ACHILL, or “Eagle” Island, off the west coast of Ireland, forms part of the county of Mayo. It is of triangular shape, and extends 15 miles from east to west, and 12 from north to south, its total area being 51,521 acres. The island is very mountainous; its extreme western point, Achill Head, is a bold and rugged promontory rising to a height of 2222 feet above the sea. Large bogs, incapable of cultivation, alternate with the hills of this desolate isle, of whose extensive surface not more than 500 acres have been reclaimed. The inhabitants earn a scanty subsistence by fishing and tillage; their dwellings are miserable hovels. There is a mission-station on the island, and remains of ancient churches are still extant.

ACHILLES ('Aχιλλ∈ύς). When first taken up by the legendary history of Greece, the ancestors of Achilles were settled in Phthia and in Aegina. That their original seat, however, was in the neighbourhood of Dodona and the Achelous is made out from a combination of the following facts: That in the Iliad (xvi. 233) Achilles prays to Zeus of Dodona; that this district was the first to bear the name of Hellas; that the followers of Achilles at Troy were the only persons named Hellenes in the time of Homer (Thucytd. i .3 ; of. Iliad, ii. 684, where the more usual name of Myrmidones also occurs); that in Aegina Zeus was styled “Hellanios;” and that the name of Selloi, applied to the priesthood at Dodona, is apparently identical with the name Hellenes. Whether from this local connection the derivation of the name of Achilles from the same root as 'Aχ∈λωoς should be preferred to the other derivations, such as 'Aχι-λεύs = 'Εχελαoς, “ruler,” or 'Αχ-ιλ∈ύς, = “the bane of the Ilians,” remains undecided. But this is gained, that we see in what manner the legend of Achilles had its root in the earlier Pelasgic religion, his adherence to which in the prayer just cited would otherwise appear very strange on the part of a hero who, through the influence of Homer and his successors, is completely identified with the Olympian system of gods. According to the genealogy, Aeacus had two sons, Peleus and Telamon, of whom the former became the father of Achilles—the latter, of Ajax; but of this relationship between Achilles and Ajax there is no sign in the Iliad. Peleus ruled in Phthia; and the gods remarking his piety, rewarded him with, among other presents, a wife in the person of the beautiful nereid Thetis. After her son was born, Thetis ...

ACHILLES TATIUS, a Greek writer, born at Alexandria. The precise time when he flourished is uncertain, but it cannot have been earlier than the 5th century, as in his principal work he evidently imitates Heliodorus. Suidas. who calls him Achilles Statius, says that he was converted from heathenism and became a Christian bishop, but this is doubtful, the more so that Suidas also attributes to him a work on the sphere ( περί σφαίρας) which is referred to by Firmicus (330-50), and must, therefore, have been written by another person. The erotic romance of Achilles Tatius, entitled The Loves of Clitophon and Leucippe, is almost certainly the work of a heathen writer. The style of the work is ornate and rhetorical, while the story is often unnatural, and sometimes coarse, and the development of the plot irregular and frequently interrupted. Its popularity at the time it appeared is proved by the many manuscripts of it which still exist, and the value attached to it by modern scholars and critics is seen in the frequency with which it has been reprinted and translated. A Latin translation by Annibal Crucceius was published, first in part at Leyden in 1544, and then complete at Basel in 1554. The Greek text was first printed by Commelin, at Heidelberg, in 1601. Other editions by Salmasius (Leyden, 1640), Mitscherlich (Biponti, 1792), and Jacobs (Leipsic, 1821), have been superseded by the editions of Hirschig (Paris, 1856), and Hercher (Leipsic, 1857). An English translation by A. H. (Anthony Hodges) appeared at Oxford in 1638.

ACHILLINI, Alexander (1463-1512), a native of Bologna, was celebrated as a lecturer both in medicine and in philosophy, and was styled the second Aristotle. He and Mundinus were the first at Bologna to avail themselves of the permission given by Frederick II. to dissect dead bodies. His philosophical works were printed in one volume folio, at Venice, in 1508, and reprinted with considerable additions in 1545, 1551, and 1568. He also wrote several medical works, chiefly on anatomy.