- Acerbas
:"For the
genus ofgrass skipper butterflies , see "Acerbas (butterfly) .Acerbas, a Tyrian priest of
Hercules , who married Elissa, the daughter of kingMutgo , and sister of Pygmalion. He was possessed of considerable wealth, which, knowing the avarice of Pygmalion, who had succeeded his father, he concealed in the earth. But Pygmalion, who heard of these hidden treasures, had Acerbas murdered, in hopes that through his sister he might obtain possession of them. But the prudence of Elissa saved the treasures, and she emigrated fromPhoenicia . [Justin 18.4]In this account Acerbas is the same person as
Sychaeus , and Elissa the same as Dido in Virgil. [Vergil , "Aeneid " i. 343, 348, &c.] The names in Justin are undoubtedly more correct than in Virgil; forServius remarks, that Virgil here, as in other cases, changed a foreign name into one more convenient to him, and that the real name of Sichaeus wasSicharbas , which seems to be identical with Acerbas. [Servius , " [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0053 ad Aen.] " 1.343]References
Footnotes
Other sources
*Citation
last = Schmitz
first = Leonhard
author-link = Leonhard Schmitz
contribution = Acerbas
editor-last = Smith
editor-first = William
title =Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology
volume = 1
pages = 6-7
publisher =
place = Boston
year = 1867
contribution-url = http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0015.html
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