Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, page 101 (original) (raw)

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On this page: Antomosia – Antyx – Apageli – Apagoge – Apaturj a

APATURIA.

fir, or some other tapering tree. The bucket, being attached to the top of the tree, bends it by its weight ; and the thickness of the. other extremity serves as a counterpoise. The great antiquity of this method of raising water is proved by repre­sentations of it in Eg}rptian paintings. (Wilkin-son, Manners and Ctist. of Anc. Egypt, ii. 1—4 ; see also Pitt. cPErcolano^ vol. i. p. 257.) [ J. Y.]

**ANTOMOSIA (ai/rwjuoo-i'a). [ANAKRisis, p. 92, a ; paragraphe.]

**ANTYX (civrv^ probably allied etymologically to aju,7ru£), the rim or border of any thing, espe­cially of a shield, or chariot. The rim of the large round shield of the ancient Greeks was thinner than the part which it enclosed. Thus the orna­mental border of the shield of Achilles, fabricated by Hephaestus, was only threefold, the shield itself being sevenfold. (II. xviii. 479 ; comp. xx. 275.) See examples of the antyos of a shield in woodcuts to antefixa, arma, clipeus.

On the other hand, the antyoc of a chariot must have been thicker than the body to which it was attached, and to which it gave both form and strength. For the same reason, it was often made double, as in the chariot of Hera. (Aoml Se Trepi-§pop.oi cLvrvyes etVi, 11. v. 728.) It rose in front of a chariot in a curved form, on which the reins might be hung. (1L v. 26.2, 322.) A simple form of it is exhibited in the annexed woodcut from the

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work of Carloni. Sometimes antyx is used to signify the chariot itself. [J. Y.]

**APAGELI (airdyeXoi). [AGELA.]

**APAGOGE (curayuyfy. [endeixis.]

**APATURJ A (cbrarotipta), was a political festi­ val, which the Athenians had in common with all the Greeks of the Ionian name (Herod, i. 147), with the exception of those of Colophon and Ephesus. It was celebrated in the month of Pyanepsion, and lasted for three days. The ori­ gin of this festival is related in the following man­ ner : —About the year 1100 b. c., the Athenians Avere carrying on a war against the Boeotians, con­ cerning the district of Cilaenae, or? according to others, respecting the little town of Oerioe. The .Boeotian Xanthius, or Xanthus, challenged Thymoetes, king of Attica, to single combat ; and when he refused, Melanthus, a Messenian exile of the house of the Nelids, offered himself to fight for Thymoetes, on condition that, if vic­ torious, he should be the successor to Thymoetes. The offer was accepted ; and when Xanthius and Melanthus began the engagement, there appeared behind Xanthius a man in the rpayrj, the skin of a black she-goat. Melanthus reminded his adversary that he was violating the laws of single combat by

APATURIA. 101

having a companion, and while Xanthius looked around, Melanthus slew the deceived Xanthius. From that time, the Athenians celebrated two fes­tivals, the Apaturia, and that of Dionysus Melan-aegis, who was believed to have been the man who appeared behind Xanthius. This is the story related by the Scholiast on Aristophanes. (Acliarn. 146.) This tradition has given rise to a false ety­mology of the name airarovpia, which was formerly considered to be derived from arraraj/^ to deceive. All modern critics, however (Miiller, Dorians, i. 5. 4 ; Welcker, Aeschyl. Tril. p. 288), agree that the name is composed of a= a/m, and irarSpia, which is perfectly consistent with what Xenophon (Hellen. i. 7. § 8) says of the festival: 'E^ oTs (airarovpiois) o'l re vrarepes Kal oi crvyyevs'is ^vv&ktl fffyicrw avrois. According to this derivation, it is the festival at which the phratriae met, to discuss and settle their own affairs. But, as every citizen was a member of a phratria, the festival extended over the whole nation, who assembled according to phratriae. Welcker (AnJtang z. Trilog. p. 200), on account of the prominent part which Dionysus takes in the legend respecting the origin of the Attic Apaturia, conceives that it arose from the circumstance that families belonging to the Dio-nysian tribe of the Aegicores had been registered among the citizens.

The first clay of the festival, which probably fell on the eleventh of the month of Pyanepsion, was called SopTri'a, or Sopireia (Athen.iv. p. 171; Hesych. and Suid. s. v.} • on which every citizen went in the evening to the phratrium, or to the house of some wealthy member of his own phratria, and there enjoyed the supper prepared for him. (Aris-top.h. Acharn. 146.) That the cup-bearers (olv6-~ tttcu) were not idle on this occasion, may be seen from Photius (Lexic. s. v. Aopiria).

The second day was called _aydppvcns (avap-_pueiv) from the sacrifice offered on this day to Zeus, surnamed Qpdrpios, and to Athena, and sometimes to Dionysus Melanaegis. This was a state sacrifice, in which all citizens took part. The day was chiefly devoted to the gods, and to it must,, perhaps, be confined what Harpocration (s. v. Aafjurds) mentions, from the Atthis of Istrus, that the Athenians at the apaturia used to dress splendidly, kindle torches on the altar of Hephae­stus, and sacrifice and sing in honour of him. Proclus on Plato (Tim. p. 21. &.), in opposition to . all other authorities, calls the first day of the Apa-! turia avdppvcris, and the second Sop-rna, which is, perhaps, nothing more than a slip of his pen.

On the third day, called icovpewrts (icovpos\ children born in that year, in the families of the phratriae, or such as were not yet registered, were taken by their fathers, or in their absence by their representatives (Kvpioi\ before the assembled members of the phratria. For every child a sheep or goat was sacrificed. The victim was called peiov, and he who sacrificed it ^eiaywyos (/iietcryarye??/). It is said that the victim was not allowed to be below (Harpocrat. Suid. Phot. s. v. Metbz/), or, according to Pollux (iii. 52), above, a certain weight. Whenever any one thought he had reason to oppose the reception of the child into the phratria, he stated the case, and, at the same time, led away the victim from the altar. (Demosth. c. Macart. p. 1054.) If the mem­bers of the phratria found the objections to the reception of the child to be sufficient, the vie-

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