s, which figured on the medieval charts sometimes
as an archipelago, sometimes as continuous land of greater or lesser
extent, constantly fluctuating in mid-ocean between the Canaries and
East India. But it came at last to be identified with the land
discovered by Columbus. Later, when this was found to consist of a vast
archipelago enclosing the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, _Antilia_
assumed its present plural form, _Antilles_, which was collectively
applied to the whole of this archipelago.

A distinction is made between the Greater Antilles, including Cuba,
Jamaica, Haiti, and Porto Riro; and the Lesser Antilles, covering the
remainder of the islands.

ANTILOCHUS, in Greek legend, son of Nestor, king of Pylos. One of the
suitors of Helen, he accompanied his father to the Trojan War. He was
distinguished for his beauty, swiftness of foot, and skill as a
charioteer; though the youngest among the Greek princes, he commanded
the Pylians in the war, and performed many deeds of valour. He was a
favourite of the gods, and an intimate friend of Achilles, to whom he
was commissioned to announce the death of Patroclus. When his father was
attacked by Memnon, he saved his life at the sacrifice of his own
(Pindar, _Pyth._ vi. 28), thus fulfilling an oracle which had bidden him
"beware of an Ethiopian." His death was avenged by Achilles. According
to other accounts, he was slain by Hector (Hyginus, _Fab._ 113), or by
Paris in the temple of the Thymbraean Apollo together with Achilles
(Dares Phrygius 34). His ashes, with those of Achilles and Patroclus,
were deposited in a mound on the promontory of Sigeum, where the
inhabitants of Ilium offered sacrifice to the dead heroes (_Odyssey_,
xxiv. 72; Strabo xiii. p. 596). In the _Odyssey_ (xi. 468) the three
friends are represented as united in the underworld and walking together
in the fields of asphodel; according to Pausanias (iii. 19) they dwell
together in the island of Leuke.

ANTIMACASSAR, a separate covering for the back of a chair, or the head
or cushions of a sofa, to prevent soiling of the permanent fabric. The
name is attributable to the unguent for the hair commonly used in the
early 19th century,--Byron calls it "thine incomparable oil, Macassar."
The original antimacassar was almost invariably made of white
crochet-work, very stiff, hard, and uncomfortable, but in the third
quarter of the 19th century it became simpler and less inartistic, and
was mad