaltheia,
commonly called the horn of plenty or cornucopia,
which plays such a prominent part in the stories
of Greece, and which was used in later times as
the symbol of plenty in general. (Strab. x. p. 458,
iii. p. 151; Diod. iv. 35.) [ACHELOUs.] Diodorus (iii. 68) gives an account of Amaltheia,
which differs from all the other traditions. According to him the Libyan king Ammon married
Amaltheia, a maiden of extraordinary beauty, and
gave her a very fertile tract of land which had the
form of a bull's horn, and received from its queen
the name of the horn of Amaltheia. This account,
however, is only one of the many specimens of a
rationalistic interpretation of the ancient mythus.
The horn appears to be one of the most ancient
and simplest vessels for drinking, and thus we find
the story of Amaltheia giving Zeus to drink from
a horn represented in an ancient work of art still
extant. (Galeria Giustiniani, ii. p. 61.) The
horn of plenty was frequently given as an attribute
to the representations of Tyche or Fortuna. (Paus.
iv. 30. ~ 4, vii. 26. ~ 3; comp. Bi3ttiger, Amaltheia, oder der Cretensisiel Zeus s e Sa iigling;
Welcker, Ueber eine Cretische Colonie in Tl'eben,
p. 6.)
2. One of the Sibyls (Tibull, ii. 5. 67), whom
Lactantius (i. 6) identifies with the Cumaean
Sibyl, who is said to have sold to king Tarquinius
the celebrated Sibylline books. The same is stated

AMASIS.
by Servius (ad Aen. vi. 72) and by Lydus (de.
Mens. iv. 34); comp. Klausen, Aeneas und die.
Penaten, p. 299, &c. [L. S.]
AMANDUS. [AELIANUS, p. 28, a.]
AMARANTUS ('Aadcpavros), of Alexandria,
wrote a commentary upon one of Theocritus'
Idyls (Etymol. 3i. p. 273. 40, ed. Sylb.), and a
work entitled rvepi oc'wvi's. Respecting his time.
we only know that he lived subsequently to Juba.
king of Mauretania. (Athen. viii. p. 343, e., x.
p. 414, f.)
AMARYNCEUS ('ApapvyKIEs), a chief of the
Eleans, and son of Onesimachus or of Acetor.
(Hygin. Fab. 97; Eustath. ad Horn. p. 303.) According to Hyginus, Amarynceus himself joined the
expedition against Troy with nineteen ships. Homer,
on the other hand, only mentions his son Diores
(Amarynceides) as partaking in the Trojan war.
(II. ii. 622, iv. 517.) When Amarynceus died.
his sons celebrated funeral games in his honour, in
which Nestor, as he himself relates (II. xxiii. 629,
&c.), took part. According to Pausanias (v. i. ~
8) Amarynceus had been of great service to Augeas
against IHeracles, in return for which Augeas shared
his throne with him. [L. S.]
AMARYNTHUS ('AdapwvOos), a hunter of
Artemis, from whom the town of Amarynthus in
Euboea (Steph. Byz. says Euboea itself) was believed to have derived its name. (Strab. x. p.
448.) From this hero, or rather from the town of
Amarynthus, Artemis derived the surname Amarynthia or Amarysia, under which she was worshipped there and also in Attica. (Paus. i. 31. ~
3, comp. Diet. of Ant. s. v. 'APapdviOia.) [L. S.]
AMA'SIS ("Aearts). 1. King of Egypt in
early times, according to Diodorus (i. 60), in
whose reign Egypt was conquered by Actisanes,
king of Ethiopia. [ACTISANES.]
2. King of Egypt, succeeded Apries, the last
king of the line of Psammetichus, in B. c. 569.
He was of comparatively low origin (Herodotus,
ii. 172, calls him S-qudr-s), and was born at
Siuph, a town in the Saitic nome. When the
Egyptians revolted against Apries, Amasis was
sent to quell the insurrection, but went over
to the side of the rebels, and was proclaimed
king by them. He defeated Apries in a battle
near Momemphis, and took him prisoner. iHe
seemed disposed to treat his captive with great
mildness, but was induced to deliver hilm up into
the hands of the Egyptians, who put him to death.
It was probably to strengthen himself against a
powerful party formed against him amongst the
warrior-caste, that he cultivated the friendship of
the Greeks. He not only gave up to them the city
of Naucratis, which had hitherto been their only
mart, but opened all the mouths of the Nile to
them, and allowed them to biUild temples to their
own deities. He contracted an alliance with the
Greeks of Cyrene, and himself married Ladice, a
Cyrenaic lady. (Herod. ii. 181.) He removed tls
lonians and Carians, who were settled on th(
Pelusiac mouth of the Nile, to Memphis, anc
formed them into a body-guard for himself
(ii. 154.) He also entered into alliance witi
Croesus (i. 77) and with Polycrates, the tyran
of Samos (iii. 39, 40), who is said to have in
troduced Pythagoras to him by letter. (Diog
Laert. viii. 3.) Amasis also sent presents t,
several of the Greek cities. (Herod. ii. 182.
Solon in the course of his travels visited hi:m