C Y A 
even fometimes united to crufh veflels into pieces when 
they palfed through the (traits. This tradition aro(e 
from their appearing, like all other objects, to draw 
nearer when you approached them. They were fonre- 
times called Symplegades and Planetae. Their true 
fituation and form was firft explored and afeertained by 
the Argonauts. Hrodotus. 
CYANEL'LA, f. [dimin. from y.vavoc, blue.] In 
botany, a genus of the elafs hexandria, order monogynia, 
natural order of coronariae. The generic characters are— 
Calyx: none. Corolla: petals lix, cohering by their 
claws, oblong, concave, patulous, the three inferior 
ones hanging forwards. Stamina: filaments fix, conti¬ 
guous at the bafe, very fiiort, fomewhat fpreading; the 
lower one declined, and twice the length of the others; 
antherae oblong, eredt, gaping at the tip, with four ob- 
tufe teeth. Piftillum : germ three-cornered, obtufe ; 
ityle filiform, declinate, length of the loweft ftamen; 
Itigma fomewhat lliarp. Pericarpium : capfule fuperior, 
roundish, three-furrowed, three-celled, three-valved. 
Seeds : many, oblong.— EJJential CharaElcr. Corolla, 
lix-petalled ; the three lower petals hanging forwards; 
•ftamens lower, declined, longer than the red. 
Species, i. Cyanella lutea, or yellow-dowere'd cyanel¬ 
la: leaves enfiform; branches eredt. This agrees with 
•the next fpecies in having the filaments at the bale.in 
■form of a pitcher, in having one anther larger than the 
red, and a Simple digma. It differs in having the root- 
leaves lanceolate not linear, the peduncles lefs divari¬ 
cate, the petals larger and yellow. It wasi found at the 
Cape of Good Hope by. Sparrman ; and was introduced 
in 1788, by Mr. Francis Malibu; it flowers in July. 
2. Cyanella Capenfis, or purple-flowered cyanella : 
leaves waved; branches fpreading very much. The 
root is (Imped like that of the fpring crocus; leaves 
long, narrow, with a groove on their upper fide ; the 
peduncle arifes immediately from the root, fupporting 
one Rower of a fine blue colour, which appears in May, 
but the flowers are not fucceeded by feeds in England. 
Native of the Cape of Good Hope. Cultivated by Mr. 
Miller in 1768. They eat the roots roaded in Africa. 
3. Cyanella alba, or white flowered cyanella: leaves 
linear-filiform. Found at the Cape by Thunberg. 
Propagation and Culture. The roots fliould be planted 
in pots filled with light earth, placed in winter in a frame, 
and treated in the fame manner as is directed for Ixia. 
CYANOI'DES, /i in botany. See Centaurea. 
CYA'NUS, /. in botany. See Centaurea, Chry- 
socoma, Protea, Pteronia, and St^ehelina. 
CYAS'MA, f An epithet tor the brown fpots which 
often occur in the lips, forehead, and hands, of pregnant 
women. 
CYATHOI'DES and CYATIIUS, f. See Pezi.za. 
CY'ATHUS,yi [y.vctQ 0;, Gr. a cup, from the verb 
ypEiv, to pour out.] A common meafure among the 
Greeks and Romans, both of the liquid and dry kind. 
It was equal to an ounce, or the twelfth part of'a pint. 
The fextans was two ounces; the quadrans, three 
ounces; the triens, four ounces;'thefe three were fo 
.named, from the portion of a pint they contained, being 
the fixth, the fourth, and the third, part of a pint, or 
twelve ounces; the quincunx, five ounces; the femis, 
fix ounces; the feptunx, feven ounces; the bes, eight 
ounces; the dodrans, nine ounces; the dextans, ten 
ounces; the deunx, eleven ounces; the as, fextarius, or 
cotula, twelve ounces. The cyatlnis was made with a 
handle like our punch-ladle. The Roman topers were 
-ufed to drink as many cyathi as there were Mufes, nine; 
alfo as many as there were letters in their patron’s name. 
Thus, they had modes of drinking, fimilar to the modern 
health-drinking, or toalfing. Pliny fays, that the cyathus 
of the Greeks weighed ten drams, and Galen fays the 
fame ; though elfewhere he fays, that a cyathus con¬ 
tains twelve drams of oil, thirteen drams and one lcru- 
yle of wine, water, or vinegar, and eighteen drams of 
Vol. V. No, 291,- 
C Y B 50.5 
honey. Galen fays, that, among the Veterinarii, the 
cyathus contained two ounces. The modern cyathus is 
5 J-- f£»- 
CYAXA'RES I. king of the Modes, fucceeded his 
father Phraortes, 635 years before Chrill. He was a 
warlike prince, and particularly attentive toTnilitary dil- 
cipline ; whence he was able to recover from the Alfy- 
rians all they had taken from his father. He defeated 
them in a great battle, and then laid (lege to their capi¬ 
tal, Nineveh ; but an incurfion of a large body of Scy¬ 
thians, under their king Indathyrfus, recalled him to the 
defence of his own dominions. He v/as vanquilhed by 
the Scythians, who took polfeflion of Media, and the 
greater part of Upper Alia, which they are faid to have 
held for twenty-eight years. At length, Cyaxares con¬ 
trived a general maflacre of them at a folemn feftival, 
and thus recovered his kingdom. He was afterwards en¬ 
gaged in a war with Alyattes king of Lydia, who had 
given refuge to Come fugitive Scythians. A total 
eclipfe of the fun, which took place during a battle 
fought in the fixth year of the war, brought about a 
peace, which was confirmed by the marriage ot the 
daughter of Alyattes toAftyages theeldefi lonor Cyaxares. 
This king then, making an alliance with the king of 
Babylon, again laid (iege to Nineveh, which was taken, 
and levelled with the ground. He is fuppofed after¬ 
wards, in conjunction with his ally, to have purfued his 
conquefts, till the Aflyrian empire was entirely over¬ 
thrown, and (hared betw'een the two vidtors. He died 
in the fortieth year of his reign, and left Aftyages his 
fucceflor. 
CYAXA'RF.S II. fop of Aftyages, fucceeded to the 
throne of Media, 560 years before thrift. Hejoined his ne¬ 
phew, Cyrus, in the reduction of Babylon, and is faid to 
have reigned in conjunction with him, and to have died 536 
years before Chrift. But it is to be obferved, that Herodo¬ 
tus takes no notice of this prince, and fuppofes Cyrus to 
have direCtly fucceeded Aftyages, and that lire fecund Cya¬ 
xares is only to be found in Xenophon. It is only upon the 
the hypothefis that Darius the Mcde of Daniel was this Cya¬ 
xares, that the account of Xenophon receives collateral 
conformation. 
CYBE'BE, a name of Cybele, from y.vfivfiuv, becaufe in 
the celebration of her feftivals men were driven to madnefs. 
CY'BELE, in pagan mythology, a goddefs, daughter 
of Ccelus and Terra, and wife of Saturn. She is fup¬ 
pofed to be the fame as Ceres, Rhea, Ops, Vefta, Bona 
Mater, Magna Mater, Berecynthia, Dindymene, Sc c. 
According to Diodorus, (lie was the daughter of a Lydi¬ 
an prince; and as foon as (lie was born (lie was expofed 
on a mountain. She was preferved and luckled by fome 
of the wild beads of the foreft, and received the name 
of Cybele from the mountain where her life had been 
preferved. When Hie returned to her father’s court, (he 
had an intrigue with Atys, a beautiful youth, whom her 
father mutilated. All the mythologifts are unanimous 
in mentioning the amours of Atys and Cybele. The 
partiality of the goddefs for Atys feems to arife from his 
having firft introduced herworlhip in Phrygia. She en¬ 
joined him perpetual celibacy, and the violation of his 
promife was expiated by voluntary mutilation. In 
Phrygia the feftivals of Cybele were obferved with the 
greateft folemnity. Herpriefts, called Corybantes, Gallic 
&c. were not admitted in the fervice of the goddefs 
without a previous mutilation. In the celebration of 
the feftivals, they imitated the manners of madmen, and 
filled the air with dreadful (bricks and bowlings, mixed 
with the confufed noife of drums, tabrets, bucklers, and 
fpears. This was in commemoration of the furrow of 
Cybele for the lofs of her favorite Atys. Cybele was 
generally reprefented as a robuft woman, far advanced in 
her pregnancy, to intimate the fecundity of the earth. 
She held keys in her hand, and her head was crowned 
with rifing turrets, and fometimes with the leaves of an 
oak. She fometimes appears riding in a chariot drawn 
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