316 



ASYMPTOTE ATii AM AS. 



n l>cUcr opportunity lo escape llu- pursuit of thr An-;- 

 triiin triH)|)s.-In Hritaiu ami the I'niied States, this 

 name has been given to many charitable institutions 

 tor the relict' of orphans, blind, or ihinili and deaf 

 persons, &c. In no countries are institutions of this 

 kind more common. 



ASYMITOTE ; commonly, a straight line, which ap- 

 proaches a curve line, so that the distance between 

 them is constantly diminishing, although they can 

 never meet, even if indefinitely continued. Hence 

 Leibnitz called infinite spirits the asymptotes of the 

 Deity. An asymptote may also be a curve. 



. \>y.\iKTON ; the omission of the small connecting 

 particles of speech, in order to render Uie expression 

 more lively and impressive. This is particularly the 

 a-.- when a series of actions, quickly following each 

 other, is to be represented ; e. g., in Virgil, 

 Ferte cito flammas, date vela, impellite reinos. 



ATAHOALPA, or ATABALII-A; the last of the incas. 

 He succeeded his father, in 1529, on the throne of 

 C^uito, whilst his brother Huascar obtained the king- 

 dom of Peru. They soon made war against each 

 other, when the latter was defeated, and his kingdom 

 fell into the hands of A. The Spaniards, taking ad- 

 vantage of these internal disturbances, with Pizarro 

 at their head, invaded Peru, where they were enter- 

 tained with no little hospitality by the king and the 

 people ; but, instead of returning the kindness, they 

 held A. in captivity, and requested him to acknow- 

 ledge the king of Spain as his master, and embrace 

 the Christian religion. Upon his asking their autho- 

 rity for this request, the friar Valverde gave him the 

 breviary as authority. A. put it to his ear, and said, 

 "It tells me nothing;" then threw it away. This 

 was made a pretext tor a massacre of the people and 

 the imprisonment of the king. He offered a large 

 sum of gold as a ransom : this the Spaniards took, 

 but still kept him prisoner. At last, lie was burnt, 

 in 1533. See Pizarro. 



ATALANTA. There were two persons of this name 

 in the ancient mythology. One of them was a native 

 of Arcadia, the daughter of lasus and Clymene, cele- 

 brated for her skill in archery. She slew, with her 

 arrows, the Centaurs Rhoecus and Hylaeus, who were 

 alwut to offer violence to her ; sailed to Colchis with 

 the Argonauts, and was afterwards present at the 

 chase of the Calydonian boar, which she first wound- 

 ed ; hence Meleager awarded to her the prize. (See 

 Calydon and Meleager.) The other was a daughter 

 of Schoeneus, king of Scyros, renowned for her beau- 

 ty, and swiftness in running. Conscious of her ex- 

 quisite beauty and her great fleetness, she imposed 

 upon her lovers the severest conditions. She required 

 each to run a race with her. Her admirer was to 

 run before, unarmed, while she followed him with a 

 dart. If she could not overtake him, she was his 

 own ; but if he was conquered, he was doomed to 

 death, and. his head set up at the goal. Many had 

 fallen victims in the attempt, when Hippomenes, the 

 son of Maegareus, by the aid of Venus, overcame 

 her. The goddess gave him three golden apples, 

 which he threw behind him, one after another, as he 

 ran. A. stopped to pick them up, and Hippomenes 

 reached the goal before her. Her former reserve 

 no\v gave place to such ungovernable passion, that 

 she even profaned the temple of Ceres, which stood 

 near the place of the race. The angry goddess 

 changed both the parties into lions, and compelled 

 them, from that time, to draw her chariot. 



ATAMAN. See Hetman. 



ATE ; among the Greeks, the goddess of hate, in- 

 justice, and crime. Homer says of her 



Jove' daughter, Ate, most pernicious power 

 By whom ail suffer, challenges from all 



Ki-TiTvnce and fear. Dt-licatt- are her feet, 

 U hirh worn the ground ; and over human heads 

 She t;liil<-s, injiirious'to tin- race of man ; 

 Of two who strive, at k-t cntanKling OIH-. 



Cinijiir's Trims, llititt, xix. I. 90. 



Just before the birth of Hercules, she excited Jupiter 

 to a strain of boasting, and thus afforded Juno an 

 opportunity to overreach him by bringing Eurysllims 

 first into the world. The indignant monarch of the 

 gods seized her by her hair, precipitated her to the 

 earth, and swore that she should never return to 

 Olympus. Fable informs us, that she has ever since 

 paced the earth with incredible velocity, and spread 

 destruction and misery every where. Ihsiod calls 

 her a daughter of Eris. 



ATEI.I.AN.E FABCUE (called, also, Oacan plays) ; a 

 kind of light interlude between the tragedy and co- 

 medy, which, in ancient Rome, was not performed 

 by the regular company of actors, but by freeborn 

 young Romans. This kind of play is said to liave 

 originated from the ancient Stella, a city of the 

 Oscans, between Capua and Naples, and is, at the 

 same time, the beginning and all that remains of a 

 national Italian comedy, consisting of farce seasoned 

 by satire. 



A TEMPO (Italian, in time), in music ; of similar 

 signification with a battuta, and, like that expression, 

 seldom used but when the time has been interrupted. 

 A tempo, in any kind of fencing or fighting, means 

 a blow or thrust at the same time with the antago- 

 nist's blow or thrust. It is, of course, necessary that 

 a tempo blows should lie made in such a way as to 

 afford, at the same time, a guard against the other's 

 thrust, or to prevent its full effect. This kind of 

 blows takes place particularly in fighting with the 

 broad-sword, when the antagonist leaves hansel" 

 much exposed. 



ATHAUAH ; daughter of Omri, king of Israel, ai 

 wife of Joram, king of Juclali ; a woman of abandon- 

 ed character, and fond of power, who, after the death 

 of her son Ahaziah, opened her way to the throne by 

 the murder of forty- two princes of the royal blood. 

 She reigned six years ; in the seventh, the high-priest, 

 Jehoiada, placed Joash, the young son of Ahaziah, 

 on the throne of his father. This prince had been 

 preserved and brought up secretly in the temple by 

 Jehosheba, the sister of Joram and wife of Jehoiada. 

 Athaliati, attracted by the noise of the people, who 

 were crowding to the coronation of Joash, entered 

 with them into the temple, where the ceremony was 

 going on. At the sight of the new king, surrounded 

 by priests, Levites, great officers of the kingdom, 

 and the joyful people, she was beside herself ; she 

 tore her hair, and cried out, Treason ! Jehoiada or- 

 dered her to be immediately led from the temple by 

 the officers, and commanded that all who should offer 

 to defend her should be slain ; but she was put to 

 death, at the gate of her palace, without opposition. 

 This happened about 877 B. C. The altars of Baal, 

 which she had erected, were thrown down, and the 

 worship of the true God restored. (See Second Book 

 of Kings, viii. ix.) Racine lias written a tragedy on 

 this story. 



ATHAMAS, in fabulous history ; the son of ^Eolus 

 and Enareta, and governor of a part of Boeotia. He 

 was the husband of Nephele. Their children wen; 

 Helle and Phryxus. Being afterwards separated 

 from Nephele, he had by Ino, his second wife, 

 Learchus, Melicertus, and Eurycleia. Ino, deter- 

 mining to get rid of the children of Nephele, 

 caused a failure of the crops, and bribed the mes- 

 sengers, whom A. had sent to the oracle to in- 

 quire the cause of the misfortune, to bring for an 

 answer, that the children of Nephele must be sacri- 

 ficed. Juno had instigated her to this measure in 

 order to destroy her, liating her because she had 



