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infested the sea-, that the merchants could not carry on their trade.This alliance was concluded in France , upon conditions so advan-tageous to the Scot-, that Achaius, to perpetuate the memory ofit, added to the arms of Scotland a double held sowed with lilies,or lleurs de Lis. He died in 8H).
ACI1AM, a country in Asia , bounded on the N. by Boutan,on the E. by China , on the S. by Burmah, and on the \V . by llin-doslan. It is very little known to Europeans.
ACIIAX, or Achar, the son of Canni, of the tribe of Ju-dah. Il is covetousness, which led him to attempt to elude theall-searching eve of Omniscience, the fatal consequences to theIsraelites , with his detection, confession, and signal punishment,are recorded in Josh. vii.
ACII AX K, [ax/-.*'i, Or.] an ancient Persian corn measure,containing 45 Attic medimni.
ACHAOVA, in the Materia Medira of the ancients, the name•of an herb much celebrated in many distempers; probably theherb we call mnrum.
AC IIA RAC A, in ancient geography, a town of Lydia, si-tuated between Tralles aiu’.Nysa; in which were the temple ofPluto, and (he cave Charonium, where patients slept in order toobtain a cure.
ACHAT, in law', a contract or bargain, especially in the wayof purchase 1 .
ACHATES, the companion of .Eneas , and his most faithfulfriend, celebrated in Virgil.
Achates, the Ao\vte, which see.
Achates, in ancient geography, a river of Sicily , now the Dril-lo; which rises in the north of the territory of Noto. It gavename to the Achates, or Agate , said to-be first found there..
ACIIATORS, purveyors so called, from their making bar-gains.
ACIIAZ1B, or Achzib, in ancient geography, 1 . A town ofGalilee, in the tribe of Asher, 9 miles from Ptolemais. 9. A townon the southern parts of the tribe of Judah.
ACIIE,, in farriery, a disease of horses that occasions a numb-ness of the joints.
ACII HEX, Achem, or Aches', a kingdom on the X. \V.part of the Island of Sumatra . ALo a large counify situated northof the kingdom of Ava.
'Acheen, or Achem, the capital of Sumatra , lies 1000 milesS. R. of Madras, and is situated on a river, which empties itselfnear the X. W. point, or Acheen-head, about two miles from themouth, in a wide valley, formed like an amphitheatre bv twolofty ranges of hills. Hon. 95. 34. E. Cat. 5. 99. X.
ACllELOl'S, a hero, in ancient mythology, who wrestledwith Hercules, for Deianira, daughter to king Oeneus : but asAchelous had the power of assuming all shapes, the contest waslong dubious: at last, as he took that of a bull, Hercules tore otVone of his horns; so that he was forced to submit, and to redeemit by giving tire conqueror the horn of Amalthea, or plenty; whichHercules having tilled with a variety of fruits, consecrated to Ju-piter. Some explain this fable, by saying, That Achelous is- awinding river of Greece , whose stream was so rapid, that it roaredlike a bull, and overflowed its banks; but Hercules , by bringingit into two channels, broke oil' one of the horns, and so restoredplenty to the cofintry.
Achelous, a river of Acarnania ; which rises in mount Pimlus,and falls into the Sinus Cormthiacus.
ACHERDER, orACHERXER. See Acarnar.
ACIIERI, Luke d’, a learned Benedictine of the congrega-tion of St. Maur, born at St. tjuintin, in Picardy, in 1609, andfamous for printing several works, till then only in M. S. viz. The•■pi-tle attributed to St. Barnabas; The works of l.anfrank, arch-bishop of Canterbury ; A collection of scarce and curious pieces,entitled Spicilegium, i. e. Gleanings, in 13 volumes quarto. Theprefaces and notes, annexed to many of these pieces, show him tohave been a man of genius and abilities. The pieces inserted inthe first volumes of The Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Ileu-net, were collected and published by him and father Mabillon .After a very- retired life, he died at Paris , in 1685, in the abbeyot St. Germain, whore tie had been librarian, aged 73.
ACHERON, Gr.] in ancient mythology, the son of
Ceres, whom she hid in hell for fear of the Titans, and turnedinto a river, over which departed souls were ferried in their way toElysium.
Hi 1 i*■— , . — - 1 —. '-r ..n: ■ ■ —g.r.,1 ’jt aa
Acheron, a river of Thesprotia, in Epirus ; which, after fornvmg (lie lake A’cherusia, at no great distance from the promontoryof Chiineriuin, falls into the sea near it, to the west of the SinusAmhracius, in a course from N. to S. It is now called Ddichi.
Acheron, orAcHERos, a river of the Bruttii in Italv, run-ning from E. to W. where Alexander king of Epirus was slain bythe l.ucani, being deceived by the oracle of IJodona, which bidhim beware of Acheron, which he supposed to mean the Acheritiin his own kingdom.
ACIIERSET, an ancient measure of corn, conjectured to bethe same with our quarter, or eight bushels.
ACIIERUSIA, in ancient mythology, a cave through whichHercules was tabled to have descended to hell, to drag forth Cer-berus.
ACH1A, a kind of Cane'which grows in the East-Indies, and ispickled there while green, with strong vinegar and pepper, to-gether with some other spices and ingredient-.
ACI11AR i- a Malayan word, which signilies all sorts of fruitsand voots pickled with vinegar and spice.
ACIliCOl.UM, the fornix, tholus, sudatorium, or swealingyroom of the ancient baths. It is also called archilhohis.
ACHILL.EA, Yarrow', Milfoil , Xose-ui.kkh, or Snef.ze-wort; a genus of the order polygamiasuperilua, and syngenesia class'of plants. Common calyx ovate, imbricated, with ovate, acute, con-verging scales; compound corolla rayed; the hern uiphrodile enrol letstubular in the disc, tile feminine linguifonn; proper corolla of thehermaphrodites, funnel-shaped, expanded, and divided into 5 seg-ments; that of the females, tongue-shaped, inver-ely cordated, ex-panding, and of 3 segments ; stylus, filiform, the length of the sta-mina; seeds solitary, ovate, and furnished with a lock of wool; re-ceptaculum chal'fy and elevated. There are 45 species.
ACH1ELE1S, the Achilleid, a celebrated poem of Statius ,in which the author proposed to deliver the whole life and exploitsof Achilles ; but being prevented by death, he has only treated ofthe infancy and education of his hero.
ACHILLES, in fabulous history, the sou of king Peleu -, bythe goddess Thetis, and the celebrated hero of Homer’s Iliad , is.said to have been born at l’hlhia in Thessaly . 'The fabulous partof his hislorv is, that his mother, in order to render him immortal,by consuming the mortal parts of his body, which lie derived fromlus father, laid him, when a child, every night under live coals,anointing him at the same time with ambrosia, which preservedhim from burning, except one of his lips which lie had licked;that to render him invulnerable, she dipped him in the river Styx,all excepting the heel by which she held him, a story not evencredited by Homer , who mentions his being wounded in theright arm; that she afterwards entrusted him to the care of Chi-ron the Centaur, who fed him with the marrow of wild beasts, tostrengthen him for the toils of war; and that to prevent him fromgoing to the siege of Troy, she disguised him in the dress of ayoung woman, and attempted to conceal him among the daugh-ters of king Evcoinedes, one of whom he got with child. What-ever truth may be in this last anecdote, the authentic part of thisstory seems to be, that Ulys: es persuaded him to accompany theother Grecian chiefs in their expedition against 'Troy ; that he theredistinguished himself by his valour, t.11 Again' union by takingfrom him Brisris a female captive, provoked bun to withdrawhimself in disgust: but that his friend Patroclus bring killed byHector, in order to avenge his death he retinue ! to the camp,slew that prince, and barbarously dragged Ins deed body roundthe walls of 'Troy at his chariot wheel- : that at-terwi . tailing inlove with Pliiloxena, one of Hector’s sriter-, lie was mortallywounded with an arrow, in the heel, by her brother Paris , whiletreating about the marriage; and, in line, that he ws euried oilthe promontory of Sigiviun, where the Gieeks sacrim . the un-fortunate princess, on liis tomb; according to the bad.,',.us cus-tom of that age, and agreeably to his dying request, th lie mightenjoy tier company in the Klysian Piculs, r lis death. L ■ opposedto leave happened about A. A. C. 1183. Alexander the Great issaid to have visited his tomb, and placed a crown up. o ", say ingthat “ Achilles was happy, in having stub a friend as ; uroclus inliis life, and such a poet as Homer , to celebrate Ifm. after hisdeath.
Achilles, in logic, a name which the schools gi c to the prin-cipal argument altcdgcd by each sect of philosophi c- in behalf oftheir system. In this sense, we sav, this is his Achilles; that, is,
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