ANNUNCIATION, the announcement made by the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary of the incarnation of Christ (Luke i. 26–38). A festival commemorative of the annunciation is kept by the church on the 25th of March. The first authentic allusions to it are in a canon of the Council of Toledo (656 A.D.), and another of the Council of Trullo (692), forbidding the celebration of all festivals in Lent, excepting the Lord's day and the Feast of the Annunciation. An earlier origin has been claimed for it on the ground that it is mentioned in sermons of Athanasius and of Gregory Thaumaturgus, but both these documents are now admitted to be spurious.
ANODYNE (α privative, and ὀδύνη, pain), denotes etymologically anything which relieves pain. The common usage of the word restricts it, however, to medicines which lessen the sensibility of the brain or nervous system, without acting directly on the cause of pain. The anodynes generally employed are opium, henbane, hemlock, tobacco, stramonium, and chloroform.
ANOINTING, the practice of pouring an aromatic oil upon the head or over the whole body, has been in use from the earliest times among Oriental nations, from whom it passed, chiefly in its ceremonial application, to the nations of the west. It served three distinct purposes, being regarded as a means of health and comfort, as a token of honour, or as a symbol of consecration. Reasoning from analogy, it seems probable that anointing was practised for sanative reasons before it became a religious ceremonial, but it is impossible to determine this with certainty. Its adoption as a sanative agent was dictated chiefly by the conditions of climate in the East. Used as it generally was in conjunction with the bath, it closed the pores, repressed undue perspiration, and so prevented loss of strength. It was also regarded as a protection against the heat of the sun, and the oil, being aromatic, counteracted disagreeable smells. The anointing of the head as a token of honour paid to guests and strangers is mentioned in Scripture (Ps. xxiii. 5; Luke vii. 46), and was customary among the Egyptians (Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, ii. 213), the Greeks, and the Romans. Anointing as a symbol of consecration was practised among the Jews from the time of the exodus from Egypt, as part of the ceremonial investiture with the sacred offices of prophet (1 Kings xix. 16), priest (Exod. xxix. 7), and king (1 Sam. ix. 16). It does not seem to have been essential to the consecration of a prophet, and, as each individual holder of the office of priest or king was not anointed, it has been generally inferred that in these cases it was essential only at the consecration of a new line or dynasty. The titles Messiah and Christ, both meaning anointed, are applied to our Saviour as the anti-typical prophet, priest, and king. Anointing has passed from the Jewish into the Christian economy, and finds a place in the rites of baptism, confirmation, dedication of a church, &c., as these are administered in the Roman Catholic and Episcopalian communions. Its use at coronations symbolises the idea of monarchy as a mediate theocracy. The practice of anointing the sick in the primitive church, and the dying in the Roman Catholic Church, will be found treated in the article Extreme Unction.
ANOUKIS, or Anaka, the name of an Egyptian goddess, one of the contemplar or companion goddesses of Khnum or Chnoumis. Her name meant “the Clasper” or “Embracer.” She belonged to the “triad of Elephantine,” formed of Khnum or Chnoumis, Sati or Satis—the Egyptian Hera or Juno, “the sunbeam”—and herself. As Sati personified the upper world or hemisphere, and wore the white crown upon her head, so Anoukis wore the red crown, emblem of the lower world or hemisphere. She personified Hestia or Vesta, and had the crown surmounted by a tiara of feathers, similar to those of the Pulusata, or supposed Pelasgi, and Tsakkaru, or Teucri, as if she had been a goddess of these nations. Some have compared her name to that of the Phœnician goddess Onga. It rarely appears in the texts and monuments, although it is occasionally seen. Statuettes of Anoukis are of the greatest rarity, if, indeed, they occur.—Champollion, Panth. Egypt; Wilkinson, Mann. and Cust., v. p. 26; Rosellini, Mon. d. Cult., ii.; Letronne, Recherches, pp. 345-6.
ANQUETIL, Louis Pierre, a French historian, was born at Paris, 21st Jan. 1723. He was for some time director of the academy at Rheims, and published in 1757 three volumes of a history of that city. In 1759 he was appointed prior of the abbey de la Roe, in Anjou, and soon after director of the college of Senlis. In 1766 he obtained the curacy or priory of Chateau-Renard, near Montargis, which he exchanged, at the commencement of the Revolution, for the curacy of La Villette, in the neighbourhood of Paris. During the reign of terror he was imprisoned at St Lazare. On the establishment of the National Institute he was elected a member of the second class, and was soon afterwards employed in the office of the minister for foreign affairs. He died on the 6th of September 1808. Anquetil left a very considerable number of historical works; but his style is censurable in many respects, and he appears to have been almost entirely destitute of the critical discernment and philosophical sagacity of a good historian. A list of his works is given in the Biographie Universelle.
