the first Archon that was appointed with regal authority, B.C. 1070.
In the election Medon was preferred to his brother Neleus, by the
oracle of Delphi, and he rendered himself popular by the justice and
moderation of his administration. His successors were called from him
_Medontidæ_, and the office of archon remained for above 200 years in
the family of Codrus under 12 perpetual archons. _Pausanias_, bk. 7,
ch. 2.――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 2.――――A man killed in the Trojan war.
Æneas saw him in the infernal regions. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li.
483.――――A statuary of Lacedæmon, who made a famous statue of Minerva,
seen in the temple of Juno at Olympia. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 17.
――――One of the Centaurs, &c. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 303.
――――One of the Tyrrhene sailors changed into dolphins by Bacchus.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3, li. 671.――――A river of Peloponnesus.
――――An illegitimate son of Ajax Oileus. _Homer._――――One of Penelope’s
suitors. _Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 1.――――A man of Cyzicus, killed by
the Argonauts.――――A king of Argos, who died about 990 years B.C.――――A
son of Pylades by Electra. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 16.
=Medontias=, a woman of Abydos, with whom Alcibiades cohabited as with
a wife. She had a daughter, &c. _Lysias._
=Meduacus=, two rivers (_Major_, now _Brenta_, and _Minor_, now
_Bachilione_), falling, near Venice, into the Adriatic sea. _Pliny_,
bk. 3, ch. 16.――_Livy_, bk. 10, ch. 2.
=Meduana=, a river of Gaul, flowing into the Ligeris, now the _Mayne_.
_Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 438.
=Medullīna=, a Roman virgin ravished by her father, &c. _Plutarch_,
_Parallela minora_.――――An infamous courtesan in Juvenal’s age,
satire 6, li. 321.
=Medus=, now _Kur_, a river of Media, falling into the Araxes. Some
take Medus adjectively, as applying to any of the great rivers of
Media. _Strabo_, bk. 15.――_Horace_, bk. 2, ode 9, li. 21.――――A son
of Ægeus and Medea, who gave his name to a country of Asia. Medus,
when arrived to years of maturity, went to seek his mother, whom the
arrival of Theseus in Athens had driven away. _See:_ Medea. He came
to Colchis, where he was seized by his uncle Perses, who usurped the
throne of Æetes, his mother’s father, because the oracle had declared
that Perses should be murdered by one of the grandsons of Æetes.
Medus assumed another name, and called himself Hippotes son of Creon.
Meanwhile Medea arrived in Colchis, disguised in the habit of a
priestess of Diana, and when she heard that one of Creon’s children
was imprisoned, she resolved to hasten the destruction of a person
whose family she detested. To effect this with more certainty, she
told the usurper that Hippotes was really a son of Medea, sent by his
mother to murder him. She begged Perses to give her Hippotes, that
she might sacrifice him to her resentment. Perses consented. Medea
discovered that it was her own son, and she instantly armed him with
the dagger which she had prepared against his life, and ordered him
to stab the usurper. He obeyed, and Medea discovered who he was,
and made her son Medus sit on his grandfather’s throne. _Hesiod_,
_Theogony_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1.――_Justin_,
bk. 42.――_Seneca_, _Medea_.――_Diodorus._
=Medūsa=, one of the three Gorgons, daughter of Phorcys and Ceto. She
was the only one of the Gorgons who was subject to mortality. She
is celebrated for her personal charms and the beauty of her locks.
Neptune became enamoured of her, and obtained her favours in the
temple of Minerva. This violation of the sanctity of the temple
provoked Minerva, and she changed the beautiful locks of Medusa,
which had inspired Neptune’s love, into serpents. According to
Apollodorus and others, Medusa and her sisters came into the world
with snakes on their heads, instead of hair, with yellow wings and
brazen hands. Their bodies were also covered with impenetrable scales,
and their very looks had the power of killing or turning to stones.
Perseus rendered his name immortal by his conquest of Medusa. He
cut off her head, and the blood that dropped from the wound produced
the innumerable serpents that infest Africa. The conqueror placed
Medusa’s head on the ægis of Minerva, which he had used in his
expedition. The head still retained the same petrifying power as
before, as it was fatally known in the court of Cepheus. _See:_
Andromeda. Some suppose that the Gorgons were a nation of women,
whom Perseus conquered. _See:_ Gorgones. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 618.
――_Lucan_, bk. 9, li. 624.――_Apollonius_, bk. 4.――_Hyginus_ fable 151.
――――A daughter of Priam.――――A daughter of Sthenelus. _Apollodorus._
=Megabizi=, certain priests in Diana’s temple at Ephesus. They were all
eunuchs. _Quintilian_, bk. 5, ch. 12.
=Megabyzus=, one of the noble Persians who conspired against the
usurper Smerdis. He was set over an army in Europe by king Darius,
where he took Perinthus and conquered all Thrace. He was greatly
esteemed by his sovereign. _Herodotus_, bk. 3, &c.――――A son of
Zopyrus, satrap to Darius. He conquered Egypt, &c. _Herodotus_,
bk. 3, ch. 160.――――A satrap of Artaxerxes. He revolted from his
king, and defeated two large armies that had been sent against him.
The interference of his friends restored him to the king’s favour,
and he showed his attachment to Artaxerxes by killing a lion which
threatened his life in hunting. This act of affection in Megabyzus
was looked upon with envy by the king. He was discarded and
afterwards reconciled to the monarch by means of his mother. He died
in the 76th year of his age, B.C. 447, greatly regretted. _Ctesias._
=Megăcles=, an Athenian archon, who involved the greatest part of the
Athenians in the sacrilege which was committed in the conspiracy of
Cylon. _Plutarch_, _Solon_.――――A brother of Dion, who assisted his
brother against Dionysius, &c.――――A son of Alcmæon, who revolted
with some Athenians after the departure of Solon from Athens. He was
ejected by Pisistratus.――――A man who exchanged dress with Pyrrhus,
when assisting the Tarentines in Italy. He was killed in that
disguise.――――A native of Messana in Sicily, famous for his inveterate
enmity to Agathocles tyrant of Syracuse.――――A man who destroyed the
leading men of Mitylene, because he had been punished.――――A man who
wrote an account of the lives of illustrious persons.――――The maternal
grandfather of Alcibiades.
=Megaclides=, a peripatetic philosopher in the age of Protagoras.
=Megæra=, one of the furies, daughter of Nox and Acheron. The word is
derived from μεγαιρειν, _invidere, odisse_, and she is represented
as employed by the gods, like her sisters, to punish the crimes of
mankind, by visiting them with diseases, with inward torments, and
with death. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 846. _See:_ Eumenides.
=Megăle=, the Greek name of Cybele the mother of the gods, whose
festivals were called Megalesia.
=Megaleas=, a seditious person of Corinth. He was seized for his
treachery to king Philip of Macedonia, upon which he destroyed
himself to avoid punishment.
=Megalesia=, games in honour of Cybele, instituted by the Phrygians,
and introduced at Rome in the second Punic war, when the statue
of the goddess was brought from Pessinus. _Livy_, bk. 29, ch. 14.
――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 337.
=Megalia=, a small island of Campania, near Neapolis. _Statius_, bk. 2,
_Sylvæ_, ♦poem 3, li. 80.
♦ omitted from text
=Megalŏpŏlis=, a town of Arcadia in Peloponnesus, built by Epaminondas.
It joined the Achæan league, B.C. 232, and was taken and ruined by
Cleomenes king of Sparta. The inhabitants were called _Megalopolitæ_,
or _Megalopolitani_. _Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 14.
――_Livy_, bk. 28, ch. 8.
=Megamēde=, the wife of Thestius, mother by him of 50 daughters.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 2.
=Meganīra=, the wife of Celeus king of Eleusis in Attica. She was
mother of Triptolemus, to whom Ceres, as she travelled over Attica,
taught agriculture. She received divine honours after death, and she
had an altar raised to her, near the fountain where Ceres had first
been seen when she arrived in Attica. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 39.
――――The wife of Arcas. _Apollodorus._
=Megapenthes=, an illegitimate son of Menelaus, who, after his father’s
return from the Trojan war, was married to a daughter of Alector, a
native of Sparta. His mother’s name was Teridae, a slave of Menelaus.
_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 4.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3.
=Megāra=, a daughter of Creon king of Thebes, given in marriage to
Hercules, because he had delivered the Thebans from the tyranny of
the Orchomenians. _See:_ Erginus. When Hercules went to hell by order
of Eurystheus, violence was offered to Megara by Lycus, a Theban
exile, and she would have yielded to her ravisher had not Hercules
returned that moment and punished him with death. This murder
displeased Juno, and she rendered Hercules so delirious, that he
killed Megara and the three children he had by her, in a fit of
madness, thinking them to be wild beasts. Some say that Megara did
not perish by the hand of her husband, but that he afterwards married
her to his friend Iolas. The names of Megara’s children by Hercules
were Creontiades, Therimachus, and Deicoon. _Hyginus_, fable 82.
――_Seneca_, _Hercules_.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 6.――_Diodorus_,
bk. 4.
=Megāra= (æ, and plural, orum), a city of Achaia, the capital of a
country called _Megaris_, founded about 1131 B.C. It is situate
nearly at an equal distance from Corinth and Athens, on the Sinus
Saronicus. It was built upon two rocks, and is still in being, and
preserves its ancient name. It was called after Megareus the son of
Neptune, who was buried there, or from Megareus, a son of Apollo. It
was originally governed by 12 kings, but became afterwards a republic,
and fell into the hands of the Athenians, from whom it was rescued
by the Heraclidæ. At the battle of Salamis the people of Megara
furnished 20 ships for the defence of Greece, and at Platæa they
had 300 men in the army of Pausanias. There was here a sect of
philosophers called the _Megaric_, who held the world to be eternal.
_Cicero_, _Academica_, bk. 4, ch. 42; _On Oratory_, bk. 3, ch. 17;
_Letters to Atticus_, bk. 1, ltr. 8.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 39.
――_Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――――A town of Sicily,
founded by a colony from Megara in Attica, about 728 years before the
christian era. It was destroyed by Gelon king of Syracuse; and before
the arrival of the Megarean colony it was called _Hybla_. _Strabo_,
♦bk. 6, &c.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 689.
♦ ‘26’ replaced with ‘6’
=Megareus=, the father of Hippomenes, was son of Onchestus. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 10, li. 605.――――A son of Apollo.
=Megāris=, a small country of Achaia, between Phocis on the west and
Attica on the east. Its capital city was called Megara. _See:_ Megara.
_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 8.――_Mela_, bk. 2, chs. 3 & 7.
=Megarsus=, a town of Sicily,――――of Cilicia.――――A river of India.
=Megasthĕnes=, a Greek historian in the age of Seleucus Nicanor, about
300 years before Christ. He wrote about the oriental nations, and
particularly the Indians. His history is often quoted by the ancients.
What now passes as his composition is spurious.
=Meges=, one of Helen’s suitors, governor of Dulichium and of the
Echinades. He went with 40 ships to the Trojan war. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 2.
=Megilla=, a native of Locris, remarkable for beauty, and mentioned by
Horace, bk. 1, ode 27, li. 11.
=Megista=, an island of Lycia, with a harbour of the same name. _Livy_,
bk. 37, ch. 22.
=Megistias=, a soothsayer, who told the Spartans that defended
Thermopylæ, that they all should perish, &c. _Herodotus_, bk. 7,
ch. 219, &c.――――A river. _See:_ Mella.
=Mela Pomponius=, a Spaniard, who flourished about the 45th year of the
christian era, and distinguished himself by his geography divided
into three books, and written with elegance, with great perspicuity
and brevity. The best editions of this book, called _De Situ Orbis_,
are those of Gronovius, 8vo, Leiden, 1722, and of Reinhold, 4to, Eton,
1761.
=Melænæ=, a village of Attica. _Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 12, li. 619.
=Melampus=, a celebrated soothsayer and physician of Argos, son of
Amythaon and Idomenea, or Dorippe. He lived at Pylos in Peloponnesus.
His servants once killed two large serpents, which had made their
nests at the bottom of a large oak, and Melampus paid so much regard
to these two reptiles, that he raised a burning pile and burned them
upon it. He also took particular care of their young ones, and fed
them with milk. Some time after this the young serpents crept to
Melampus as he slept on the grass near the oak, and, as if sensible
of the favours of their benefactor, they wantonly played around him,
and softly licked his ears. This awoke Melampus, who was astonished
at the sudden change which his senses had undergone. He found
himself acquainted with the chirping of the birds, and with all
their rude notes, as they flew around him. He took advantage of this
supernatural gift, and soon made himself perfect in the knowledge of
futurity, and Apollo also instructed him in the art of medicine. He
had soon after the happiness of curing the daughters of Prœtus, by
giving them hellebore, which from this circumstance has been called
_melampodium_, and as a reward for his trouble he married the eldest
of these princesses. _See:_ Prœtides. The tyranny of his uncle Neleus
king of Pylos obliged him to leave his native country, and Prœtus,
to show himself more sensible of his services, gave him part of
his kingdom, over which he established himself. About this time
the personal charms of Pero the daughter of Neleus had gained
many admirers, but the father promised his daughter only to him
who brought into his hands the oxen of Iphiclus. This condition
displeased many; but Bias, who was also one of her admirers, engaged
his brother Melampus to steal the oxen, and deliver them to him.
Melampus was caught in the attempt and imprisoned, and nothing but
his services as a soothsayer and physician to Iphiclus would have
saved him from death. All this pleaded in favour of Melampus, but
when he had taught the childless Iphiclus how to become a father, he
not only obtained his liberty, but also the oxen, and with them he
compelled Neleus to give Pero in marriage to Bias. A severe distemper,
which had rendered the women of Argos insane, was totally removed by
Melampus, and Anaxagoras, who then sat on the throne, rewarded his
merit by giving him part of his kingdom, where he established himself,
and where his posterity reigned during six successive generations.
He received divine honours after death, and temples were raised
to his memory. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 11, li. 287; bk. 15, li. 225.
――_Herodotus_, bks. 2 & 9.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 2.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 2, ch. 18; bk. 4, ch. 3.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 550.
――――The father of Cisseus and Gyas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10.――――A
son of Priam. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3.――――One of Actæon’s dogs. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 3.
=Melampyges=, a surname of Hercules, from the black and hairy appearance
of his back, &c.
=Melanchætes=, one of Actæon’s dogs, so called from his _black hair_.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3.
=Melanchlæni=, a people near the Cimmerian Bosphorus.
=Melanchrus=, a tyrant of Lesbos, who died about 612 B.C.
=Melane=, the same as Samothrace.
=Melaneus=, a son of Eurytus, from whom Eretria has been called
Melaneis.――――A centaur. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12.――――One of
Actæon’s dogs. _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3.――――An Æthiopian, killed at the
nuptials of Perseus. _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5.
=Melanida=, a surname of Venus.
=Melanion=, the same as Hippomenes, who married Atalanta, according to
some mythologists. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3.
=Melanippe=, a daughter of Æolus, who had two children by Neptune,
for which her father put out both her eyes, and confined her in a
prison. Her children, who had been exposed and preserved, delivered
her from confinement, and Neptune restored to her her eye-sight. She
afterwards married Metapontus. _Hyginus_, fable 186.――――A nymph who
married Itonus son of Amphictyon, by whom she had Bœotus, who gave
his name to Bœotia. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 1.
=Melanippĭdes=, a Greek poet about 520 years before Christ. His
grandson, of the same name, flourished about 60 years after at the
court of Perdiccas II. of Macedonia. Some fragments of their poetry
are extant.
=Melanippus=, a priest of Apollo at Cyrene, killed by the tyrant
Nicocrates. _Polyænus_, bk. 8.――――A son of Astacus, one of the Theban
chiefs who defended the gates of Thebes against the army of Adrastus
king of Argos. He was opposed by Tydeus, whom he slightly wounded,
and at last was killed by Amphiaraus, who carried his head to Tydeus.
Tydeus, to take revenge of the wound he had received, bit the head
with such barbarity, that he swallowed the brains, and Minerva,
offended with his conduct, took away the herb which she had given
him to cure his wound, and he died. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 8.
――_Aeschylus_, _Seven Against Thebes_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 18.
――――A son of Mars, who became enamoured of Cometho, a priestess of
Diana Triclaria. He concealed himself in the temple, and ravished his
mistress, for which violation of the sanctity of the place the two
lovers soon after perished by a sudden death, and the country was
visited by a pestilence, which was stopped only after the offering of
a human sacrifice by the direction of the oracle. _Pausanias_, bk. 7,
ch. 19.――――A Trojan, killed by Antilochus in the Trojan war. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 15.――――Another, killed by Patroclus.――――Another, killed
by Teucer.――――A son of Agrius.――――Another, son of Priam.――――A son of
Theseus.
=Melanosyri=, a people of Syria.
=Melanthii=, rocks near the island of Samos.
=Melanthius=, a man who wrote a history of Attica.――――A famous painter
of Sicyon. _Pliny_, bk. 35.――――A tragic poet of a very malevolent
disposition in the age of Phocion. _Plutarch._――――A Trojan, killed
by Eurypylus in the Trojan war. _Homer_, _Odyssey_.――――A shepherd in
_Theocritus_, _Idylls_.――――A goat-herd, killed by Telemachus after
the return of Ulysses. _Ovid_, ltr. 1, _Heroides_.――――An elegiac poet.
=Melantho=, a daughter of Proteus, ravished by Neptune under the form
of a dolphin. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, li. 12.――――One of
Penelope’s women, sister to Melanthius. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 18,
&c.; _Odyssey_, bk. 18.
=Melanthus=, =Melanthes=, or =Melanthius=, a son of Andropompus,
whose ancestors were kings of Pylos. He was driven from his paternal
kingdom by the Heraclidæ, and came to Athens, where king Thymœtes
resigned the crown to him, provided he fought a battle against
Xanthus, a general of the Bœotians, who made war against him. He
fought and conquered [_See:_ Apaturia], and his family, surnamed
the _Neliadæ_, sat on the throne of Athens, till the age of Codrus.
He succeeded to the crown 1128 years B.C., and reigned 37 years.
_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 18.――――A man of Cyzicus. _Flaccus._――――A
river of European Sarmatia, falling into the Borysthenes. _Ovid_,
_ex Ponto_, bk. 4, ltr. 10, li. 55.
=Melas= (æ), a river of Peloponnesus.――――Of Thrace, at the west of the
Thracian Chersonesus.――――Another in Thessaly,――――in Achaia,――――in
Bœotia,――――in Sicily,――――in Ionia,――――in Cappadocia.――――A son of
Neptune.――――Another, son of Proteus.――――A son of Phryxus, who was
among the Argonauts, and was drowned in that part of the sea which
bore his name. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1.
=Meldæ=, or =Meldorum urbs=, a city of Gaul, now _Meaux_, in Champagne.
=Mĕleāger=, a celebrated hero of antiquity, son of Œneus king of Ætolia,
by Althæa daughter of Thestius. The Parcæ were present at the moment
of his birth, and predicted his future greatness. Clotho said that
he would be brave and courageous, Lachesis foretold his uncommon
strength, and Atropos declared that he should live as long as that
fire-brand, which was on the fire, remained entire and unconsumed.
Althæa no sooner heard this, than she snatched the stick from the
fire, and kept it with the most jealous care, as the life of her
son was destined to depend upon its preservation. The fame of
Meleager increased with his years; he signalized himself in the
Argonautic expedition, and afterwards delivered his country from the
neighbouring inhabitants, who made war against his father, at the
instigation of Diana, whose altars Œneus had neglected. _See:_ Œneus.
No sooner were they destroyed than Diana punished the negligence
of Œneus by a greater calamity. She sent a huge wild boar, which
laid waste all the country, and seemed invincible on account of its
immense size. It became soon a public concern; all the neighbouring
princes assembled to destroy this terrible animal, and nothing
became more famous in mythological history than the hunting of
the Calydonian boar. The princes and chiefs who assembled, and who
are mentioned by mythologists, are Meleager son of Œneus, Idas and
Lynceus sons of Aphareus, Dryas son of Mars, Castor and Pollux sons
of Jupiter and Leda, Pirithous son of Ixion, Theseus son of Ægeus,
Anceus and Cepheus sons of Lycurgus, Admetes son of Pheres, Jason son
of Æson, Peleus and Telamon sons of Æacus, Iphicles son of Amphitryon,
Eurytryon son of Actor, Atalanta daughter of Schœneus, Iolas the
friend of Hercules, the sons of Thestius, Amphiaraus son of Oileus,
Protheus, Cometes, the brothers of Althæa, Hippothous son of Cercyon,
Leucippus, Adrastus, Ceneus, Phileus, Echeon, Lelex, Phœnix son of
Amyntor, Panopeus, Hyleus, Hippasus, Nestor, Menœtius the father of
Patroclus, Amphicides, Laertes the father of Ulysses, and the four
sons of Hippocoon. This troop of armed men attacked the boar with
unusual fury, and it was at last killed by Meleager. The conqueror
gave the skin and the head to Atalanta, who had first wounded
the animal. This partiality to a woman irritated the others, and
particularly Toxeus and Plexippus the brothers of Althæa, and they
endeavoured to rob Atalanta of the honourable present. Meleager
defended a woman, of whom he was enamoured, and killed his uncles
in the attempt. Meantime the news of this celebrated conquest had
already reached Calydon, and Althæa went to the temple of the gods to
return thanks for the victory which her son had gained. As she went
she met the corpses of her brothers that were brought from the chase,
and at this mournful spectacle she filled the whole city with her
lamentations. She was upon this informed that they had been killed
by Meleager, and in the moment of resentment, to revenge the death of
her brothers, she threw into the fire the fatal stick on which her
son’s life depended, and Meleager died as soon as it was consumed.
Homer does not mention the fire-brand, whence some have imagined
that this fable is posterior to that poet’s age. But he says that the
death of Toxeus and Plexippus so irritated Althæa, that she uttered
the most horrible curses and imprecations upon the head of her son.
Meleager married Cleopatra the daughter of Idas and Marpessa, as also
Atalanta, according to some accounts. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 8.
――_Apollonius_, _Argonautica_, bk. 1, li. 997; bk. 3, li. 518.
――_Flaccus_, bks. 1 & 6.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 31.――_Hyginus_,
fable 14.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 9.
――――A general who supported Aridæus when he had been made king, after
the death of his brother Alexander the Great.――――A brother of Ptolemy,
made king of Macedonia B.C. 280 years. He was but two months invested
with the regal authority.――――A Greek poet in the reign of Seleucus,
the last of the Seleucidæ. He was born at Tyre, and died at Cos.
It is to his well-directed labours that we are indebted for the
_Anthologia_, or collection of Greek epigrams, which he selected from
46 of the best and most esteemed poets. The original collection of
Meleager has been greatly altered by succeeding editors. The best
edition of the _Anthologia_ is that of Brunck, in three vols., 4to
and 8vo, Strasbourg, 1772.
=Mĕleāgrĭdes=, the sisters of Meleager, daughters of Œneus and Althæa.
They were so disconsolate at the death of their brother Meleager,
that they refused all aliments, and were, at the point of death,
changed into birds called Meleagrides, whose feathers and eggs, as it
is supposed, are of a different colour. The youngest of the sisters,
Gorge and Dejanira, who had been married, escaped this metamorphosis.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 8.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, li. 540.
――_Pliny_, bk. 10, ch. 26.
=Melesander=, an Athenian general, who died B.C. 414.