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

104" ALCMAEON
Apollod. iii. 15. ~ 8; Diod. iv. 16; Eustath. ad 11onm.
p. 776; Hom. Od. iv. 124. [ALCYONIDES.] [L.S.]
ALCIS ('Ax ic), that is, the Strong. 1. A
surname of Athena, under which she was worshipped in Macedonia. (Liv. xlii. 51.)
2. A deity among the Naharvali, an ancient
German tribe. (Tacit. Germ. 43.) Grimm (Deutsche Mythol. p. 39) considers Alcis in the passage
of Tacitus to be the genitive of Alx, which, according to him, signifies a sacred grove, and is
connected with the Greek dao-os. Another Alcis
occurs in Apollodorus, ii. 1. ~ 5. [L. S.]
ALCFSTHENE, a female painter spoken of by
Pliny (H. N. xxxv. 11. s. 40), who mentions one
of her pictures representing a dancer. [C. P. M.]
ALC[ITHOE. [ALCATHOE.J
A'LCITHUS (AKitoes), sent as ambassador by
the Achaeans to Ptolemy Philometor, B.c. 169,
when they heard that the Anacleteria (see Diet. of
Ant. s. v.) were to be celebrated in his honour.
(Polyb. xxviii. 10, 16.)
ALCMAEON ('AAuaiw;), a son of Amphiaraus and Eriphyle, and brother of Amphilochus,
Eurydice, and Demonassa. (Apollod. iii. 7. ~ 2.)
His mother was induced by the necklace of Harmonia, which she received from Polyneices, to persuade her husband Amphiaraus to take part in the
expedition against Thebes. (Hom. Od. xv. 247,
&c.) But before Amphiaraus set out, he enjoined
his sons to kill their mother as soon as they should
be grown up. (Apollod. iii. 6. ~ 2; Hygin. Fab.
73.) When the Epigoni prepared for a second
expedition against Thebes, to avenge the death of
their fathers, the oracle promised them success and
victory, if they chose Alcmaeon their leader. He
was at first disinclined to undertake the command,
as he had not yet taken vengeance on his mother,
according to the desire of his father. But she,
who had now received from Thersander, the son
of Polyneices, the peplus of Harmonia also, induced him to join the expedition. Alcmaeon distinguished himself greatly in it, and slew Laodamus, the son of Eteocles. (Apollod. iii. 7. ~ 2, &c.;
comp. Diod. iv. 66.) When, after the fall of
Thebes, he learnt the reason for which his mother
had urged him on to take part in the expedition,
he slew her on the advice of an oracle of Apollo,
and, according to some traditions, in conjunction
with his brother Amphilochus. For this deed he
became mad, and was haunted by the Erinnyes. He
first came to Oicleus in Arcadia, and thence went
to Phegeus in Psophis, and being purified by the
latter, he married his daughter Arsino6 or Alphesiboea (Paus. viii. 24. ~ 4), to whom he gave the
necklace and peplus of Harmonia. But the country in which he now resided was visited by scarcity, in consequence of his being the murderer of
his mother, and the oracle advised him to go to
Achelous. According to Pausanias, he left Psophis
because his madness did not yet cease. Pausanias
and Thucydides (ii. 102; comp. Plut. De Exil. p.
602) further state, that the oracle commanded
him to go to a country which had been formed
subsequent to the murder of his mother, and was
therefore under no curse. The country thus pointed out was a tract of land which had been recently
formed at the mouth of the river Achelous. Apollodorus agrees with this account, but gives a detailed history of Alcmaeon's wanderings until he
reached the mouth of Achelous, who gave him his
daughter Calirrhol in marriage. Calirrhoe had a

ALCMAEON.
Sdesire to possess the necklace and peplus of Harmonia, and Alcmaeon, to gratify her wish, went to
Psophis to get them from Phegeus, under the pretext that he intended to dedicate them at Delphi
in order to be freed from his madness. Phegeus
complied with his request, but when he heard that
the treasures were fetched for Calirrho6, he sent
his sons Pronous and Agenor (Apollod. iii. 7. ~ 6)
or, according to Pausanias (viii. 24. ~ 4), Temenus
and Axion, after him, with the command to kill
him. This was done, but the sons of Alcmaeon by
Calirrhoe took bloody vengeance at the instigation
of their mother. (Apollod. Paus. 11. cc.; Ov. Met.
ix. 407, &c.)
The story about Alcmaeon furnished rich materials for the epic and tragic poets of Greece, and
their Roman imitators. But none of these poems
is now extant, and we only know from Apollodorus (iii. 7. ~ 7), that Euripides, in his tragedy
" Alcmaeon," stated that after the fall of Thebes
he married Manto, the daughter of Teiresias, and
that he had two children by her, Amphilochus and
Tisiphone, whom he gave to Creon, king of Corinth, to educate. The wife of Creon, jealous of
the extraordinary beauty of Tisiphone, afterwards
sold her as a slave, and Alcmaeon himself bought
her, without knowing that she was his daughter.
(Diod. iv. 66; Paus. vii. 3. ~ 1, ix. 33. ~ 1.)
Alcmaeon after his death was worshipped as a
hero, and at Thebes he seems to have had an altar,
near the house of Pindar (Pyth. viii. 80, &c.), who
calls him his neighbour and the guardian of his
property, and also seems to suggest that prophetic
powers were ascribed to him, as to his father Amphiaraus. At Psophis his tomb was shewn, surrounded with lofty and sacred cypresses. (Paus.
viii. 24. ~ 4.) At Oropus, in Attica, where Amphiaraus and Amphilochus were worshipped, Alcmaeon enjoyed no such honours, because he was a
matricide. (Paus. i. 34. ~ 2.) He was represented
in a statue at Delphi, and on the chest of Cypselus. (x. 10. ~ 2, v. 17. ~ 4.) [L. S.]
ALCMAEON (AXAt/aciowv), son of the Megacles
who was guilty of sacrilege with respect to the followers of Cimon, was invited by Croesus to Sardis
in consequence of the services he had rendered to
an embassy sent by Croesus to consult the Delphic
oracle. On his arrival at Sardis, Croesus made
him a present of as much gold as he could carry
out of the treasury. Alcmaeon took the king at
his word, by putting on a most capacious dress,
the folds of which (as well as the vacant space of
a pair of very wide boots, also provided for the
occasion) he stuffed with gold, and then filled his
moutli and hair with gold dust. Croesus laughed
at the trick, and presented him with as much again
(about 590 B. c.). The wealth thus acquired is said
to have contributed greatly to the subsequent prosperity of the Alcmaeonidae. (Herod. vi. 125.)
Alcmaeon was a breeder of horses for chariotraces, and on one occasion gained the prize in a
chariot-race at Olympia. (Herod. 1. c.; Isocrates,
de Bigis, c. 10. p. 351.) We are informed by
Plutarch (Solon, c. 11), that he commanded the
Athenians in the Cirrhaean war, which began
B. c. 600. [P. S.]
ALCMAEON ('AAcMalew), one of the mosi
eminent natural philosophers of antiquity, was ~
native of Crotona in Magna Graecia. His father',
name was Pirithus, and he is said to have been
pupil of Pythagoras, and must therefore have livec