court of Esarhaddon at Nineveh. There are references in
Rumanian, Slavonic, Armenian, Arabic and Syriac literature
to a legend, of which the hero is Ahikar (for Armenian,
Arabic and Syriac, see The Story of Ahikar, F. C.
Conybeare, Rondel Harris and Agnes Lewis, Camb. 1898), and
it was pointed out by George Hoffmann in 1880 that this
Ahikar and the Achiacharus of Tobit are identical. It
has been contended that there are traces of the legend even
in the New Testament, and there is a striking similarity
between it and the Life of Aesop by Maximus Planudes (ch.
xxiii.-xxxii.). An eastern sage Achaicarus is mentioned by
Strabo. It would seem, therefore, that the legend was
undoubtedly oriental in origin, though the relationship
of the various versions can scarcely be recovered.
See the Jewish Encyclopaedia and the Encyclopaedia Biblica;
also M. R. James in The Guardian, Feb. 2, 1898, p. 163 f.
ACHILL (``Eagle''), the largest island off Ireland, separated
from the Curraun peninsula of the west coast by the narrow
Achill Sound. Pop. (1901) 4929. It is included in the county
Mayo, in the western parliamentary division. Its shape is
triangular, and its extent is 15 m. from E. to W. and 12 from
N. to S. The area is 57 sq. m. The island is mountainous,
the highest points being Slieve Croaghaun (2192 ft.) in the
west, and Shevemore (2204 ft.) in the north; the extreme
western point is the bold and rugged promontory of Achill
Head, and the northwestern and south-western coasts consist
of ranges of magnificent cliffs, reaching a height of 800
ft. in the cliffs of Minaun, near the village of Keel on the
south. The seaward slope of Croaghaun is abrupt and in
parts precipitous, and its jagged flanks, together with
the serrated ridge of the Head and the view over the broken
coast-line and islands of the counties Mayo and Galway,
attract many visitors to the island during summer. Desolate
bogs, incapable of cultivation, alternate with the mountains;
and the inhabitants earn a scanty subsistence by fishing and
tillage, or by seeking employment in England and Scotland
during the harvesting. The Congested Districts Board,
however, have made efforts to improve the Condition of the
people, and a branch of the Midland Great Western railway
to Achill Sound, together with a swivel bridge across the
sound, improved communications and make for prosperity.
Dugort, the principal village, contains several hotels.
Here is a Protestant colony. known as ``the Settlement'' and
founded in 1834. There are antiquarian remains (cromlechs,
stone circles and the like) at Slievemore and elsewhere.
ACHILLES (Gr. 'Achilleus), one of the most famous of the
hegendary heroes of ancient Greece and the central figure
of Homer's Iliad. He was said to have been the son of
Peleus, king of the Myrmidones of Phthia in Thessaly, by
Thetis, one of the Nereids. His grandfather Aeacus was,
according to the legend, the son of Zeus himself. The story
of the childhood of Achilles in Homer differs from that given
by later writers. According to Homer, he was brought up by
his mother at Phthia with his cousin and intimate friend
Patroclus, and learned the arts of war and eloquence from
Phoenix, while the Centaur Chiron taught him music and
medicine. When summoned to the war against Troy, he
set sail at once with his Myrmidones in fifty ships.
Post-Homeric sources add to the legend certain picturesque
details which bear all the evidence of their primitive
origin, and which in some cases belong to the common stock
of Indo-Germanic myths. According to one of these stories
Thetis used to lay the infant Achilles every night under
live coals, anointing him by day with ambrosia, in order
to make him immortal. Peleus, having surprised her in the
act, in alarm snatched the boy from the flames; whereupon
Thetis fled back to the sea in anger (Apollodorus iii. 13;
Apollonius Rhodius iv. 869). According to another story Thetis
dipped the child in the waters of the river Styx, by which
his whole body became invulnerable, except that part of his
heel by which she held him; whence the proverbial ``heel
of Achilles'' (Statius, Achilleis, i. 269). With this
may be compared the similar story told of the northern hero
Sigurd. The boy was afterwards entrusted to the care of Chiron,
who, to give him the strength necessary for war, fed him
with the entrails of lions and the marrow of bears and wild
boars. To prevent his going to the siege of Troy, Thetis
disguised him in female apparel, and hid him among the maidens
at the court of King Lycomedes in Scyros; but Odysseus,
coming to the island in the disguise of a pedlar, spread
his wares, including a spear and shield, before the king's
daughters, among whom was Achilles. Then he caused an alarm
to be sounded; whereupon the girls fled, but Achilles seized
the arms, and so revealed himself, and was easily persuaded
to follow the Greeks (Hyginus, Fab. 96; Statius, Ach.
i.; Apollodorus, l.c.). This story may be compared with
the Celtic legend of the boyhood of Peredur or Perceval.
During the first nine years of the war as described in the
Iliad, Achilles ravaged the country round Troy, and took
twelve cities. In the tenth year occurred the quarrel with
Agamemnon. In order to appease the wrath of Apollo, who had
visited the camp with a pestilence, Agamemnon had restored
Chryseis, his prize of war, to her father, a priest of the
god, but as a compensation deprived Achilles, who had
openly demanded this restoration, of his favourite slave
Briseis. Achilles withdrew in wrath to his tent, where
he consoled himself with music and singing, and refused
to take any further part in the war. During his absence
the Greeks were hard pressed, and at last he so far relaxed
his anger as to allow his friend Patroclus to personate
him, lending him his chariot and armour. The slaying of
Patroclus by the Trojan hero Hector roused Achilles from his
indifference; eager to avenge his beloved comrade, he sallied
forth, equipped with new armour fashioned by Hephaestus,
slew Hector, and, after dragging his body round the walls
of Troy, restored it to the aged King Priam at his earnest
entreaty. The Iliad concludes with the funeral rites of
Hector. It makes no mention of the death of Achilles, but
hints at its taking place ``before the Scaean gates.'' In
the Odyssey (xxiv. 36. 72) his ashes are said to have been
buried in a golden urn, together with those of Patroclus, at
a place on the Hellespont, where a tomb was erected to his
memory; his soul dwells in the lower world, where it is seen by
Odysseus. The contest between Ajax and Odysseus for his arms
is also mentioned. The Aethiopis of Arctinus of Miletus
took up the story of the Iliad. It told how Achilles,
having slain the Amazon Penthesileia and Memnon, king of the
Aethiopians, who had come to the assistance of the Trojans,
was himself slain by Paris (Alexander), whose arrow was
guided by Apollo to his vulnerable heel (Virgil, Aen. vi.
57; Ovid, Met. xii. 600). Again, it is said that Achilles,
enamoured of Polyxena, the daughter of Priam, offered to
join the Trojans on condition that he received her hand in
marriage. This was agreed to; Achilles went unarmed to the
temple of Apollo Thymbraeus, and was slain by Paris (Dietys
iv. 11). According to some, he was slain by Apollo himself
(Quint. Smyrn. iii. 61; Horace, Odes, iv. 6, 3).
Hyginus (Fab. 107) makes Apollo assume the form of Paris.
Later stories say that Thetis snatched his body from the
pyre and conveyed it to the island of Leuke, at the mouth
of the Danube, where he ruled with Iphigeneia as his
wife; or that he was carried to the Elysian fields, where
his wife was Medea or Helen. He was worshipped in many
places: at Leuke, where he was honoured with offerings
and games; in Sparta, Elis, and especially Sigeum on
the Hellespont, where his famous tumulus was erected.
Achilles is a typical Greek hero; handsome, brave, celebrated
for his fleetness of foot, prone to excess of wrath and
grief, at the same time he is compassionate, hospitable,
full of affection for his mother and respect for the gods.
In works of art he is represented, like Ares, as a young man
of splendid physical proportions, with bristling hair like a
horse's mane and a slender neck. Although the figure of the
hero frequently occurs in groups---such as the work of Scopas
showing his removal to the island of Leuke by Poseidon and
Thetis, escorted by Neroids and Tritons, and the combat
over his dead body in the Aeginetan sculptures--no isolated
statue or bust can with certainty be identified with him;
the statue in the Louvre (from the Villa Borghese), which
was thought to have the best claim, is generally taken for
Ares or possibly Alexander. There are many vase and wall
paintings and bas-reliefs illustrative of incidents in his
life. Various etymologies of the name have been suggested:
``without a lip'' (a', cheilos), Achilles being regarded
as a river-god, a stream which overflows its banks, or,
referring to the story that, when Thetis laid him in the
fire, one of his lips, which he had licked, was consumed
(Tzetzes on Lycophron, 178); ``restrainer of the people,'
(eche-laos); ``healer of sorrow'' (ache-loios); ``the
obscure'' (connected with achlus, ``mist''); ``snakeborn''
(echis), the snake being one of the chief forms taken by
Thetis. The most generally received view makes him a
god of light, especially of the sun or of the lightning.
See E. H. Meyer, Indogermanische Mythen, ii., Achilleis,
1887; F. G. Welcker, Der epische Cyclus, 1865--1882;
articles in Pauly-Wissowa, Rcal-Encyclopadie der classischen
Altertumswissenschait, Daremberg and Saglio's Dictionnaire
des Antiquites and Roscher's Lexikon der Mythologie;
see also T. W. Allen in Classical Review, May 1906; A. E.
Crawley, J. G. Frazer, A. Lang, Ibid., June, July 1893,
on Achilles in Scyros. In the article GREEK ART, fig. 12
represents the conflict over the dead body of Achilles.
ACHILLES TATIUS, of Alexandria, Greek rhetorician, author
of the erotic romance, the Adventures of Leucippe and
Cleitophon, flourished about A.D. 450, perhaps later.
Suidas, who alone calls him Statius, says that he became a
Christian and eventually a bishop--like Hellodorus, whom he
imitated--but there is no evidence of this. Photius, while
severely criticizing his lapses into indecency, highly praises
the conciseness and clearness of his style, which, however,
is artificial and laboured. Many of the incidents of the
romance are highly improbable, and the characters, except the
heroine, fail to enlist sympathy. The descriptive passages
and digressions, although tedious and introduced without
adequate reasons, are the best part of the work. The large
number of existing MSS. attests its popularity. (Editio
princeps, 1601; first important critical edition by (Jacobs,
1821; litter editions by Hirschig, 1856; Hercher, 1858. There
are translations in many languages; in English by Anthony
Hodges], 1638, and R. Smith, 1855. See also ROMANCE.)
Suidas also ascribes to this author an Etymology, a
Miscellaneous History af Famous Men, and a treatise On
the Sphere. Part of the last is extant under the title
of An Introduction to the Phaenomena of Aratus. But
if the writer is the prudentissimus Achilles referred
to by Firmicus Maternus (about 336) in his Matheseos
libri, iv. 10, 17 (ed. Krolf), he must have lived long
before the author of Leucippe. The fragment was first
published in 1567, then in the Uranologion of Petavius,
with a Latin translation, 1630. Nothing definite is known
