A T H 



48 



a t n 



Athlone tions, thev were sadly mangled, as the following lines 



. i will testify : 



Atho*. 



This victor, glorious in his olive wreath, 



Had once eyes, eyobrows, pom, and eats, and teeth"; 



lint turning emti+ckampiem to his cost, 



Time, and (still worse) his heritage he lost: 



} or liy his brother sued, disown'd at last, 



Confronted with his picture he was cast. 



8th, The Pancrntittm. This name, which may be 

 literally translated all-fights, was applied to a game, 

 compounded, at pleasure, of almost all the possible 

 modes of annoyance which two naked men, without 

 weapons, could exercise towards each other. In this 

 exercise, boxing and wrestling were the most promi- 

 nent features, accompanied, however, with an infinite 

 number of subordinate varieties, as kicking, elbow- 

 ing, rolling on the ground, throttling, scratching, 

 and squeezing. In short, the combatants were turn- 

 ed out, in a complete state of nature, only lubricated 

 with oil, to avail themselves freely of all their proper 

 resources, and to exert every joint, muscle, and limb, 

 for the defeat of their antagonists. To this great 

 freedom of choice, indeed, there were a very few hu- 

 mane exceptions. Thus they were not allowed to 

 put out an eye, as is frequently done in the Ameri- 

 can pancratium ; nor to bite off the flesh, which they 

 pressed between their teeth ; nor to strike under the 

 ribs with the ends of their fingers ; nor, in short, to 

 kill their adversaries designedly. There was a pan- 

 cratiast named Sostratus, who was successful near 

 twenty times in the public games. His method, the 

 most humane on record, was this : he always seized 

 the fingers of his antagonist, crushed them into one 

 bloody mass, and thus obliged him to resign the 

 palm ! See Horn. //. 1. xxiii. ; Virg. A'.n. 1. v. ; 

 Pausan. 1. vi. viii. et passim. ; Epict. Enchir. c. 29. ; 

 Caelius Rhodig. Ant. Lect. ; Potter's Antiq. v. i. ; 

 West's Dissert. ; and Sir John Sinclair's Code of 

 Health, v. ii. (e) 



ATHLONE, a town of Ireland, situated partly 

 in the county of Westmeath, and partly in the coun- 

 ty of Roscommon. It stands on the river Shannon, 

 which separates the counties, over which there is a 

 long bridge with many arches. On the bridge are 

 several ill executed figures and inscriptions, celebrat- 

 ing the success of Queen Elisabeth, and giving an ac- 

 count of the execution of the rebels. Athlone was 

 long the residence of the lord presidents of Con- 

 naught, who kept their courts of justice in it. The 

 castle was built by King John, on a round hill like a 

 Danish fort, on the Roscommon side of the river. 

 Notwithstanding the advantageous situation of Ath- 

 lone for trade, it is still in a poor and ruinous state. 

 W. Long. 7 49', N. Lat. 53 21' 30". See Beau- 

 fort's Memoir of a Map of Ireland, (j ) 



ATHOL, a mountainous district in the north of 

 Perthshire in Scotland. See Perthshire, (u) 



ATHOR, or Athyr, the name of one of the di- 

 vinities of the Egyptians, signifying Night, to whom 

 they erected temples. ( j) 



ATHOS, a mountain of Macedonia, famous in 

 ancient history and poetry. It is situated between 

 the Strymonic and Singitic gulfs, on a mountainous 

 promontory, which is connected with the continent 



3 



by an isthmus of land about twelve leagues broad. 

 The promontory stretches a great way out into the ' 

 ./Egean Sea, and occasions a long and dangerous cir- 

 cumnavigation. Of the numerous mountains of which 

 this peninsula is composed, Athos proudly tower* 

 above all the rest : its conical summit, at times white 

 with snow, is seen by the mariner at the distance of 

 160 miles; and, though the cold is excessive, it ii 

 adorned with plants and trees, chiefly of the fir kind, 

 which climb up its steep sides to a great elevation. 



Marvellous stories have been told by the ancients 

 of this celebrated mountain. Unfortunately that por- 

 tion of Strabo's excellent work is lost, in which he 

 had occasion to describe Athos, and which is poorly 

 supplied by a dry epitome. According to Mela, its 

 height was such as to reach above the clouds. Others 

 have affirmed that it was six miles high, that it soared 

 beyond the regions of rain and tempest, and that 

 ashes, left on its top, continued dry and undisturbed. 

 But the most wonderful story of all is that of the 

 projection of its shadow, which was reported to ex- 

 tend, at the summer solstice, as far as Lemnos, an 

 island, according to Pliny, 87 miles off, or, according 

 to modern calculation, about 30. It is said that a 

 brazen cow was erected at the termination of the 

 shadow, in the market-place of Myrina, the princi- 

 pal town of Lemnos, with this inscription : 



Atui x-xXvimi irtev^xt Aviuvix; /3tt;. 



i. e. " Athos covers the side of the Lemnian cow." 

 Modern travellers are not agreed about the real 

 height of this mountain. Some make it two miles in 

 perpendicular height ; while others reduce its ex- 

 treme elevation to about 3300 feet. The truth is, 

 that no accurate measurement has yet been made. 



Athos, if we may believe the ancient historians, 

 opposed considerable resistance to the power of 

 Xerxe6, on his march to Greece. A part of that 

 monarch's fleet having suffered shipwreck off the 

 Athose promontory, he resolved to prevent similar 

 accidents for the future, by cutting a channel through 

 the mountain, sufficient to admit two gallies abreast, 

 each of three banks of oars. By this operation, se- 

 veral cities are said to have been separated from the 

 continent, as Olophyxus, Dion, Thysus, Acrothoon, 

 and Cleone ; whence we may conclude that this rug- 

 ged peninsula was well peopled in ancient times. The 

 Greek writers ascribe the most capricious conduct to 

 the Persian king. Thus, according to these autho- 

 rities, Xerxes, on making his bridge of boats across 

 the Hellespont, ordered a quantity of fetters to be 

 thrown into the sea, as symbols of the subjection of 

 that stormy element; and on its rebelling against his 

 authority, by throwing his boats into confusion, he 

 rebuked it' in an angry speech, which began thus: 

 " Thou salt and bitter water." On the present oc- 

 casion, the same mad tyrant sent a letter to the moun- 

 tain, couched in the following language. " Athos, 

 thou proud and aspiring mountain, that liftest up 

 thy head to the skies, I advise thee not to be so au- 

 dacious a6 to put rocks and stones in the way of my 

 workmen-: if thou opposest me thus, I will cut thee 

 entirely down, and throw thee headlong into the 

 sea." But these accounts can hardly be credited. 

 If Xerxes really made a canal across the isthmus, it 





