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LINUS

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 737 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LINUS , one of a numerous class of heroic figures in See also:

Greek See also:legend, of which other examples are found in See also:Hyacinthus and See also:Adonis. The connected legend is always of the same See also:character: a beautiful youth, fond of See also:hunting and rural See also:life, the favourite of some See also:god or goddess, suddenly perishes by a terrible See also:death. In many cases the religious background of the legend is preserved by the See also:annual ceremonial that commemorated it. At See also:Argos this religious character of the Linus myth was best preserved: the See also:secret See also:child of Psamathe by the god See also:Apollo, Linus is exposed, nursed by See also:sheep and torn in pieces by sheep-See also:dogs. Every See also:year at the festival Arnis or Cynophontis, the See also:women of Argos mourned for Linus and propitiated Apollo, who in revenge for his child's death had sent a See also:female See also:monster (Poine), which tore the See also:children from their mothers' arms. See also:Lambs were sacrificed, all dogs found See also:running loose were killed, and women and children raised a lament for Linus and Psamathe (See also:Pausanias i. 43. 7; See also:Conon, Narrat. 19). In the Theban version, Linus, the son of Amphimarus and the muse Urania, was a famous musician, inventor of the Linus See also:song, who was said to have been slain by Apollo, because he had challenged him to a contest (Pausanias ix. 29. 6).

A later See also:

story makes him the teacher of Heracles, by whom he was killed because he had rebuked his See also:pupil for stupidity (See also:Apollodorus ii. 4. 9). On See also:Mount See also:Helicon there was a grotto containing his statue, to which See also:sacrifice was offered every year before the sacrifices to the See also:Muses. From being the inventor of musical methods, he was finally transformed by later writers into a composer of prophecies and legends. He was also said to have adapted the Phoenician letters introduced by See also:Cadmus to the Greek See also:language. It is generally agreed that Linus and Ailinus are of Semitic origin, derived from the words a% lanu (woe to us), which formed the See also:burden of the Adonis and similar songs popular in the See also:East. The Linus song is mentioned in See also:Homer; the tragedians often use the word ail\ivos as the refrain in mournful songs, and See also:Euripides calls the See also:custom a Phrygian one. Linus, originally the personification of the song of lamentation, becomes, like Adonis, Maneros, See also:Narcissus, the representative of the See also:tender life of nature and of the vegetation destroyed by the fiery See also:heat of the See also:dog-See also:star. The See also:chief See also:work on the subject is H. See also:Brugsch, See also:Die Adonisklage and das Linoslied (1852); see also See also:article in See also:Roscher's Lexikon der Mythologie; J. G.

Frazer, See also:

Golden Bough (ti. 224, 253), where, the identity of Linus with Adonis (possibly a See also:corn-spirit) being assumed, the lament is explained as the lamentation of the reapers over the dead corn-spirit; W. Mannhardt, Wald- and Feldculte, ii.

End of Article: LINUS

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