I.the name of a high mountain in the northwestern angle of Sicily, and of a city near it famous for its temple of Venus. According to fable, it was named from the Sicilian king Eryx, son of Butes and Venus, and brother of Aeneas; the mountain is now called S. Giuliano, Mel. 2, 7, 17; Plin. 3, 8, 14, § 90; Ov. A. A. 2, 420; id. F. 4, 874; id. M. 2, 221; Verg. A. 1, 570; 5, 24; 419; 630; 772; Hyg. Fab. 260. The mountain is also called Ĕrycus , i (mons), m., Cic. Verr. 2, 2, 8; 2, 2, 47; Tac. A. 4, 43 (and perh. in Flor. 2, 2, 12).—Deriv.,
II. Ĕrycīnus , a, um, adj., Erycinian: “vertex,” Verg. A. 5, 757 Heyne: Venus, Cic. Div. ap. Caecil. 17; Cic. Verr. 2, 1, 10; 2, 2, 8; cf. Liv. 23, 30 and 31; 40, 34; Ov. F. 4, 871 sq.: “templa,” Stat. S. 1, 2, 160: “concha,” sacred to Venus, Prop. 3, 13, 6 (4, 12, 6 M.): “litora,” i. e. Sicilian, Verg. A. 10, 36; cf. “thapsos,” Luc. 9, 919.—Subst.: Erycīna , ae, f., i. e. Venus, Hor. C. 1, 2, 33; Ov. M. 5, 363.—Erycīni , ōrum, m., the inhabitants of the city Eryx, Plin. 3, 8, 14, § 91.
