ALCI'DES, a name sometimes given to Hercules as the descendent of the hero Alcoeus through his son Amphitryon (_q. v._) The name is applied to any valiant hero. The Tuscan poet [_Ariosto_] doth advance The frantic paladin of France [_Orlando Furioso_]; And those more ancient do enhance Alcidês in his fury. M. Drayton, _Nymphidia_ (1563-1631). Where is the great Alcidês of the field, Valiant lord Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury? Shakespeare, 1 _Henry VI_. act. iv. sc. 7 (1589). ALCI'NA, Carnal Pleasure personified. In Bojardo's _Orlando Innamorato_ she is a fairy, who carries off Astolfo. In Ariosto's _Orlando Furioso_ she is a kind of Circê, whose garden is a scene of enchantment. Alcina enjoys her lovers for a season, and then converts them into trees, stones, wild beasts, and so on, as her fancy dictates. AL'CIPHRON, or _The Minute Philosopher_, the title of a work by bishop Berkeley, so called from the name of the chief speaker, a freethinker. The object of this work is to expose the weakness of infidelity. _Al'ciphron_, "the epicurean," the hero of T. Moore's romance entitled _The Epicurean_. Like Aleiphron, we swing in air and darkness, and know not whither the wind blows us. --_Putnam's Magazine._ ALCME'NA (in Molière, _Alcmène_), the wife of Amphitryon, general of the Theban army. While her husband is absent warring against the Telebo'ans, Jupiter assumes the form of Amphitryon; but Amphitryon himself returns home the next day, and great confusion arises between the false and true Amphitryon, which is augmented by Mercury, who personates Sos'ia, the slave of Amphitryon. By this amour of Jupiter, Alcmena becomes the mother of Her'culês. Plautus, Molière, and Dryden have all taken this plot for a comedy entitled _Amphitryon_. ALCOFRI'BAS, the name by which Rabelais was called, after he came out of the prince's mouth, where he resided for six months, taking toll of every morsel of food that the prince ate. Pantag'ruel gave "the merry fellow the lairdship of Salmigondin."--Rabelais, _Pantagruel_, ii. 32 (1533). AL'COLOMB, "subduer of hearts," daughter of Abou Aibou of Damascus, and sister of Ganem. The caliph Haroun-al-Raschid, in a fit of jealousy, commanded Ganem to be put to death, and his mother and sister to do penance for three days in Damascus, and then to be banished from Syria. The two ladies came to Bag dad, and were taken in by the charitable syndic of the jewellers. When the jealous fit of the caliph was over he sent for the two exiles. Alcolomb he made his wife, and her mother he married to his vizier.--_Arabian Nights_ ("Ganem, the Slave of Love ").