AMP 
nalfy Greek, u^ixo^e, utrinquc comata, or “hairy on all 
fides.” This (lone is alfo called erotylos , ee&ri'hoq, amnio- 
ria, probably on account of its fuppofed power of creating 
love. The amphicome is mentioned by Democritus and 
Pliny, though little known among the moderns. 
AMPHIC'TYON 3 ,yi [Some fuppofe tlie word Ay.fpix.- 
Tioicj to be formed of u^cp i, about, and jinsu or xn^cm } Gr. 
in regard the inhabitants of the country round about met 
here in council; others, with more probability, from Am- 
phidtyon, Ion of Deucalion, whom they fuppofe to have 
been the founder of this alfembly; though others will 
have Acrifius, king of the Argives, to have been the fird 
who gave a form and laws to it.] In Grecian antiquity, 
an alfembly compofed of deputies from the different dates 
of Greece; and refembling, in fome meafure, the diet of 
the German empire. Authors give different accounts of 
the number of the Amphyflions, as well as r of the dates 
that were entitled to have their reprefentatives in this coun¬ 
cil. They decided all public differences and difputes be¬ 
tween any of the cities of Greece; but, before they en¬ 
tered on bufinefs, they jointly facrificed an ox cut into fmall 
pieces, as a fymbol of their union. Their determinations 
were received with the greated- veneration, and even held 
facred and inviolable. The dated terms of their meeting 
were in fpring and autumn; the fpring was called Ea.^vr> 
ncAa-ia, that in autumn MeroTru^vri. On extraordinary 
occadons, however, they met at any time of the year, or 
even continued fitting all the year round. Philip of Ma- 
cedon ufurped the right of preddingin the affembly of the 
Amphiclyons, and of fird confulting the oracle which was 
called 'n^ofAuvTeia. 
AMPHI'DAMAS, the fon of Buliris, king of Egypt, 
was offered to Hercules on the fame altar that his father 
had facridced all drangers that he could get into his pof- 
fedion. 1 
AMPHIDRO'MIA, f. [as^pi^opua, of ct^t, about, 
and Gr. acourfe.] A fedival obferved in Athens 
by private families, upon the dfth day after the birth of a 
child, it being the cudom for the fponfors to run round 
the dre with the infant in their arms; and then, having 
delivered it to the nurfe, they were entertained with fead- 
ing and dancing. 
AMPPII'DR.YON,yi in eccledadica! writers, denotes 
the veil or curtain which was drawn before the door of the 
bema in ancient churches. 
AMPHILO'CHIA, the territory of the city of Argos 
in Acarnania. A town alfo of Spain, in Gallacia, built by 
Teucer, and denominated from Amphilochus one of his 
companions ; now Orenfe. Lat. 42. 36. Ion. 8. 20. W. 
AMPHILO'CHIUS, bidiop of Iconium, in the fourth 
century, was the friend of St. Gregory Nazianzen and St. 
Badl. He adided at the drd general council of Condan- 
tinople in 381 ; predded at the council of Sidse; and was 
a drenuous oppofer of the Arians. He died in 394; and 
his works were publifhed in Greek and Latin at Paris 
1644, by Francis Combeds. 
AMPHI'LOCHUS, fon of Amphiarus and Eriphyle, 
was a celebrated diviner. He had an altar eredled to him 
at Athens, and an oracle at Mallus, in Cilicia, which city 
was founded by him and Mopfus. The anfwers of this 
oracle were given by dreams; the party enquiring ufed to 
pafs a night in the temple, and that night’s dream was the 
anfwer. 
AMPHI'LOGY, f. [a.ulpi and Aoy©o Gr.] Equivoca¬ 
tion; ambiguity. 
AMPHIMA'CER,yi [ap.piandGr. ] In ancient 
poetry, a foot confiding of three fyllables, whereof the 
drd and lad are long, and that in the middle diort; fuch 
is the word “ caftitas.” 
AMPHI'MEDON, the fon of Melan'heus, one of the 
lovers of Penelope, who was flain by her fon Telemachus. 
AMPHTNOME, the name of one of the fifty Nereides, 
according to Homer. 
AMPHPON, a fon of Jupiter, by Antiope daughter 
AMP 487 
of Nvcieus, who had married Lycus, and had been repu¬ 
diated by him when he married Dirce. Ainphion was 
born at the fame birth as Zethus, on mount Cytheron, 
where Antiope had fled to avoid the refentment of Dirce. 
He made fuch uncommon progrefs in mufic, that he is laid 
to have built the walls of Thebes by the harmony of his 
lyre. He and Zethus united to avenge the wrongs of their 
mother; they befieged and took Thebes, put. Lycus to 
death, and tied Dirce to the tail of a wild bull, who drag¬ 
ged her till flie expired. A fon of Jafus king of Orcho- 
menos, by Perfephone daughter of Mins. He married 
Niobe, by whom he had many children, but all of them 
and himlelf w'ere deftroyed, for her infolence to Latona, 
except Chloris, who became the wife of Neleus. 
AMPHI'POLES, in antiquity, the principal magiftrates 
of Syracufe. They were edablifhed by Timoleon in the 
109th Olympiad, after the expullion of the tyrant Diony- 
fius. They governed Syracufe for the fpace of 300 years : 
and Diodorus Siculus fays, that they fubfided in his time. 
AMPHI'POLIS, an ancient decayed city of Macedon, 
an Athenian colony, on the Strymon, but on which fide is 
not certain. Alfo a town of Syria, on the Euphrates, faid 
to have been built by Seleucus, and called by the Syrians 
Turmeda ; fuppofed to have been only renewed and adorn 
ed by Seleucus, becaufe long famous before his time. 
AMPHIP'PlI,yi in Grecian antiquity, foldiers who, in 
war, ufed two hones without faddles, and were dexterous 
enough to leap from one to the other. 
AMPHlPRO'RfE,A- the naval affairs of the ancients, 
veffels with a prow at each end. They were ufed chiefly 
in rapid rivers and narrow channels, where it was not eafy 
to tack about. 
AMPHIPROS'TYLE,yi Gr.] A term 
in architecture, ufed of thofe temples, in ancient times, 
which had four columns or pillars in the front, and the 
fame number behind. 
AMPHISBzE'NA, f. of and Quim, 
Gr. to go.] A genus of ferpents belonging to the order of 
amphibia ferpentes, fo called from the notion of its having 
two heads, becaufe the head and tail are nearly of the 
fame dimenfions and appearance, and becaufe it moves 
with either end foremod. The head of the amphifbatna 
is fmall, fmooth, and blunt; the nodrils are very fmall; 
the eyes are minute and blackifli; and the mouth is fur- 
nifhed with a great number of fmall tedth. The body is 
cylindrical, and divided into about 200 annular convex 
fegments, like thofe of a worm; and it has a number of 
longitudinal fireaks on each fide, which interfeft each other 
in the form of fmall croflTes. The anus is a tranfverfe flit; 
and the lad ring, or fegment, of the belly has eight fmall 
papillae, forming a tranfverfe line before the anus; the 
tail, and all the fpace below the anus, is fhort, confiding 
of thirty annular fegments, and is thick and blunt at the 
point. The colour of the whole animal is beautifully va¬ 
riegated, being adorned with yellow, green, black, and 
cochineal. We know as yet but of two fpecies, viz. 
1. The fulginofa, which anfwers exactly to the above 
defeription, and is found in Libya, and in different 
parts of America, in the hotter regions of which they 
grow to a large fize. 
2. The alba, which is of a filvery white, a little tinted 
with a beautiful green, that only appears in the (hades oc- 
cafioned by the folds of its body in moving along, is a 
native of the Ead and Wed Indies, as well as of Ame¬ 
rica, and it is generally found in the ant-hillocks. The 
bite of the amphilbaena is reckoned to be mortal by many 
authors; but, as it is not furnifhed with dog-fangs, (the 
ufual mdrumentof conveying the poifon of ferpents,) la¬ 
ter writers edeem it not to be poifonous. They feed upon 
ants and earth-worms, but particularly the latter. The 
figures reprefented in the annexed plate are taken from the 
drawings of madam Merian, preferved in the Britifh Mu- 
feum. The broken egg (hews a young ferpent jud emerg¬ 
ing from the (hell, as drawn from the life by the above 
celebrated naturalid. 
A.MPHISBxENA 
