=Ar´gus.= A son of Arestor, whence he is sometimes called Arestorides. He
had a hundred eyes, of which only two were asleep at one time. Juno set
him to watch Io, whom Jupiter had changed into a heifer, but Mercury, by
order of Jupiter, slew him, by lulling all his eyes to sleep with the
notes of the lyre. Juno put the eyes of Argus in the tail of the
peacock, a bird sacred to her.
=Ariad´ne=, daughter of Minos, second king of Crete, and Pasiphæ, fell in
love with Theseus, who was shut up in the labyrinth to be devoured by
the Minotaur. She gave Theseus a clue of thread by which he extricated
himself from the windings of the labyrinth. After he had conquered the
Minotaur he married her, but after a time forsook her. On this,
according to some authorities, she hanged herself. According to other
writers, after being abandoned by Theseus, Bacchus loved her, and gave
her a crown of seven stars, which were made a constellation.
=Ari´on.= A famous lyric poet and musician, son of Cyclos of Methymna in
Lesbos. He went into Italy with Periander, tyrant of Corinth, where he
gained much wealth by his profession. Afterwards he wished to revisit
the place of his nativity, and he embarked in a ship, the sailors of
which resolved to kill him for the riches he had with him. Arion
entreated them to listen to his music, and as soon as he had finished
playing he threw himself into the sea. A number of dolphins had been
attracted by the sweetness of his music, and it is said that one of them
carried him safely on its back to Tænarus, whence he went to the court
of Periander, who ordered all the sailors to be crucified.
=Aristæ´us.= Son of Apollo and Cyrene, famous for his fondness for
hunting. He married Autonoe, the daughter of Cadmus, Actæon being their
son. He was after death worshiped as a demigod.
=Aristar´chus.= A celebrated grammarian of Samos, disciple of
Aristophanes. He lived the greatest part of his life at Alexandria. He
wrote about 800 commentaries on different authors. He died in his
seventy-second year, B.C. 157.
=Aristi´des.= A celebrated Athenian, son of Lysimachus, in the age of
Themistocles, whose great temperance and virtue procured for him the
name of the "Just." He was rival to Themistocles, by whose influence he
was banished for ten years, B.C. 484. He was at the battle of Salamis,
and was appointed to be chief commander with Pausanias against
Mardonius, whom they defeated at Platæa.
=Aristip´pus=, the elder, a philosopher of Cyrene, a disciple of Socrates,
and founder of the Cyrenaic sect.
=Aristogi´ton= and =Harmo´dis=. Two celebrated friends of Athens, who, by
their joint efforts, delivered their country from the tyranny of the
Pisistratidæ, B.C. 510.
=Aristoph´anes.= A celebrated comic poet of Athens, son of Philip of
Rhodes. He wrote fifty-four comedies, of which eleven have come down to
us. He lived B.C. 434, and lashed the vices of the age with a masterly
hand.
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