a young man of the island Cea, who having gone to Delos to see the sacred rites which were performed there by a crowd of virgins in the temple of Diana, fell violently in love with Cydippe, the daughter of a noble Athenian; but not daring to ask her in marriage, on account of the superiority of her rank, he insidiously threw down at her feet an apple, on which were inscribed these words,

Me tibi nuptruram (felix est nomen) Aconti, Juro, quam colimus, numina magna deo.

Or, according to others,

Juro tibi sancte per mystica sacra Diana, Me tibi venturam comitem, sponsamque futuram.

The virgin having taken up the apple, inadvertently read the words, and thus apparently bound herself by a promise; for by law, everything uttered in that temple was held to be ratified. When her father, a little after, ignorant of what had happened, betrothed her to another man, she was suddenly seized with a fever; whereupon Acontius sent her a letter (expressed by Ovid, Heroid. 20.) to persuade her that her fever was caused by Diana for not having fulfilled the promise which she had made to him in the temple of that goddess. Cydippe therefore resolved to comply with the wishes of Acontius, even against the inclination of her father. Her answer is the subject of Ovid's 21st Epist. Heroid. (Adam's Clas. Biog.)

properly ACONCIO, James, a philosopher, civilian, and divine, born at Trent in the sixteenth century. He embraced the reformed religion; and coming into England in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, he was favourably received and much honoured by that princess, which he acknowledges in a book dedicated to her. This work is his celebrated Collection of the Stratagems of Satan, which has been often translated, and passed through many editions.