ideal tendency, he devoted himself mainly to religious subjects, working like him in various materials, gold and ivory, bronze and marble. His statue of the winner in the Pentathlŏn was stamped as classic by the epithet of Enkrīnŏmĕnos, as the Dory̌phŏrŏs of Polyclītus was by that of Kănōn. About 436 b.c. he was employed with Phidias in decorating the temple of Zeus at Olympia. The marble groups of the battle of Centaurs and Lăpĭthæ in its western pediment are his work. Of these considerable remains have been brought to light by the recent German excavations. (See Olympian Games, fig. 2.)
Alcathoüs (Gr. Alkăthŏŏs). The son of Pelops and Hippodameia. He slew the lion of Cithærōn, which had torn to pieces Euippus, the son of Mĕgăreus. Thus he won the daughter of Megareus, Euæchma, and the sovereignty of Mĕgăra. With Apollo for his friend and helper, he rebuilt the city walls, and reared one of the two castles, Alcăthŏē, with temples to Artĕmis and Apollo. A singing stone in the castle was shown as the one on which the god laid down his lyre when at work. Alcathous' eldest son, Ischēpŏlis, fell in the Calydonian hunt; the second, Callĭpŏlis, running in with the news to his father when sacrificing to Apollo, scattered the altar fire, and Alcathous struck him dead with a firebrand for the supposed sacrilege. By his daughters Automedūsa and Peribœa, the wives of Iphĭclēs and Tĕlămōn, he was grandfather to Iolāüs and Aias (Ajax).
Alcestis (Gr. Alkēstis). Daughter of Pĕliās, renowned for her tender love for her husband Admētus, and her voluntary death on his behalf. (See Admetus.)
Alcĭdămās (Gr. Alkĭdămās). A Greek rhetorician of Elæa in Æŏlis, pupil and successor of Gorgias, a contemporary and opponent of Isocrătēs. Two declamations, bearing his name, have come down to us, one an imaginary indictment of Palamēdēs by Odysseus, the other a speech on the Sophists; but the latter only can with any probability be attributed to him. It is a cleverly written argument, intended to show that the culmination of rhetorical training consists in the power of speaking extempore on any subject from mere notes of the arrangement; not the practice of carefully writing out speeches, and then learning them by heart for public delivery.
Alcīdes (Gr. Alkīdēs). A surname of Hērăclēs (q.v.).
Alcĭnŏüs (Gr. Alkĭnŏös). King of the Phæacians (q.v.), with whom Odysseus, and in later legend Jason and Medea, find shelter and aid. (See Odysseus and Argonauts.)
Alcĭphrōn (Gr. Alkĭphrōn). A Greek rhetorician of the 2nd century a.d., author of a collection of 118 fictitious Letters in three books. These, written in tolerably pure style and tasteful form, profess to be from sailors, peasants, parasites, and hetæræ. They are sketches of character, ingeniously conceived and carried out, which give us a vivid picture of the then state of culture, especially at Athens; the letters from hetæræare particularly interesting, as their plots are taken from the New Attic Comedy, especially the lost plays of Menander.
Alcmæōn (Gr. Alkmaiōn), of Argos. Son of Amphiarāüs (q.v.) and Eriphȳlē. As his father, in departing on the expedition of the Seven against Thebes, has bound him and his brother Amphĭlŏchus, then mere boys, to avenge him on their faithless mother, Alcmæon refuses to take part in the second expedition, that of the Epĭgŏni (q.v.), till he has first fulfilled that filial duty; nevertheless his mother, bribed by Thersander with the garment of Harmŏnia, persuades him to go. The real leader at the siege of Thebes, he slays the Theban king, Laŏdămās, and is the first to enter the conquered city. On returning home, he, at the bidding of the Delphian Apollo, avenges his father by slaying his mother, with, or according to some accounts, without, his brother’s help; but immediately, like Orestēs, he is set upon by the Erīny̌ĕs, and wanders distracted, seeking purification and a new home. Phegeus, of the Arcadian Psŏphis, half purifies him of his guilt, and gives him his daughter Arsĭnŏë or Alphesibœa to wife, to whom he presents the jewels of Harmonia, which he has brought from Argos. But soon the crops fail in the land, and he falls into his distemper again, till, after many wanderings, he arrives at the mouth of the Achelōüs, and there, in an island that has floated up, he finds the country promised by the god, which had not existed at the time of his dying mother's curse, and so he is completely cured. He marries Achelous' daughter, Callirrhŏë, by whom he has two sons, Acarnān and Amphŏtĕrus. Unable to withstand his wife's entreaties that she may have Harmonia's necklace and robe, he goes to Phēgeus in Arcadia, and begs those treasures of him, pretending that he will dedicate them at Delphi for the perfect healing of his madness. He obtains them; but Phegeus,
