Chapter Athenæum to Aubri's Dog of A by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Athenæum to Aubri's Dog

Athenæum (The), “a Magazine of Literary and Miscellaneous Information,” edited by John Aikin (1807–1809).

Re-started by James Silk Buckingham in 1829.

Athenian Bee. Plato was so called from the honeyed sweetness of his composition. It is said that a bee settled on his lips while he was an infant asleep in his cradle, and indicated that “honeyed words” would fall from his lips, and flow from his pen. Sophoclês is called “The Attic Bee.”

Athenodorus, the Stoic, told Augustus the best way to restrain unruly anger is to repeat the alphabet before giving way to it.

The sacred line he did but once repeat,
And laid the storm, and cooled the raging heat.
   —Tickell: The Horn-book.

Athens.

German Athens, Saxe-Weimar.

Athens of Ireland, Belfast.

Modern Athens, Edinburgh. So called from its resemblance to the Acropolis, when viewed from the sea opposite.—Willis.

Mohammedan Athens, Bagdad in the time of Haroun-al-Raschid.

Athens of the New World, Boston, noted for its literature and literary institutions.

Athens of the North, Copenhagen, unrivalled (for its size) in the richness of its literary and antique stores, the number of its societies for the encouragement of arts, sciences, and general learning, together with the many illustrious names on the roll of its citizenship.

Athens of Switzerland, Zurich. So called from the number of protestant refugees who resorted thither, and inundated Europe with their works on controversial divinity. Coverdale’s Bible was printed at Zurich in 1535; here Zuinglius preached, and here Lavater lived.

Athens of the West. Cordova, in Spain, was so called in the Middle Ages.

Athliot, the most wretched of all women.

Her comfort is (if for her any be),
That none could show more cause of grief than she.
   —W. Browne: Britannia’s Pastorals, ii. 5 (1613).

Athos. Dinocratês, a sculptor, proposed to Alexander to hew mount Athos into a statue representing the great conqueror, with a city in his left hand, and a basin in his right to receive all the waters which flowed from the mountain. Alexander greatly approved of the suggestion, but objected to the locality.

And hew out a huge monument of pathos
As Philip’s son proposed to do with Athos.
   —Bryon: Don Juan, xii. 86.

Athos is one of the musketeers in Three Musketeers, by Dumas.

Athunree, in Connaught, where was fought the great battle between Felim O’Connor on the side of the Irish, and William de Bourgo on the side of the English. The Irish lost 10,000 men, and the whole tribe of the O’Connors fell except Felim’s brother, who escaped alive.

Athunree (Lord), a libertine with broken coffers; a man of pleasure, who owned “no curb of honour, and who possessed no single grace but valour.”—Knowles: Woman’s Wit (1838).