Alcmaeon

Alcmaeon

(Ἀλκμαίων), a son of Amphiaraus and Eriphyle, and brother of Amphilochus, Eurydice, and Demonassa. (Apollod. 3.7.2.) His mother was induced by the necklace of Harmonia, which she received from Polyneices, to persuade her husband Amphiaraus to take part in the expedition against Thebes. (Hom. Od. 15.247, &c.) But before Amphiaraus set out, he enjoined his sons to kill their mother as soon as they should be grown up. (Apollod. 3.6.2; Hyg. Fab. 73.) When the Epigoni prepared for a second expedition against Thebes, to avenge the death of their fathers, the oracle promised them success and victory, if they chose Alcmaeon their leader. He was at first disinclined to undertake the command, as he had not yet taken vengeance on his mother, according to the desire of his father. But she, who had now received from Thersander, the son of Polyneices, the peplus of Harmonia also, induced him to join the expedition. Alcmaeon distinguished himself greatly in it, and slew Laodamus, the son of Eteocles. (Apollod. 3.7.2, &c. ; comp. Diod. 4.66.) When, after the fall of Thebes, he learnt the reason for which his mother had urged him on to take part in the expedition, He slew her on the advice of an oracle of Apollo, and, according to some traditions, in conjunction with his brother Amphilochus. For this deed he became mad, and was haunted by the Erinnyes. He first came to Oicleus in Arcadia, and thence went to Phegeus in Psophis, and being purified by the latter, he married his daughter Arsinoe or Alphesiboea (Paus. 8.24.4), to whom he gave the necklace and peplus of Harmonia. But the country in which he now resided was visited by scarcity, in consequence of his being the murderer of his mother, and the oracle advised him to go to Achelous. According to Pausanias, he left Psophis because his madness did not yet cease. Pausanias and Thucydides (2.102; comp. Plut. De Exil. p. 602) further state, that the oracle commanded him to go to a country which had been formed subsequent to the murder of his mother, and was therefore under no curse. The country thus pointed out was a tract of land which had been recently formed at the mouth of the river Achelous. Apollodorus agrees with this account, but gives a detailed history of Alcmaeon's wanderings until he reached the mouth of Achelous, who gave him his daughter Calirrhoe in marriage. Calirrhoe had a desire to possess the necklace and peplus of Harmonia, and Alcmaeon, to gratify her wish, went to Psophis to get them from Phegeus, under the pretext that he intended to dedicate them at Delphi in order to be freed from his madness. Phegeus complied with his request, but when he heard that the treasures were fetched for Calirrhoe, he sent his sons Pronous and Agenor (Apollod. 3.7.6) or, according to Pausanias (8.24.4), Temenus and Axion, after him, with the command to kill him. This was done, but the sons of Alcmaeon by Calirrhoe took bloody vengoance at the instigation of their mother. (Apollod. Paus. ll. cc.; Ov. Met. 9.407, &c.)

The story about Alcmaeon furnished rich materials for the epic and tragic poets of Greece, and their Roman imitators. But none of these poems is now extant, and we only know from Apollodorus (3.7.7), that Euripides, in his tragedy " Alcmaeon," stated that after the fall of Thebes he married Manto, the daughter of Teiresias, and that he had two children by her, Amphilochus and Tisiphone, whom he gave to Creon, king of Corinth, to educate. The wife of Creon, jealous of the extraordinary beauty of Tisiphone, afterwards sold her as a slave, and Alcmaeon himself bought her, without knowing that she was his daughter. (Diod. 4.66; Paus. 7.3.1, 9.33.1.) Alcmaeon after his death was worshipped as a hero, and at Thebes he seems to have had an altar, near the house of Pindar (Pind. P. 8.80, &c.), who calls him his neighbour and the guardian of his property, and also seems to suggest that prophetic powers were ascribed to him, as to his father Amphiaraus. At Psopllis his tomb was shewn, surrounded with lofty and sacred cypresses. (Paus. 8.24.4.) At Oropus, in Attica, where Amphiaraus and Amphilochus were worshipped, Alcmaeon enjoyed no such honours, because he was a matricide. (Paus. 1.34.2.) He was represented in a statue at Delphi, and on the chest of Cypselus. (10.10.2, 5.17.4.) [L.S]

Alcmaeon

(Ἀλκμαίων), son of the Megacles who was guilty of sacrilege with respect to the followers of Cimon, was invited by Croesus to Sardis in consequence of the services he had rendered to an embassy sent by Croesus to consult the Delphic oracle. On his arrival at Sardis, Croesus made him a present of as much gold as he could carry out of the treasury. Alcmaeon took the king at his word, by putting on a most capacious dress, the folds of which (as well as the vacant space of a pair of very wide boots, also provided for the occasion) he stuffed with gold, and then filled his mouth and hair with gold dust. Croesus laughed at the trick, and presented him with as much again (about 590 B. C.). The wealth thus acquired is said to have contributed greatly to the subsequent prosperity of the Alcmaeonidae. (Hdt. 6.125.)

Alclmaeon was a breeder of horses for chariotraces, and on one occasion gained the prize in a chariot-race at Olympia. (Herod. l.c. ; Isocrates, de Bigis, c. 10. p. 351.) We are informed by Plutarch (Plut. Sol. c. 11), that he commanded the Athenians in the Cirrhaean war, which began B. C. 600. [P.S]

Alcmaeon

(Ἀλκμαίων), one of the most eminent natural philosophers of antiquity, was a native of Crotona in Magna Graecia. His father's name was Pirithus, and he is said to have been a pupil of Pythagoras, and must therefore have lived in the latter half of the sixth century before Christ. (D. L. 8.83.) Nothing more is known of the events of his life. Works Work on Dissection

His most celebrated anatomical discovery has been noticed in the Dict. of Ant. p. 756a; but whether his knowledge in this branch of science was derived from the dissection of animals or of human bodies, is a disputed question, which it is difficult to decide. Chalcidius, on whose authority the fact rests, merely says (Comment. in Plat. "Tim." p. 368, ed. Fabr.), " qui primus exsectionem aggredi est ausus," and the word exsectio would apply equally well to either case. Natural Philosophy and Fables

He is said also (Diog. Laert. l.c.; Clemens Alexandr. Strom. i. p. 308) to have been the first person who wrote on natural philosophy (Φυσικὸν λόγον), and to have invented fables (fabulas, Isid. Orig. 1.39). Other Medical and Philosophical Works

He also wrote several other medical and philosophical works, of which nothing but the titles and a few fragments have been preserved by Stobaeus (Eclog. Phys.) Plutarch (De Phys. Philos. Decr.), and Galen. (Histor. Philosophy.) Further Information

A further account of his philosophical opinions may be found in Menage's Notes to Diogenes Laertius, 8.83, p. 387; Le Clerc, Hist. de la Méd. ; Alfons. Ciacconius apud Flbric, Biblioth. Graec. vol. xiii. p. 48, ed. vet.; Sprengel, Hist. de la Méd. vol. i. p. 239; C. G. Kühn, De Philosoph. ante Hippocr. Medicinae Cultor. Lips. 1781, 4to., reprinted in Ackermann's Opusc. ad Histor. Medic. Pertinentia, Norimb. 1797, 8vo., and in Kühn's Opusc. Acad. Med. et Philol. Lips. 1827-8, 2 vols. 8vo.; Isensec, Gesch. der Medicin. [W.A.G] Assessment

Although Alcmaeon is termed a pupil of Pythagoras, there is great reason to doubt whether he was a Pythagorean at all; his name seems to have crept into the lists of supposititious Pythagoreans given us by later writers. (Brandis, Geschichte der Philosophie, vol. i. p. 507.) Aristotle (Metaphys. A. 5) mentions him as nearly contemporary with Pythagoras, but distinguishes between the στοιχεῖα of opposites, under which the Pythagoreans included all things, and the double principle of Alcmaeon, according to Aristotle, less extended, although he does not explain the precise difference. Other doctrines of Alcmaaeon have been preserved to us. He said that the human soul was immortal and partook of the divine nature, because like the heavenly bodies it contained in itself a principle of motion. (Arist. de Anima 1.2, p. 405; Cic. de Nat. Deor. 1.11.) The eclipse of the moon, which was also eternal, he supposed to arise from its shape, which he said was like a boat. All his doctrines which have come down to us, relate to physics or medicine; and seem to have arisen partly out of the speculations of the Ionian school, with which rather than the Pythagorean, Aristotle appears to connect Alcmaeon, partly front the traditionary lore of the earliest medical science. (Brandis, vol. i. p. 508.) [B.J]

Alcmaeon

(Ἀλκμαίων). A native of Argos and son of Amphiaraüs (q.v.) and Eriphylé. As his father, in departing on the expedition of the Seven against Thebes, had bound him and his brother Amphilochus, then mere boys, to avenge him on their faithless mother, Alcmaeon refused to take part in the second expedition, that of the Epigoni (q.v.), till he had first fulfilled that filial duty; nevertheless his mother, bribed by Thersander with the garment of Harmonia, persuaded him to go. The real leader at the siege of Thebes, he slew the Theban king, Laodamas, and was the first to enter the conquered city. On returning home, he, at the bidding of the Delphian Apollo, avenged his father by slaying his mother, with, or according to some accounts, without, his brother's help; but immediately, like Orestes, he was set upon by the Furies, and wandered distracted, seeking purification and a new home. Phegeus, of the Arcadian Psophis, half purified him of his guilt, and gave him his daughter Arsinoë or Alphesiboea to wife, to whom he presented the jewels of Harmonia, which he had brought from Argos. But soon the crops failed in the land, and he fell into his distemper again, till, after many wanderings, he arrived at the mouth of the Acheloüs, and there, in an island that had floated up, he found the country promised by the god, which had not existed at the time of his dying mother's curse, and so he was completely cured. He married Acheloüs's daughter, Callirrhoë, by whom he had two sons, Acarnan and Amphoterus (q.v.). Unable to withstand his wife's entreaties that she might have Harmonia's necklace and robe, he went to Phegeus in Arcadia, and begged those treasures of him, pretending that he would dedicate them at Delphi for the perfect healing of his madness. He obtained them; but Phegeus, on learning the truth, set his son to waylay him on the road, and rob him of his treasure and his life. Alcmaeon 's sons then avenged their father's death on his murderers. Alcmaeon received divine honours after death, and had a sanctuary at Thebes and a consecrated tomb at Psophis.

Alcmaeon Alcmaeon, son of Amphiaraus and Eriphyle

• as a boy: Paus. 5.17.7
• older than Amphilochus: Paus. 10.10.4
• goes with Diomedes (to Calydon): Apollod. 1.8.5
• son of Amphiaraus, leader of the Epigoni against Thebes: Apollod. 3.7.2
• captures Thebes: Paus. 2.20.5, Paus. 8.24.10
• kills Laodamas: Apollod. 3.7.3
• learning the treachery of his mother Eriphyle, he kills her: Apollod. 3.7.3, Apollod. 3.7.5, Paus. 2.1.8, Paus. 1.34.3, Paus. 8.24.7
• haunted by her Fury: Apollod. 3.7.5
• is purified by Phegeus at Psophis and marries Arsinoe, daughter of Phegeus: Apollod. 3.7.5
• his wanderings and final purification by Achelous: Paus. 8.24.8, Apollod. 3.7.5
• marries Callirrhoe, daughter of Achelous: Apollod. 3.7.5
• murdered by the sons of Phegeus: Paus. 6.17.6, Paus. 8.24.10, Apollod. 3.7.5
• not worshipped: Paus. 1.34.3
• his tomb: Paus. 8.24.7
• statue at Delphi: Paus. 10.10.4
• Alcmaeonid, homicide of Tydeus mentioned in the: Apollod. 1.8.3

Alcmaeon(2), son of Sillus

• expelled from Messenia by Heraclids: Paus. 2.18.8