Volume 2, Slice 2 Part 31 (1/2)
[1] No satisfactory etymology of the name has been given; although the first part is usually referred to [Greek: aphros] (”the sea foam”), it is equally probable that it is of Eastern origin. F.
h.o.m.oll (_Jahrbucher fur cla.s.sische Philologie_, cxxv., 1882) explains it as a corruption of Ashtoreth; for other derivations see O. Gruppe, _Griechische Mythologie_, ii. p. 1348, note 2.
APHTHONIUS, of Antioch, Greek sophist and rhetorician, flourished in the second half of the 4th century A.D., or even later. Nothing is known of his life, except that he was a friend of Libanius and of a certain Eutropius, perhaps the author of the epitome of Roman history. We possess by him [Greek: Progumnhasmata], a text-book on the elements of rhetoric, with exercises for the use of the young before they entered the regular rhetorical schools. They apparently formed an introduction to the [Greek: Thechne] of Hermogenes. His style is pure and simple, and ancient critics praise his ”Atticism.” The book maintained its popularity as late as the 17th century, especially in Germany. A collection of forty fables by Aphthonius, after the style of Aesop, is also extant.
Spengel, _Rhetores Graeci_, ii.; Finckh, _Aphthonii Progytnnasmata_ (1865); Hoppichler, _De Theone, Hermogene, Aphthonioque Pro-gymnasmatum Scriptoribus_ (1884); edition of the fables by Furia (1810).
APHTHONIUS, AELIUS FESTUS, Latin grammarian, possibly of African origin, lived in the 4th century A.D. He wrote a metrical handbook in four books, which has been incorporated by Marius Victorinus in his system of grammar.
Keil, _Gratnmatici Latini_, vi.; Schultz, _Quibus Auctoribus Aelius Festus Aphthonius usus sit_ (1885).
APICIUS, the name of three celebrated Roman epicures. The second of these, M. Gavius Apicius, who lived under Tiberius, is the most famous (Seneca, Consol. ad Helviam, 10). He invented various cakes and sauces, and is said to have written on cookery. The extant _De Re Coquinaria_ (ed. Schuch, 1874), a collection of receipts, ascribed to one Caelius Apicius, is founded on Greek originals, and belongs to the 3rd century A.D. It is probable that the real t.i.tle was Caelii _Apicius_, Apicius being the name of the work (cp. Taciti _Agricola_), and _De Re Coquinaria_ a sub-t.i.tle.
APICULTURE (from Lat. _apis_, a bee), bee-keeping (see BEE). So also other compounds of _api_-. _Apiarium_ or apiary, a bee-house or hive, is used figuratively by old writers for a place of industry, e.g. a college.
APION, Greek grammarian and commentator on Homer, born at Oasis in Libya, flourished in the first half of the 1st century A.D. He studied at Alexandria, and headed a deputation sent to Caligula (in 38) by the Alexandrians to complain of the Jews: his charges were answered by Josephus in his _Contra Apionem_. He settled at Rome--it is uncertain when--and taught rhetoric till the reign of Claudius. Apion was a man of great industry and learning, but extremely vain. He wrote several works, which are lost. The well-known story of Androclus and the lion, preserved in Aulus Gellius, is from his [Greek: Aiguptiaka]; fragments of his [Greek: Ilossy Omerikai] are printed in the _Etymologic.u.m Gudianum_, ed. Sturz, 1818.
APIS or HAPIS, the sacred bull of Memphis, in Egyptian _Hp, Hope, Hope_.
By Manetho his wors.h.i.+p is said to have been inst.i.tuted by Kaiechos of the Second Dynasty. Hape is named on very early monuments, but little is known of the divine animal before the New Kingdom. He was ent.i.tled ”the renewal of the life” of the Memphite G.o.d Ptah: but after death he became Osorapis, i.e. the Osiris Apis, just as dead men were a.s.similated to Osiris, the king of the underworld. This Osorapis was identified with Serapis, and may well be really identical with him (see SERAPIS): and Greek writers make the Apis an incarnation of Osiris, ignoring the connexion with Ptah. Apis was the most important of all the sacred animals in Egypt, and, like the others, its importance increased as time went on. Greek and Roman authors have much to say about Apis, the marks by which the black bull-calf was recognized, the manner of his conception by a ray from heaven, his house at Memphis with court for disporting himself, the mode of prognostication from his actions, the mourning at his death, his costly burial and the rejoicings throughout the country when a new Apis was found. Mariette's excavation of the Serapeum at Memphis revealed the tombs of over sixty animals, ranging from the time of Amenophis III. to that of Ptolemy Alexander. At first each animal was buried in a separate tomb with a chapel built above it.
Khamuis, the priestly son of Rameses II. (c. 1300 B.C.), excavated a great gallery to be lined with the tomb chambers; another similar gallery was added by Psammetichus I. The careful statement of the ages of the animals in the later instances, with the regnal dates for their birth, enthronization and death have thrown much light on the chronology from the XXIInd dynasty onwards. The name of the mother-cow and the place of birth are often recorded. The sarcophagi are of immense size, and the burial must have entailed enormous expense. It is therefore remarkable that the priests contrived to bury one of the animals in the fourth year of Cambyses.
See Jablonski, _Pantheon_, ii.; Budge, _G.o.ds of the Egyptians_, ii.
350; Mariette-Maspero, _Le Serapeum de Memphis_. (F. Ll. G.)
APLITE, in petrology, the name given to intrusive rock in which quartz and felspar are the dominant minerals. Aplites are usually very fine-grained, white, grey or flesh-coloured, and their const.i.tuents are visible only with the help of a magnifying lens. d.y.k.es and threads of aplite are very frequently to be observed traversing granitic bosses; they occur also, though in less numbers, in syenites, diorites, quartz-diabases and gabbros. Without doubt they have usually a genetic affinity to the rocks they intersect. The aplites of granite areas, for example, are the last part of the magma to crystallize, and correspond in composition to the quartzo-felspathic aggregates which fill up the inters.p.a.ces between the early minerals in the main body of the rock.
They bear a considerable resemblance to the eutectic mixtures which are formed on the cooling of solutions of mineral salts, and remain liquid till the excess of either of the components has separated out, finally solidifying _en ma.s.se_ when the proper proportions of the const.i.tuents and a suitable temperature are reached. The essential components of the aplites are quartz and alkali felspar (the latter usually orthoclase or microperthite). Crystallization has been apparently rapid (as the rocks are so fine-grained), and the ingredients have solidified almost at the same time. Hence their crystals are rather imperfect and fit closely to one another in a sort of fine mosaic of nearly equi-dimensional grains.
Porphyritic felspars occur occasionally and quartz more seldom; but the relation of the aplites to quartz-porphyries, granophyres and felsites is very close, as all these rocks have nearly the same chemical composition. Yet the aplites a.s.sociated with diorites and quartz-diabases differ in minor respects from the common aplites, which accompany granites. The accessory minerals of these rocks are princ.i.p.ally oligoclase, muscovite, apat.i.te and zircon. Biot.i.te and all ferromagnesian minerals rarely appear in them, and never are in considerable amount. Riebeckite-granites (paisanites) have close affinities to aplites, shown especially in the prevalence of alkali felspars. Tourmaline also occurs in some aplites. The rocks of this group are very frequent in all areas where ma.s.ses of granite are known.
They form d.y.k.es and irregular veins which may be only a few inches or many feet in diameter. Less frequently aplite forms stocks or bosses, or occupies the edges or irregular portions of the interior of outcrops of granite. The syenite-aplites consist mainly of alkali felspar; the diorite-aplites of plagioclase; there are nepheline-bearing aplites which intersect some elaeolite-syenites. In all cases they bear the same relation to the parent ma.s.ses. By increase of quartz aplites pa.s.s gradually, in a few localities, through highly quartzose modifications (beresite, &c.) into quartz veins. (J. S. F.)
APNOEA (Gr. [Greek: apnoia], from [Greek: a-], privative, [Greek: pneein], to breathe), a technical term for suspension of breathing.
APOCALYPSE (Gr. [Greek: apokalupsis], disclosure), a term applied to the disclosure to certain privileged persons of something hidden from the ma.s.s of men. The Greek root corresponds in the Septuagint to the Heb.
_galah_, to reveal. The last book of the New Testament bears in Greek the t.i.tle [Greek: Apokalypsis Ioannou], and is frequently referred to as the Apocalypse of John, but in the English Bible it appears as the Revelation of St John the Divine (see REVELATION). Earlier among the h.e.l.lenistic Jews the term was used of a number of writings which depicted in a prophetic and parabolic way the end or future state of the world (e.g. _Apocalypse of Baruch_), the whole cla.s.s is now commonly known as Apocalyptic Literature (q.v.).