Amphiaraus

“ Now besides those who are said of old to have been inspired by Apollo, there was no oracle-giving seer, but there were people good at explaining dreams, and inspecting the flights of birds and the entrails of victims. Amphiaraus was I think especially excellent in divination by dreams: and it is certain when he became a god that he instituted divination by dreams. And whoever comes to consult Amphiaraus has first (such is the custom) to purify himself, that is to sacrifice to the god. ”

“ And now death and bloodshed ran riot; men fell by hundreds; deeds of heroic valor were achieved on either side; feats of individual daring were displayed like those which Homer sings in the story of Troy. But the battle ended in the defeat of the assailants. Of the seven leaders only two survived, and one of these, Amphiaraüs, was about to suffer the fate he had foretold, when Jupiter rescued him from death by a miracle. The earth opened beneath him, and he, with his chariot and horses, was received unhurt into her bosom. ”

“ Baton is driving the chariot of Amphiaraus, holding the reins in one hand and a spear in the other. Amphiaraus already has one foot on the chariot and his sword drawn; he is turned towards Eriphyle in such a transport of anger that he can scarcely refrain from striking her.
5.17.9 After the house of Amphiaraus come the games at the funeral of Pelias, with the spectators looking at the competitors. Heracles is seated on a throne, and behind him is a woman. There is no inscription saying who the woman is, but she is playing on a Phrygian, not a Greek, flute. ”

“ AMPHILOCHUS, in Greek legend, a famous seer, son of Amphiaraus and Eriphyle and brother of Alcmaeon. According to some he assisted in the murder of Eriphyle, which, according to others, was carried out by Alcmaeon alone (Apollodorus iii. 6, 7) . He took part in the expedition of the Epigoni against Thebes and in the Trojan War. After the fall of Troy he founded, in conjunction with Mopsus, another famous seer, the oracle of Mallos in Cilicia. The two seers afterwards fought for its possession, and both were slain in the combat. ”

“ The most famous, however, of this class of oracles, was that of Amphiaraus, the father of Amphilocus, which was one of the five principal oracles of Greece; he had signalized himself as a sapient soothsayer in the first Theban war; and his oracle was situated at Oropos, on the borders of Boetia and Attica. Of all others this deserves our most particular attention, as it was resorted to more frequently in cases of infirmity and disease, than in any other circumstances. His responses were always delivered in dreams, in whose interpretation, as he was the first to possess that faculty. ”

“ Nature bids me preserve myself, and nature binds me to have one friend and foe with God. The heathens had a notion of it. They observed, that Amphiaraus, a wise and virtuous man, was therefore swallowed up in the earth with seven men and seven horses, because he had joined himself and associated with Tydeus, Capaneus, and other wicked commanders marching to the siege of Thebe. ”

“ The exact spot where this memorable incident happened was indicated by a sepulchral building, and shown by the Thêbans down to the days of Pausanias—its sanctity being attested by the fact, that no animal would consent to touch the herbage which grew within the sacred inclosure. Amphiaräus, rendered immortal by Zeus, was worshipped as a god at Argos, at Thêbes and at Orôpus—and for many centuries gave answers at his oracle to the questions of the pious applicant. ”

“ Ammonius, an Athenian philosopher of the first century A. D., the instructor of Plutarch. A speaker in the First and Third Pythian Dialogues. See also 298, and cp. Sympos. 3, 1, 2; 8, 3; 9, 1, 2, 5, 14; and Life of Themistocles, end. Amphiaraüs of Argos, prince and seer, who accompanied the Seven Chieftains against Thebes, and was swallowed up by the earth there, 121. Amphictyons, ‘Dwellers around’, whose council met at Thermopylae and at Pylaea, a suburb of Delphi, 95, 110. Amphilŏchus, son of Amphiaraüs, worshipped at Malli in Cilicia, 163, 205. ”

“ This man sweareth by his spear, which he holdeth to be better than all gods whatsoever, that he will lay waste this city. And on his shield he beareth a device, the Sphinx, which holdeth in her claws one of the sons of Cadmus."
"Against this Arcadian will I set Actor, brother to Hyperbius, no boaster but a man of deeds, who will not let this hateful monster, the Sphinx, pass thus into the city; but will rather make it ill content to have come hither, so many and fierce blows shall he deal it."
"Hear now of the sixth among the chiefs, the wise soothsayer, Amphiaraüs. ”

“ Proteus and Siren the mud-eel, always retain their gills; while not a few frogs undergo their metamorphosis within the egg, and never breathe by gills. If we add the tropical limbless, burrowing Coecilians, and last, not least, the Labyrinthodonts and other fossil forms, the proper definition of the class Amphibia,–in other words, the reasons for grouping them together into one class, separated from the other backboned animals,–requires the examination of many other characters.
{4} So far as numbers of living species are concerned, the Amphibia are the least numerous of the Vertebrata. ”

“ The character which places the genus distinctly in the Microsauria is the possession of long, slender, curved ribs, first detected on Mr. Daniels's specimen (plate 14, figs. 1, 2) , « 127 » by Dr. Hay (316) . Its stegocephalian characters are evident in every particular of its anatomy the roofed skull, the arrangement of the cranial elements, the presence of a well-developed ventral armature, and the digital formula (4 for the hand and 5 for the foot) .
The genus Amphibamus was regarded by Cope as a representative of a new order of vertebrates which he called (105) Xenorachia. ”

“ Amphion was a Theban, who, if he did not perform all the wonderful things attributed to him, certainly softened, by the sound of his lyre, the savage manners of the first inhabitants of Greece, and engaged them to build towns. ”

“ He accordingly consulted the famous seer Tiresias, who now informed him of the divine origin of his stepson, and prognosticated for him a great and distinguished future.
When Amphitryon heard the noble destiny which awaited the child intrusted to his care, he resolved to educate him in a manner worthy of his future career. At a suitable age he himself taught him how to guide a chariot; Eurytus, how to handle the bow; Autolycus, dexterity in wrestling and boxing; and Castor, the art of armed warfare; whilst Linus, the son of Apollo, instructed him in music and letters.
Heracles was an apt pupil ”

“ The canals have been described in all known orders of fossil Amphibia and the system is found likewise in all the living orders, including the Gymnophiona, which have "a strong line of lateral sense-organs" (Gadow) . In the Branchiosauria, the earliest of the true Amphibia (Euamphibia) and ancestral to the modern Caudata, the lateral-line system is known on the tails of two genera (462, 478) from the Mazon Creek, Illinois, shales—Micrerpeton and Eumicrerpeton. ”

“ He was the son of Anti ́ope and Jupiter. He obtained the kingdom of Thebes, which he governed conjointly with his twin-brother Zethus. Amphi ́on cultivated the art of music; he was instructed by Mercury, who gave him a golden lyre with which he is said to have built the walls of Thebes, causing the stones to move and place themselves in order, as he played. Amphi ́on married Ni ́obe, and became the father of seven sons and as many daughters, who were all slain by Apollo and Diana. He is said to have killed himself in despair. ”

“ The skull especially has a shape which is strikingly frog-like, and the long hind limbs lend further likeness to the tailless forms. Pelion may have been a jumping creature, if we may judge from its long hind legs. Wyman and Cope have both called attention to the frog-like appearance of the specimen, and this is apparent at the first glance. It is probable that the resemblance has some significance as to the ancestry of the Salientia, and it may indicate the first step in the origin of the tailless Amphibia. ”

“ The ribs are well-developed and slender.
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No traces of fore limbs have been detected in the numerous specimens, but elements of hind limbs are preserved. In one of these the femur is a small bone, contracted at the middle. The form of the body is snake-like.
There were probably from 75 to 100 vertebræ in a single animal. The form may be well compared to the modern Amphiuma so far as appearances are concerned; structurally they are widely separate. This species is one which is peculiarly characteristic of the Linton fauna.
Ptyonius vinchellianus Cope. ”

“ The earliest evidence of Amphibian existence, on this continent, is in the Sub-Carboniferous, where footprints have been found which were probably made by Labyrinthodonts, the most ancient representatives of the class. Well-preserved remains are abundant in the Coal-Measures, and show that the Labyrinthodonts differed in important particulars from all modern Amphibians, the group which includes our frogs and salamanders. ”

“ Analogy seems to me to be rather in favour of, than against, the supposition that while only Ganoid fishes inhabited the fresh waters of our Devonian land, Amphibia and Reptilia, or even higher forms, may have existed, though we have not yet found them. The earliest Carboniferous Amphibia now known, such as Anthracosaurus, are so highly specialised that I can by no means conceive that they have been developed out of piscine forms in the interval between the Devonian and the Carboniferous periods, considerable as that is. ”

“ The Amphibia are the oldest and the lowest group of vertebrates that are able to lead an active existence on land, and the characters which distinguish them most definitely from the fishes are all to be interpreted as adaptions to the new mode of life. One of the most obvious external differences between the two groups is in the structure of the extremities, the fish having fins, while the amphibian has limbs constructed on the same general lines as our own arms and legs. ”

“ When Plautus sat in his master’s mill, and thought over the subject of his lively comedy, founded on the story of Amphitryon, he took for granted all that he had been told of his hero’s birth and parentage. But the classical Amphitryon is, as I have said, but a stolen child. His home is in the far East; and his history was calling up smiles upon the faces of listeners by the Indus long before the twin founders of Rome had been intrusted, by their nurse Lupa, to walk alone. The Hindoo Amphitryon was a fellow of some renown, and here is his story. ”

“ The femur and a part of the tibia (?) of the right side are all there is preserved of the hind limb. These elements show the leg to have been quite long, though weaker than the fore limb. The femur has a large distal articular surface. The fibula is, apparently, absent, though it may simply be lost.
The genus Pelion stands alone among the Carboniferous Amphibia. The form can not be placed in the order Branchiosauria on account of the well-developed limb bones and the large mandible. It may belong with the Microsauria. ”

“ The other orders of reptiles present no features of interest.
Of Amphibia only 8 genera are known, belonging to 6 families. Rana, Hylarana, and Hyla are wide-spread genera, the former being, however, absent from Australia. Hyperolius, Pelodryas, Litoria, and Asterophrys are Australian; while Platymantis is Polynesian, with a species in the Philippine Islands. Hence it appears that the amphibia, so far as yet known, exhibit no Oriental affinity; and this is a very suggestive fact. We have seen (p. 29) that salt water is almost a complete barrier to the dispersal of these creatures ”

“ The skull on the other hand is as distinctly Dog-like in form. The molars are large, broad, and crushing, and Bear-like. The largest known species, A. giganteus, is of about the size of the Brown Bear. Amphicyon is a Miocene genus. Eocene and allied to it is Pseudamphicyon. This genus has, like Amphicyon, the complete dentition of forty-four teeth. In the Amphicyoninae generally the feet are five-toed, the humerus has an entepicondylar foramen and the femur a third trochanter. The upper molars are large. ”

“ These reptiles in turn were preceded, in the Carboniferous period, by true Amphibia, most of them belonging to the armour-clad Stegocephali. These interesting Progonamphibia were the oldest Tetrapoda, the first vertebrates which had adapted themselves to the terrestrial mode of life; in them the swimming fin of fishes and Dipneusta was transformed into the pentadactyle extremities characteristic of quadrupeds.
To appreciate the high importance of this metamorphosis, we need only compare the skeleton of our own human limbs with that of the living Amphibia. ”

“ A rather interesting parallel, though of no phylogenetic significance, can be drawn between the Amphibia of the North American Coal Measures and the reptiles of to-day. The snakes are represented by the limbless, snake-like forms, such as Ptyonius and Phlegethontia. The lizards find their counterpart in the Hylonomidæ and the Tuditanidæ. No known characters of these animals tend to ally them directly with any known group of fishes, except in the most general way. ”