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

98 ALCETAS.
been destroyed by the Cretans. (Paus. i. 41. ~ 5.)
In this work he was said to have been assisted by
Apollo, and the stone, upon which the god used to
place his lyre while he was at work, was even in
late times believed, when struck, to give forth a
sound similar to that of a lyre. (Paus. i. 42. ~ 1;
Ov. Met. viii. 15, &c.; Virg. Cir. 105; Theogn.
751.) Echepolis, one of the sons of Alcathous,
was killed during the Calydonian hunt in Aetolia,
and when his brother Callipolis hastened to carry
the sad tidings to his father, he found him engaged in offering a sacrifice to Apollo, and thinking it unfit to offer sacrifices at such a moment,
he snatched away the wood from the altar. Alcathous imagining this to be an act of sacrilegious
wantonness, killed his son on the spot with a
piece of wood. (Paus. i. 42. ~ 7.) The acropolis
of Megara was called by a name derived from that
of Alcathous. (i. 42. ~ 7.)
2. A son of Porthaon and Euryte, who was
slain by Tydeus. (Apollod. i. 7. ~ 10, 8. ~ 5;
Diod. iv. 65.)
3. A son of Aesyetes and husband of Hippodameia, the daughter of Anchises and sister of
Aeneas, who was educated in his house. (Hom.
11. xiii. 466.) In the war of Troy he was one of
the Trojan leaders, and was one of the handsomest
and bravest among them. (II. xii. 93, xiii. 427.)
lie was slain by Idomenens with the assistance of
Poseidon, who struck Alcathous with blindness
and paralyzed his limbs so that he could not flee.
(II. xiii. 433, &c.)-Another personage of this
name is mentioned by Virgil, Aen. x. 747. [L. S.]
ALCEIDES ('AAtce[&qs), according to some accounts the name which Heracles originally bore
(Apollod. ii. 4. ~ 12), while, according to Diodorus, his original name was ALCAEUS. [L. S.]
ALCESTIS or ALCESTE (AXKrcartis or 'ANiceTrrs), a daughter of Pelias and Anaxibia, and
mother of Eumelus and Admetus. (Apollod. i. 9.
~ 10, 15.) Homer (II. ii. 715) calls her the fairest among the daughters of Pelias. When Admetus, king of Pherae, sued for her hand, Pelias, in
order to get rid of the numerous suitors, declared
that he would give his daughter to hinm only who
should come to his court in a chariot drawn by
lions and boars. This was accomplished by Admetus, with the aid of Apollo. For the further
story, see ADMETUs. The sacrifice of herself for
Admetus was highly celebrated in antiquity.
(Aelian, V. 11H. xiv. 45, Animal. i. 15; Philostr.
H1er. ii. 4; Ov. Ars Am. iii. 19; Eurip. Alcestis.)
Towards her father, too, she shewed her filial affection, for, at least, according to Diodorus (iv. 52;
comp. however, Palaeph. De incredib. 41), she did
not share in the crime of her sisters, who murdered their father.
Ancient as well as modern critics have attempted
to explain the return of Alcestis to life in a rationalistic manner, by supposing that during a severe
illness she was restored to life by a pihysician of
the name of Heracles. (Palaeph. 1. c.; Plut. Amator. p. 761.) Alcestis was represented on the
chest of Cypselus, in a group shewing the funeral
solemnities of Pelias. (Paus. v. 17. ~ 4.) In the
museum of Florence there is an alto relievo, the I
work of Cleomenes, which is believed to represent I
Alcestis devoting herself to death. (Meyer, Gesch.
dir bildend. Kiinste, i. p. 162, ii. 159.) [L. S.]
A'LCETAS ('AAK eas), whose age is unknown,
was tlse author of a work on the offerings (dsvaQ'4 -

ALCIBIADES.
la-ra) in Delphi, of which Athenaeus quotes the
second book. (xiii. p. 591, c.)
A'LCETAS I. ('AhMcras), king of EPIRUS, was
the son of Tharypus. For some reason or other,
which we are not informed of, he was expelled
from his kingdom, and took refuge with the elder
Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse, by whom he was
reinstated. After his restoration we find him the
ally of the Athenians, and of Jason, the Tagus of
Thessaly. In B. c. 373, he appeared at Athens
with Jason, for the purpose of defending Timotheus, who, through their influence, was acquitted.
On his death the kingdom, which till then had
been governed by one king, was divided between
his two sons, Neoptolemus and Arybbas or Arymbas. Diodorus (xix. 88) calls him Arybilus.
(Paus. i. 11. ~ 3; Dem. Timoth. pp. 1187, 1190;
Diod. xv. 13. 36.) [C. P. M.]
A'LCETAS II., king of EPIRUS, was the son of
Arymbas, and grandson of Alcetas 1. On account
of his ungovernable temper, he was banished by
his father, who appointed his younger son, Aeacides,
to succeed him. On the death of Aeacides, who
was killed in a battle fought with Cassander B. c.
313, the Epirots recalled Alcetas. Cassander sent
an army against him under the command of Lyciscus, but soon after entered into an alliance with hinm
(B. c. 312). The Epirots, incensed at the outrages
of Alcetas, rose against him and put him to death,
together with his two sons; on which Pyrrhus,
the son of Aeacides, was placed upon the throne
by his protector Glaucias, king of the Illyrians,
B. c. 307. (Paus. i. 11. ~ 5; Diod. xix. 88, 89;
Plut. Pyrrh. 3.) [C. P. M.]
A'LCETAS ('AXKE'raS), the eighth king of
MACEDONIA, counting from Caranus, and the fifth,
counting from Perdiccas, reigned, according to
Eusebius, twenty-nine years. He was the father
of Amyntas I., who reigned in the latter part of
the sixth century B. c. (Herod. viii. 139.)
A'LCETAS ('AAci-ras), the brother of PERDICcas and son of Orontes, is first mentioned as one
of Alexander's generals in his Indian expedition.
(Arrian, iv. 27.) On the death of Alexander, he
espoused his brother's party, and, at his orders,
murdered in B. c. 322 Cyane, the half-sister of
Alexander the Great, when she wished to marry
her daughter Eurydice to Philip Arrhidaeus.
(Diod. xix. 52; Polyaen. viii. 60; Arrian, ap.
Phot. p. 70, ed. Bekker.) At the time of Perdiccas' murder in Egypt in 321, Alcetas was with
Eumenes in Asia Minor engaged against Craterus;
and the army of Perdiccas, which had revolted
from him and joined Ptolemy, condemned Alcetas
and all the partizans of his brother to death. The
war against Alcetas, who had now left Eumenes
and united his forces with those of Attalus, was
entrusted to Antigonus. Alcetas and Attalus were
defeated in Pisidia in 320, and Alcetas retreated
to Termessus. He was surrendered by the elder
inhabitants to Antigonus, and, to avoid falling into
his hands alive, slew himself. (Diod. xviii. 29, 37,
44-46; Justin, xiii. 6, 8; Arrian, ap. Phot. 1. c.)
ALCIBI'ADES ('AAicfa&qis), the son of
Cleinias, was born at Athens about B. c. 450, or a
little earlier. His father fell at Coroneia B. c. 447,
leaving Alcibiades and a younger son. (Plat.Protqg.
p. 320, a.) The last campaign of the war with
Potidaea was in B. c. 429. Now as Alcibiades
served in this war, and the young Athenians were
not sent out on foreign military service before they