of the ancients supposed that Homer was born on the banks of that
river, from which circumstance they call him _Melisigènes_, and his
compositions _Meletææ chartæ_. It is even supported that he composed
his poems in a cave near the source of that river. _Strabo_, bk. 12.
――_Statius_, bk. 2, _Sylvæ_, poem 7, li. 34.――_Tibullus_, bk. 4,
poem 1, li. 201.――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 5.――――A beautiful Athenian
youth, greatly beloved by Timagoras, whose affections he repaid with
the greatest coldness and indifference. He even ordered Timagoras
to leap down a precipice, from the top of the citadel of Athens,
and Timagoras, not to disoblige him, obeyed, and was killed in the
fall. This token of true friendship and affection had such an effect
upon Meles, that he threw himself down from the place, to atone
by his death for the ingratitude which he had shown to Timagoras.
_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 30.――――A king of Lydia, who succeeded his
father Alyattes, about 747 years before Christ. He was father to
Candaules.
=Melesigĕnes=, or =Melesigĕna=, a name given to Homer. _See:_ Meles.
=Melia=, a daughter of Oceanus, who married Inachus.――――A nymph, &c.
_Apollodorus._――――A daughter of Oceanus, sister to Caanthus. She
became mother of Ismarus and Tenerus by Apollo. Tenerus was endowed
with the gift of prophecy, and the river Ladon in Bœtia assumed the
name of Ismarus. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 10.――――One of the Nereides.
――――A daughter of Agenor.
=Mĕlĭbœa=, a daughter of Oceanus, who married Pelasgus.――――A daughter
of Amphion and Niobe. _Apollodorus._――――A maritime town of Magnesia
in Thessaly, at the foot of mount Ossa, famous for dyeing wool.
The epithet of _Melibœus_ is applied to Philoctetes, because he
reigned there. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 401; bk. 5, li. 251.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 188.――――Also an island at the mouth of the
Orontes in Syria, whence _Melibœa purpura_. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.
=Melibœus=, a shepherd introduced in Virgil’s eclogues.
=Mĕlĭcerta=, =Melicertes=, or =Melicertus=, a son of Athamas and Ino.
He was saved by his mother from the fury of his father, who prepared
to dash him against the wall as he had done his brother Learchus.
The mother was so terrified that she threw herself into the sea,
with Melicerta in her arms. Neptune had compassion on the misfortunes
of Ino and her son, and changed them both into sea deities. Ino
was called Leucothoe or Matuta, and Melicerta was known among the
Greeks by the name of Palæmon, and among the Latins by that of
Portumnus. Some suppose that the Isthmian games were in honour of
Melicerta. _See:_ Isthmia. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9; bk. 3, ch. 4.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 44.――_Hyginus_, fables 1 & 2.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 529, &c.――_Plutarch_ _de Convivium Septem
Sapientium_.
=Meligūnis=, one of the Æolian islands near Sicily.
=Melīna=, a daughter of Thespius, mother of Laomedon by Hercules.
=Melīsa=, a town of Magna Græcia.
=Melissa=, a daughter of Melissus king of Crete, who, with her sister
Amalthæa, fed Jupiter with the milk of goats. She first found out
the means of collecting honey; whence some have imagined that she was
changed into a bee, as her name is the Greek word for that insect.
_Columella._――――One of the Oceanides, who married Inachus, by whom
she had Phoroneus and Ægialus.――――A daughter of Procles, who married
Periander the son of Cypselus, by whom, in her pregnancy, she was
killed with a blow of his foot, by the false accusation of his
concubines. _Diogenes Laërtius._――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 28.――――A
woman of Corinth, who refused to initiate others in the festivals of
Ceres, after she had received admission. She was torn to pieces upon
this disobedience, and the goddess made a swarm of bees rise from her
body.
=Melissus=, a king of Crete, father to Melissa and Amalthæa. _Hyginus_,
_Poetica Astronomica_, bk. 2, ch. 13.――_Lactantius [Placidus]_, bk. 1,
ch. 22.――――An admiral of the Samian fleet, B.C. 441. He was defeated
by Pericles, &c. _Plutarch_, _Pericles_.――――A philosopher of Samos,
who maintained that the world was infinite, immovable, and without
a vacuum. According to his doctrines, no one could advance any
argument upon the power or attributes of Providence, as all human
knowledge was weak and imperfect. Themistocles was among his pupils.
He flourished about 440 years before the christian era. _Diogenes
Laërtius._――――A freedman of Mecænas, appointed librarian to Augustus.
He wrote some comedies. _Ovid_, _ex Ponto_, bk. 4, ltr. 16, li. 30.
――_Suetonius_, _Lives of the Grammarians_.
=Melĭta=, an island in the Libyan sea, between Sicily and Africa, now
called _Malta_. The soil was fertile, and the country famous for its
wool. It was first peopled by the Phœnicians. St. Paul was shipwrecked
there, and cursed all venomous creatures, which now are not to be
found in the whole island. Some, however, suppose that the island
on which the Apostle was shipwrecked, was another island of the same
name in the Adriatic on the coast of Illyricum, now called _Melede_.
Malta is now remarkable as being the residence of the knights of
Malta, formerly of St. John of Jerusalem, settled there A. D. 1530,
by the concession of Charles V., after their expulsion from Rhodes
by the Turks. _Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Cicero_,
_Against Verres_, bk. 4, ch. 46.――――Another on the coast of Illyricum,
in the Adriatic, now _Melede_. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 26.――――An ancient
name of Samothrace. _Strabo_, bk. 10.――――One of the Nereides.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 825.
=Melitene=, a province of Armenia.
=Melĭtus=, a poet and orator of Athens, who became one of the principal
accusers of Socrates. After his eloquence had prevailed, and Socrates
had been put ignominiously to death, the Athenians repented of their
severity to the philosopher, and condemned his accusers. Melitus
perished among them. His character was mean and insidious, and his
poems had nothing great or sublime. _Diogenes Laërtius._
=Spurius Melius=, a Roman knight accused of aspiring to tyranny, on
account of his uncommon liberality to the populace. He was summoned
to appear by the dictator Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, and when he
refused to obey, he was put to death by Ahala the master of horse,
A.U.C. 314.――_Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_, bk. 4.――_Valerius Maximus_,
bk. 6, ch. 3.
=Melixandrus=, a Milesian, who wrote an account of the wars of the
Lapithæ and Centaurs. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 11, ch. 2.
=Mella=, or =Mela=, a small river of Cisalpine Gaul, falling into
the Ollius, and with it into the Po. _Catullus_, poem 68, li. 33.
――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 278.
=Mella Annæus=, the father of Lucan. He was accused of being privy
to Piso’s conspiracy against Nero, upon which he opened his veins.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 16, ch. 17.
=Melobōsis=, one of the Oceanides.
=Melon=, an astrologer, who feigned madness and burnt his house that he
might not go to an expedition, which he knew would be attended with
great calamities.――――An interpreter of king Darius. _Curtius_, bk. 5,
ch. 13.
=Melos=, now _Milo_, an island between Crete and Peloponnesus, about
24 miles from Scyllæum, about 60 miles in circumference, and of an
oblong figure. It enjoyed its independence for above 700 years before
the time of the Peloponnesian war. This island was originally peopled
by a Lacedæmonian colony, 1116 years before the christian era. From
this reason the inhabitants refused to join the rest of the islands
and the Athenians against the Peloponnesians. This refusal was
severely punished. The Athenians took Melos, and put to the sword
all such as were able to bear arms. The women and children were made
slaves, and the island left desolate. An Athenian colony repeopled
it, till Lysander reconquered it and re-established the original
inhabitants in their possessions. The island produced a kind of earth
successfully employed in painting and medicine. _Strabo_, bk. 7.
――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12; bk. 35, ch. 9.
――_Thucydides_, bk. 2, &c.
=Melpes=, now _Melpa_, a river of Lucania, falling into the Tyrrhene
sea. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 5.
=Melpia=, a village of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 38.
=Melpŏmĕne=, one of the Muses, daughter of Jupiter and Mnemosyne.
She presided over tragedy. Horace has addressed the finest of his
odes to her, as to the patroness of lyric poetry. She was generally
represented as a young woman with a serious countenance. Her garments
were splendid; she wore a buskin, and held a dagger in one hand, and
in the other a sceptre and crowns. _Horace_, bk. 3, ode 4.――_Hesiod_,
_Theogony_.
=Memaceni=, a powerful nation of Asia, &c. _Curtius._
=Memmia Sulpitia=, a woman who married the emperor Alexander Severus.
She died when young.
=Memmia lex=, ordained that no one should be entered on the calendar of
criminals who was absent on the public account.
=Memmius=, a Roman citizen, accused of _ambitus_. _Cicero_, _Letters to
his brother Quintus_, bk. 3.――――A Roman knight, who rendered himself
illustrious for his eloquence and poetical talents. He was made
tribune, pretor, and afterwards governor of Bithynia. He was accused
of extortion in his province, and banished by Julius Cæsar, though
Cicero undertook his defence. Lucretius dedicated his poem to him.
_Cicero_, _Brutus_.――――Regulus, a Roman of whom Nero observed, that
he deserved to be invested with the imperial purple. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 14, ch. 47.――――A Roman who accused Jugurtha before
the Roman people.――――A lieutenant of Pompey, &c.――――The family of
the Memmii were plebeians. They were descended, according to some
accounts, from Mnestheus the friend of Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 5, li. 117.
=Memnon=, a king of Æthiopia, son of Tithonus and Aurora. He came with
a body of 10,000 men to assist his uncle Priam, during the Trojan war,
where he behaved with great courage, and killed Antilochus, Nestor’s
son. The aged father challenged the Æthiopian monarch, but Memnon
refused it on account of the venerable age of Nestor, and accepted
that of Achilles. He was killed in the combat, in the sight of the
Grecian and Trojan armies. Aurora was so disconsolate at the death
of her son, that she flew to Jupiter all bathed in tears, and begged
the god to grant her son such honours as might distinguish him from
other mortals. Jupiter consented, and immediately a numerous flight
of birds issued from the burning pile on which the body was laid,
and after they had flown three times round the flames, they divided
themselves into two separate bodies, and fought with such acrimony,
that above half of them fell down into the fire, as victims to
appease the manes of Memnon. These birds were called _Memnonides_;
and it has been observed by some of the ancients, that they never
failed to return yearly to the tomb of Memnon in Troas, and repeat
the same bloody engagement, in honour of the hero, from whom they
received their name. The Æthiopians or Egyptians, over whom Memnon
reigned, erected a celebrated statue to the honour of their monarch.
This statue had the wonderful property of uttering a melodious sound
every day, at sun-rising, like that which is heard at the breaking
of the string of a harp when it is wound up. This was effected by the
rays of the sun when they fell upon it. At the setting of the sun,
and in the night the sound was lugubrious. This is supported by the
testimony of the geographer Strabo, who confesses himself ignorant
whether it proceeded from the basis of the statue, or the people that
were then round it. This celebrated statue was dismantled by order
of Cambyses, when he conquered Egypt, and its ruins still astonish
modern travellers by their grandeur and beauty. Memnon was the
inventor of the alphabet, according to Anticlides, a writer mentioned
by Pliny, bk. 7, ch. 56. _Moschus_, _Epitaphios Bionis_.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, li. 578, &c.――_Ælian_, bk. 5, ch. 1.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 42; bk. 10, ch. 31.――_Strabo_, bks. 13
& 17.――_Juvenal_, satire 15, li. 5.――_Philostratus_, on _Apollodorus_.
――_Pliny_, bk. 36, ch. 7.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 9.――_Quintus
Calaber [Smyrnæus]._――――A general of the Persian forces, when
Alexander invaded Asia. He distinguished himself for his attachment
to the interest of Darius, his valour in the field, the soundness of
his counsels, and his great sagacity. He defended Milotus against
Alexander, and died in the midst of his successful enterprises, B.C.
333. His wife Barsine was taken prisoner with the wife of Darius.
_Diodorus_, bk. 16.――――A governor of Cœlosyria.――――A man appointed
governor of Thrace by Alexander.――――A man who wrote a history of
Heraclea in Pontus, in the age of Augustus.
=Memphis=, a celebrated town of Egypt, on the western banks of the
Nile, above the Delta. It once contained many beautiful temples,
particularly those of the god Apis (_bos Memphites_), whose worship
was observed with the greatest ceremonies. _See:_ Apis. It was in the
neighbourhood of Memphis that those famous pyramids were built, whose
grandeur and beauty still astonish the modern traveller. These noble
monuments of Egyptian vanity, which pass for one of the wonders of
the world, are about 20 in number, three of which, by their superior
size, particularly claim attention. The largest of these is 481 feet
in height measured perpendicularly, and the area of its basis is
on 480,249 square feet, or something more than 11 English acres of
ground. It has steps all round with massy and polished stones, so
large that the breadth and depth of every step is one single stone.
The smallest stone, according to an ancient historian, is not less
than 30 feet. The number of steps, according to modern observation,
amounts to 208, a number which is not always adhered to by travellers.
The place where Memphis formerly stood is not now known; the ruins
of its fallen grandeur were conveyed to Alexandria to beautify its
palaces, or to adorn the neighbouring cities. _Tibullus_, bk. 1, poem
7, li. 28.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 14, li. 660.――_Strabo_, bk. 17.
――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――_Diodorus_, bk. 1.――_Plutarch_, _De Iside
et Osiride_.――_Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 10, &c.――_Josephus_, _Jewish
Antiquities_, bk. 8.――――A nymph, daughter of the Nile, who married
Ephesus, by whom she had Libya. She gave her name to the celebrated
city of Memphis. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 1.――――The wife of Danaus.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 1.
=Memphītis=, a son of Ptolemy Physcon king of Egypt. He was put to
death by his father.
=Mena=, a goddess worshipped at Rome, and supposed to preside over the
monthly infirmities of women. She was the same as Juno. According
to some, the sacrifices offered to her were young puppies that
still sucked their mother. _Augustine_, _City of God_, bk. 4, ch. 2.
――_Pliny_, bk. 29, ch. 4.
=Mena=, or =Menes=, the first king of Egypt, according to some accounts.
=Menalcas=, a shepherd in Virgil’s eclogues.
=Menalcĭdas=, an intriguing Lacedæmonian in the time of the famous
Achæan league. He was accused before the Romans, and he killed
himself.
=Menalippe=, a sister of Antiope queen of the Amazons, taken by
Hercules when that hero made war against this celebrated nation. She
was ransomed, and Hercules received in exchange the arms and belt of
the queen. _Juvenal_, satire 8, li. 229.――――A daughter of the centaur
Chiron, beloved and ravished by Æolus son of Hellen. She retired into
the woods to hide her disgrace from the eyes of her father, and when
she had brought forth she entreated the gods to remove her totally
from the pursuits of Chiron. She was changed into a mare, and called
Ocyroe. Some suppose that she assumed the name of Menalippe, and lost
that of Ocyroe. She became a constellation after death, called the
horse. Some authors call her Hippe, or Evippe. _Hyginus_, _Poetica
Astronomica_, bk. 2, ch. 18.――_Pollux_, bk. 4.――――Menalippe is a name
common to other persons, but it is generally spelt _Melanippe_ by the
best authors. _See:_ Melanippe.
=Menalippus.= _See:_ Melanippus.
=Menander=, a celebrated comic poet of Athens, educated under
Theophrastus. He was universally esteemed by the Greeks, and received
the appellation of Prince of the New Comedy. He did not disgrace his
compositions, like Aristophanes, by mean and indecent reflections
and illiberal satire, but his writings were replete with elegance,
refined wit, and judicious observations. Of 108 comedies which he
wrote, nothing remains but a few fragments. It is said that Terence
translated all these, and indeed we may have cause to lament the
loss of such valuable writings, when we are told by the ancients
that the elegant Terence, so much admired, was in the opinion of his
countrymen reckoned inferior to Menander. It is said that Menander
drowned himself in the 52nd year of his age, B.C. 293, because
the compositions of his rival Philemon obtained more applause than
his own. Only eight of his numerous comedies were rewarded with
a poetical prize. The name of his father was Diopythus, and that
of his mother Hegistrata. His fragments, with those of Philemon,
were published by Clericus, 8vo, 1709. _Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1.
――_Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 16.――――A man who wrote an account of
embassies, &c.――――A king of Bactria, whose ashes were divided among
his subjects, &c.――――An historian of Ephesus.――――Another of Pergamus.
――――An Athenian general defeated at Ægospotamos by Lysander.――――An
Athenian sent to Sicily with Nicias.――――A man put to death by
Alexander for deserting a fortress of which he had the command.――――An
officer under Mithridates, sent against Lucullus.
=Menapii=, a people of Belgic Gaul, near the Mosa. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_.
=Menapis=, a Persian exile, made satrap of Hyrcania by Alexander.
_Curtius_, bk. 6, ch. 4.
=Menas=, a freedman of Pompey the Great, who distinguished himself by
the active and perfidious part which he took in the civil wars which
were kindled between the younger Pompey and Augustus. When Pompey
invited Augustus to his galley, Menas advised his master to seize
the person of his enemy, and at the same time the Roman empire, by
cutting the cables of his ship. “No,” replied Pompey, “I would have
approved of the measure if you had done it without consulting me; but
I scorn to break my word.” _Suetonius_, _Octavius Augustus_. Horace,
epode 4, has ridiculed the pride of Menas, and recalled to his mind
his former meanness and obscurity.
=Menchēres=, the twelfth king of Memphis.
=Mendes=, a city of Egypt, near Lycopolis, on one of the mouths of
the Nile, called the Mendesian mouth. Pan, under the form of a goat,
was worshipped there with the greatest solemnity. It was unlawful to
kill one of these animals, with which the Egyptians were not ashamed
to have public commerce, to the disgrace of human nature, from
the superstitious notion that such embraces had given birth to the
greatest heroes of antiquity, as Alexander, Scipio, &c. _Herodotus_,
bk. 2, chs. 42 & 46.――_Strabo_, bk. 17.――_Diodorus_, bk. 1.
=Menĕcles=, an orator of Alabanda in Caria, who settled at Rhodes.
_Cicero_, _On Oratory_, bk. 2, ch. 53.――_Strabo_, bk. 14.
=Meneclides=, a detractor of the character of Epaminondas. _Cornelius
Nepos_, _Epaminondas_.
=Menecrătes=, a physician of Syracuse, famous for his vanity and
arrogance. He was generally accompanied by some of his patients,
whose disorders he had cured. He disguised one in the habit of Apollo,
and the other in that of Æsculapius, while he reserved for himself
the title and name of Jupiter, whose power was extended over those
inferior deities. He crowned himself like the master of the gods;
and in a letter which he wrote to Philip king of Macedon, he styled
himself in these words, _Menecrates Jupiter to king Philip, greeting_.
The Macedonian monarch answered, _Philip to Menecrates, greeting, and
better sense_. Philip also invited him to one of his feasts, but when
the meats were served up, a table was put separate for the physician,
on which he was served only with perfumes and frankincense, like
the father of the gods. This entertainment displeased Menecrates; he
remembered that he was a mortal, and hurried away from the company.
He lived about 360 years before the christian era. The book which he
wrote on cures is lost. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 10, ch. 51.
――_Athenæus_, bk. 7, ch. 13.――――One of the generals of Seleucus.――――A
physician under Tiberius.――――A Greek historian of Nysa, disciple to
Aristarchus, B.C. 119. _Strabo_, bk. 16.――――An Ephesian architect
who wrote on agriculture. _Varro_, _de Re Rustica_.――――An historian.
――――A man appointed to settle the disputes of the Athenians and
Lacedæmonians in the eighth year of the Peloponnesian war. His
father’s name was Amphidorus.――――An officer in the fleet of Pompey
the son of Pompey the Great.
=Menedēmus=, an officer of Alexander, killed by the ♦Dahæ. _Curtius_,
bk. 7, ch. 6.――――A Socratic philosopher of Eretria, who was
originally a tent-maker, an employment which he left for the
profession of arms. The persuasive eloquence and philosophical
lectures of Plato had such an influence over him, that he gave up
his offices in the state to cultivate literature. It is said that he
died through melancholy when Antigonus, one of Alexander’s generals,
had made himself master of his country, B.C. 301, in the 74th year of
his age. Some attribute his death to a different cause, and say that
he was falsely accused of treason, for which he became so desperate
that he died, after he had passed seven days without taking any
aliments. He was called the _Eretrian Bull_, on account of his gravity.
_Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Diogenes Laërtius._――――A cynic philosopher of
Lampsacus, who said that he was come from hell to observe the sins
and wickedness of mankind. His habit was that of the furies, and his
behaviour was a proof of his insanity. He was the disciple of Colotes
of Lampsacus. _Diogenes Laërtius._――――An officer of Lucullus.――――A
philosopher of Athens. _Cicero_, _On Oratory_, bk. 1, ch. 19.
♦ ‘Danæ’ replaced with ‘Dahæ’
=Menegetas=, a boxer or wrestler in Philip of Macedon’s army, &c.
_Polyænus._
=Menĕlāi portus=, a harbour on the coast of Africa, between Cyrene
and Egypt. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Agesilaus_, ch. 8.――_Strabo_,
bk. 1.――――Mons, a hill near Sparta, with a fortification, called
_Menelaium_. _Livy_, bk. 34, ch. 28.
=Mĕnĕlāia=, a festival celebrated at Therapnæ in Laconia, in honour
of Menelaus. He had there a temple, where he was worshipped with his
wife Helen, as one of the supreme gods.