=Astăcus=, a town of Bithynia, built by Acastus son of Neptune and Olbia, or rather by a colony from Megara and Athens. Lysimachus destroyed it, and carried the inhabitants to the town of Nicomedia, which was then lately built. _Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 12.――_Arrian._ ――_Strabo_, bk. 17.――――A city of Acarnania. _Pliny_, bk. 5. =Astăpa=, a town of Hispania Bætica. _Livy_, bk. 38, ch. 20. =Astăpus=, a river of Æthiopia, falling into the Nile. =Astarte=, a powerful divinity of Syria, the same as the Venus of the Greeks. She had a famous temple at Hierapolis in Syria, which was served by 300 priests, who were always employed in offering sacrifices. She was represented in medals with a long habit, and a mantle over it, tucked up on the left arm. She had one hand stretched forward, and held in the other a crooked staff in the form of a cross. _Lucian_, _de Deâ Syriâ_.――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, ch. 23. =Aster=, a dexterous archer of Amphipolis, who offered his service to Philip king of Macedonia. Upon being slighted, he retired into the city, and aimed an arrow at Philip, who pressed it with a siege. The arrow, on which was written “Aimed at Philip’s right eye,” struck the king’s eye, and put it out; and Philip, to return the pleasantry, threw back the same arrow, with these words, “If Philip takes the town, Aster shall be hanged.” The conqueror kept his word. _Lucian_, _Quomodo historia conscribenda sit_. =Astĕria=, a daughter of Ceus, one of the Titans, by Phœbe daughter of Cœlus and Terra. She married Perses son of Crius, by whom she had the celebrated Hecate. She enjoyed for a long time the favours of Jupiter, under the form of an eagle; but falling under his displeasure, she was changed into a quail, called _Ortyx_ by the Greeks; whence the name of _Ortygia_, given to that island in the Archipelago, where she retired. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, fable 4.――_Hyginus_, fable 58.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 2, &c. ――――A town of Greece, whose inhabitants went to the Trojan war. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2, li. 782.――――One of the daughters of Danaus, who married Chætus son of Ægyptus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2.――――One of the daughters of Atlas, mother of Œnomaus king of Pisa. _Hyginus_, fable 250.――――A mistress of Gyges, to whom Horace wrote three odes to comfort her during her lover’s absence.