JE G I 



the flamina are capillary filaments infertcd into the mouth 

 of the tube, ercd, and anthers roiindifh ; the piftillum is a 

 ruundilh fiiperior germ, ftyle capillary deeply bifid, and 

 ftigmas fimple : the pencarpium is a roundilli two-celled 

 bcrr)', furroiinded with the permanent calyx ; and the feed 

 is either in pairs or folitary. There are fonr fpecics, viz. 

 martinicenf.i, elata or the liioxia of Brovm, fu/lt/a, and Irifitii, 

 to which are added in the laft edition of Linnxus's fylleni, 

 the villofa, arbori/rtns and l.wii. The firft is a fhiub about 

 fix feet high with white flowers, which appear in Novem- 

 ber, a native of Martinico, and was introduced in 17S0, by 

 Mr. Francis Maffon. La Marck thinks this fpecies oiigrht to 

 be clafTed with the Verbena. The other fpecies are natives 

 of Jamaica. 



JEGIPIUS, a river of Afia, wliich dilcharges itfelf into 

 the Euxine, above Diofcurios. 



iEGlPLANETUM, in jlncunt Geography, a mountain 

 of Greece, mentioned by jEfehylus in his Agamemnon, and 

 fuppofed to be in the vicinilv of Corinth. 



^EGIRA, a town of Achaia, fuppofed to be founded 

 by Egirus the fixth king of Sicyon, and Ihuatc, according 

 to Polybius (I. iv. c. 57. p. 322. D. Ed. Cafaub. ) in that 

 part of Peloponnefus that is wafhed by the Corinthian bay, 

 between iEgiuni and Sicyon, oppolite to Parnaffus, and at 

 the dillance of feven ftadia from the fea. It was covered 

 with fteep and almoit inacceffiblc hills ; and adorned with 

 feveral temples, one of which was appropriate to Venus 

 coelefti?, into which no men were allowed to enter, and 

 alio with feveral pictures and llatucs. Paufanias (p. 593.) 

 fpeaks of one of thefe pictures, which exhibited an aged 

 man, who had received a mortal wound, and who was 

 placed between three brothers and three fillers. The ex- 

 prcffion of concern and grief was fo livelv, that the picture 

 was denominated Tx'iija cvf^rt^^r.. It is now a finall village 

 called Xslocajlro or Hylocaftro. 



^GiRA was alfoone of the names which the ancients gave 

 to the ifland of Ledjos. 



jEGIRCIUS, Gers, a river of Gaul, which rofe in the 

 Pyrenees, paffed to Aufci or Aufch, and difcharged itfelf 

 into the Garumna. 



.^GIRUM, or jEGiRt;s, a town of the ifle of Lefbos, 

 on the eail fide between Mitylene and Methymna. 



^GIRUSA, a town of jEolis ; and alfo of Megaris. 



jEGIS, in the Annent Mythology, a name given to the 

 Ihield or buckler of Jupiter and Pallas. 



The goat Amalthea, which had fuckled Jove, being dead, 

 that god is faid to have covered his buckler with the llcin 

 thereof; whence the appellation ^rj/j', from <u\, ai'^n:, Jhc- 



Jupiter afterwards reRoring the beafl to life again, co- 

 vered it with a new Ikin, and placed it among the ftars. As 

 to his buckler, he made a prefent of it to Minerva ; whence 

 that goddefs's buckler is alfo called itgu. 



Minen.-a, having killed the Gorgon Medufa, nailed her 

 head in the middle of the aegis, which henceforth had the 

 faculty of converting into ftone all thofe who looked there- 

 on ; as Medufa herfelf had done during her life. 



Others take the segis, not to have been a buckler, but a 

 cuirafs, or breaft-plate ; and it is certain the xgis of Pallas, 

 defcribed by Virgil, ^n. lib. viii. ver. 435. mull have been 

 a cuirafs ; fince that poet fays exprefsly, that Medufa's head 

 was on the breaft of the goddefs. But the aegis of Jupiter, 

 mentioned a httle higher, ver. 354, feems to have been a 

 buckler : the words 



" Cum faepe nigrantem 

 .ffgida concuteret dextra," 



iE G L 



agreeing vtxy well to a buckler ; but not at all to a cuirafs, 

 or breaft-plate. 



Servius makes the fame diftinftion on the two paffageG of 

 Virgil ; for on verfe 354, he takes the Kgis for the buckler 

 of Jupiter, made, as above-mentioned, of the (Icin of the 

 goat Amalthea ; and on verfe 435, he dcfcribcsthe aegis, as 

 the armour which covers the breall ; and wliich, in fpeak- 

 ing of men, is called cuirafs ; and aegis, in fpeaking of the 

 gods. Many authors have overlooked thefe diftindtions for 

 want of going to the fources. 



jEGI6SUS, or jEgyptus, in Ant'tent Geography. See 

 iEcvpsus. 



jEGI.STjE, a town of Italy in Brutium, eaftof Confentia, 

 called by Pliny Apntjlum. 



TEgisth-e, a town which Ptolemy places in Arabia Felix; 

 long. ^3^ 30' lat. 11° 45'. 



jfeGlSTHUS, in Entomology, a fpecies of Papilio, with 

 brown wings, fpolted with a light green, found in China, 

 and refembling the fpecies called Agamemnon. 



JE.CISTHVS, in Ancient hi/lory, the fon of Thyeftes by 

 his daughter Pelopeia, who, in order to conceal the incelt, 

 expofed tlic child in the woods ; where he was found by' a 

 lliepherd and nurfcd with goat's milk, from which circum- 

 ftance he derived his name. In mature life he killed his 

 uncle Atreus, and kept Clytemneftra, the wife of Aga- 

 memnon, dining the abfence of her hufband at the fiege of 

 Troy, and at his return murdered him ; but was at laft him- 

 felf (lain by Oreftes in revenge of his father's death. Ovid's 

 Ep. viii. 53. 



jEGITHALLUS, in Ancient Gengraphv, a promontory" 

 and citadel of Sicily, between Drepanum and the Emporium 

 iEgiftanum ; afterwards called AceUus, corruptly written 

 TEgitharfon in Ptolemy, fituate near mount Er\'x, and now 

 called Capo di Santo Tcodoro. 



uEGlTlUM, a town of iCtolia in Greece. 



jEGITNA, a town of Gaul, belonging, according to Po- 

 lybius (p. 962) to the Oxybii. The Romans bcficged and 

 took the town, and made (laves of the inhabitants ; and on 

 this account Q. Opimius the coaful obtained a triumph, 

 A. U. C. 599. 



jEGIUM, a confiderable town of Achaia Propria, 40 ftadia 

 from the place where Helice ftood, and famous for the council 

 of the Achaeans, who affembled there, either on account of 

 the dignity of the place or the convenience of its iitnation, as 

 we learn from Paufanias (1. 7. c. 24. p. 5S4. Ed. Kuhnii.) 

 and from Livy (1. 3S. c. 30. t. 5. p. 216. Ed. Drakenb.) 

 It was alfo famous for the worftiip of the conventional Ju- 

 piter, (oixayupia Aio,-), of thePanaclioean Ceres, of jEfculapius, 

 Lucina, Juno, and other deities. In this place there was a 

 kind of chapel, in which were preferved the ftatues of Her- 

 culee, Jupiter and Minerva, called the Argian gods. Venus 

 had ahb a temple in jEgium near the fea, and in it was a 

 ftatue of Jupiter Homagyrius. The territory of jEgium 

 was watered by two rivers, viz. Phoenix and Mcganites. 

 The epithet derived from it is JEgienfts. There is a coin, 

 fays Cellarius (t. i. p. 757) in the cabinet of the king of 

 Pruflia, with the infcription, Airr, and the figure of a tor- 

 toife, which is the fymbol of Peloponnefus, and afccrtaina 

 the place where it was ftruck. Greek imperial medals were 

 ftruck in this city in honour of Piautilla, Commodus and 

 Elagabalus. 



jEGLE, in Entomology, a fpecies of Papilio, with black 

 wngs ; the anterior and the difc of the pofterior marked 

 with greenilli fpots ; found in India. 



^GLE, in Mythology, the mother of the Graces ; alfo, 

 one of them : and according to Virgil (Eclog. vi. 21.) the 

 moil beautiful of the Naiades. 



uEGLEFINUS, 



