Alcmaeon

[alk-mee-uh n]

noun Classical Mythology.

a son of Amphiaraus and Eriphyle who commanded the second expedition against Thebes. He killed his mother for sending his father to certain death and was driven mad by the Furies.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for alcmaeon

Historical Examples of alcmaeon

Alcmaeon is considered in the companion chapter on Greek Medicine.
The Legacy of Greece
Various
Alcmaeon, the head, for that is the commanding and the principal part of the body.
Essays and Miscellanies
Plutarch
It led to the death of Eriphyle, of Alcmaeon, of Phegeus and his sons.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 8
Various
However, Alcmaeon's sin was too great for any such cleansing.
Euripedes and His Age
Gilbert Murray
Alcmaeon slew his mother and became in consequence mad and accursed.
Euripedes and His Age
Gilbert Murray

alcmaeon in Medicine

Alcmaeon

[ălk-mē′ən]fl. sixth century bc.

Greek physician and philosopher. He was the first known anatomist and probably the first to perform scientific dissections of human bodies.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.