the Scironian Pass, which is the steep escarpment | commences his more particular description with this of the mountains that terminate on the coast of the latter country. Mauritania, as being the westernmost Saronic Gulf, passed by Crommyon (Strabo, 391); quarter, is treated of first; from this he proceeds in and along the side of the escarpment was the direct an eastern direction, traverses Numidia, Africa Proroad from Corinth to Athens. This road was made pria, and Cyrenaica, and then describes Egypt, which wide enough, by the Emperor Hadrian, for two ve- latter country he regards as forming part of Asia. hicles abreast (Pausan., 1, 40, 10), but at present it From Egypt he passes into Arabia, Syria, Phoenicia, only admits a single vehicle, except in a few places Cilicia, and the different provinces of Asia Minor.(Thiersch, De l'Etat Actuel de la Grece, 2, p. 32); The second book opens with European Scythia. Meyet the road, on the whole, is in good condition. The la then treats of Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece. other road, following the coast of the Corinthian Gulf, He next passes into Illyria, and from Illyria into Itcrossed the Geranean Mountains, which belong to the aly. From Italy he proceeds to Gaul, and from Gaul Oneian range, and led to Pega, on the Corinthian to Spain. He finally describes the isles of the MedGulf, and thence into Boeotia. The extreme breadth iterranean.-In the third book he returns to Spain, of of Megaris, from Pega to Nisaa on the Corinthian which he had in the previous book described merely Gulf, is reckoned by Strabo at 120 stadia; and the the westernmost part; he then gives an account of the area of the country is calculated by Mr. Clinton, from Atlantic coast of Gaul, which conducts him to GerArrowsmith's map, at 720 square miles. (Fast. Hell., many, and from Germany he passes to Sarmatia and vol. 2, p. 385.) Megaris is a rugged and mountain- to the extremity of Scythia. Having thus gone round ous territory, and contains only one plain of small ex- our hemisphere, he next gives an account of the isltent, in which the capital Megara was situated. The ands in the Northern Ocean, of the Eastern Ocean, rocks are chiefly, if not entirely, calcareous. The of India, and of the Red Sea, including under the lastcountry is very deficient in springs. (Encycl. Us. mentioned appellation the Arabian and Persian Gulfs. Knowl., vol. 15, p. 64.) He next passes to Ethiopia, and concludes his work by a description of the sea which washes the western shores of Africa. -Mela did not, like Strabo, actually visit a large portion of the countries which he describes he has followed, however, though often without citing them, the best Greek and Roman authorities, and, above all, the geographical writings of Eratosthenes: he has consulted and followed these authorities with judgment and care, and has admitted into his work only a comparatively small number of fables, which must be set down to the account of the age in which he lived, when great ignorance still prevailed in relation to some of the simplest laws of nature. The style of his narrative is marked by conciseness and precision; he has been successful, at the same time, in avoiding the dryness of a mere nomenclature, by intermingling agreeable descriptions, physical discussions, and notices of remarkable events of which the places that he describes have been the theatre. His work, however, is not exempt from errors: sometimes, from not paying sufficient attention to the periods when the writers whom he follows respectiveİy flourished, he describes things as existing which had ceased to exist; various omissions also occur in the course of his work; no mention, for example, is made of Cannæ, Munda, Pharsalia, Leuctra, and Mantinea, all famous in the annals of warfare; nor of Ecbatana and Persepolis, the capitals of great empires nor of Jerusalem, to which so high a religious im portance is attached; nor of Stagira, the native place of one of the greatest philosophers of antiquity. Like Strabo, he considers the earth as penetrated by four great inlets of the ocean, of which the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf were three; the fourth was the Caspian Sea. This singular error as to the Caspian is the more remarkable, when contrasted with the fact that Herodotus knew the Caspian to be a lake. (Herod., 1, 203.—Strabo, 121.—Mela, 1, 1.-Id., 3, 6)-The best editions of Mela are, that of Gronovius, Lugd. Bat., 1685, 8vo, frequently reprinted, and that of Tzschucke, Lips., 1807, 7 vols. 8vo (in 3). MEGASTHENES, a Greek historian and geographical writer in the age of Seleucus Nicator, king of Syria, about 300 years before Christ. He was sent by Seleucus to Palibothra in India, to renew and confirm a previous treaty with Sandrocottus, monarch of the Prasii. He remained there many years, and after his return he wrote, under the title of Indica ('Ivdiká), an account of whatever he had seen or heard during his travels. His work is lost; but Strabo, Arrian, and Elian have preserved some fragments of it. He was the first who made the western nations acquainted with the countries beyond the Ganges, and with the manners of their inhabitants. Strabo has on several occasions expressed an unfavourable opinion of the trustworthiness of Megasthenes; but still it is quite certain, that the work of the latter contained much valuable information, which was then entirely new to the Greeks. Megasthenes gave the first account of Taprobane or Ceylon. (Schöll, Hist. Lit. Gr., vol. 3, p. 383.) MELA, POMPONIUS, a geographical writer, the first Latin author of a general work on this subject, and who flourished during the reign of the Emperor Claudius. He was born in Spain, of an illustrious Roman family, the Pomponii, who pretended to trace up their lineage to Numa. Some critics have thought that Mela only belonged to this family by adoption, and that he was that third son of the rhetorician Marcus Seneca to whom this writer dedicated his works; while others are inclined to regard him as the grandson of Seneca the philosopher. (Consult Tzschucke, Diss. de Pomp. Mel., c. 1.) In either of these cases, however, the word Annæus would most probably have been added to his name.-There is reason to believe that his true name was not Mela, but Mella. (Compare Voss., de Hist. Lat., 1, 25. - Fabricius, Bibl. Lat., 2, 8, p. 75, seqq.—Saxe, Onomast., 1, p. 243. Tzschucke, Diss. de Pomp. Mel.) Pomponius Mela names his native city in one passage of his work (2, 6), but the text unfortunately is so corrupt, that it is uncertain whether we ought to read Tingentera, Mellaria, Tartessus, or Tingisbera. He lived, as has MELAMPUS, I. a celebrated soothsayer of Argos, been already remarked, under the Emperor Claudius, son of Amythaon and Idomene, and famed also for for the passage (3, 6) in which he speaks of a triumph skill in the healing art. His father resided at Pylos, which the emperor was upon the point of celebrating but he himself lived in the country near that place. over the Britons, can only apply to that monarch. Before his house stood an oak-tree, in a hole of which Pomponius Mela was the author of a geographical abode some serpents. His servants finding these anoutline or abridgment, entitled "De Situ Orbis," imals, killed the old ones, whose bodies Melampus or, as some manuscripts read, "De Chorographia." burned, but he saved and reared the young ones. This work is divided into three books. After having he was sleeping one day, these serpents, which were spoken of the world in general, and given a sketch of now grown to full size, came, and getting each on one the geography of Asia, Europe, and Africa, the writer of his shoulders, licked his ears with their tongues. As MELANCHLENI, a people near the Cimmerian Bosporus, so called from their black garments. Mannert conjectures them to have been the progenitors of the modern Russians. By later writers they are called Rhoxolani. (Mannert, Geogr., vol. 4, p. 134, 167.) He awoke in some terror; and, to his astonishment, | disregarded her warning, and the hero, having at found that he understood the voices of the birds which length been roused from his inactivity, proceeded were flying around him; and, learning from their against them by order of Omphale, and, having overtongues the future, he was enabled to declare it to come them, brought them to her in chains.-A difmankind. Meeting Apollo on the banks of the Al-ferent tradition placed the Cercopes in the islands fapheus, he was taught by him the art of reading futu- cing the coast of Campania. Jupiter, according to rity in the entrails of victims, and he thus became an this latter account, being engaged in his war with the excellent soothsayer. (Apollod., 1, 9, 11.-Schol. ad Titans, came to these islands to demand succours of Apoll. Rhod, 1, 118) Meanwhile, his brother Bias the Arimi. The people promised him their aid, but fell in love with Pero, the daughter of Neleus. As afterward made sport of him, whereupon the irrithe hand of this beautiful maiden was sought by most tated deity changed them into apes (TiOnko), and of the neighbouring princes, her father declared that from that period the islands of Inarime and Prohe would give her only to him, who should bring him chyta were called Pithecusæ (Пioŋkovσai, from wioŋfrom Thessaly the cows of his mother Tyro, which Koç.-Vid., however, another explanation under the Iphiclus of Phylace detained, and which he guarded article Pithecusa.)—The legend of the Cercopes apby means of a dog whom neither man nor beast could pears to be an astronomical one. The Lydian Herventure to approach. Bias, relying on the aid of his cules is the sun, pale and enfeebled at the winter solbrother, undertook the adventure. Melampus, pre-stice, and which in some sense may be said to turn viously declaring that he knew he should be caught its obscurer parts upon the earth; while the Cercopes, and confined for a year, but then get the cattle, set as symbols of this period of languor, crowd around out for Phylace. Every thing fell out as he said.-and insult him. On the approach, however, of the The herdsman of Iphiclus took him, and he was vernal equinox, the god resumes his former energies thrown into prison, where he was attended by a man and subjugates his foes. In like manner Jupiter, the and a woman. The man served him well, the woman sun of suns, overcomes and dissipates all things that badly. Towards the end of the year he heard the tend to obscure the light and disturb the repose of worms in the timber conversing with one another. the universe. (Guigniaut, vol. 2, p. 181.) One asked how much of the beam was now gnawed through; the others replied that there was little remaining. Melampus immediately desired to be removed to some other place; the man took up the bed at the head, the woman at the foot, Melampus himself at the middle. They had not got quite out of the house, when the roof fell in and killed the woman. This coming to the ears of Iphiclus, he inquired, and learned that Melampus was a soothsayer or Mantis. He therefore, being childless, consulted him about having offspring. Melampus agreed to tell him on condition of his giving him the cows. The seer, on Iphiclus assenting to his terms, then sacrificed an ox to Jupiter, and, having divided it, called all the birds to the feast. All came but the vulture; but no one of them was able to tell how Iphiclus might have chil-younger Melanippides is placed by Plutarch in the dren. They therefore brought the vulture, who gave the requisite information. Iphiclus became the father of a son named Podarces; and Melampus drove the kine to Pylos, whereupon Pero was given to his brother. (Od., 11, 287.-Schol., ad loc.-Od., 15, 225. MELANIPPUS, a son of Astacus, one of the Theban -Apollod., 1, 9, 11.-Schol. ad Theocr., 3, 43.)-chiefs who defended the gates of Thebes against the Melampus was also famous for the cure of the daugh- army of Adrastus, king of Argos. He was opposed ters of Protus, who were afflicted with insanity. For by Tydeus, whom he wounded mortally. As Tydeus an account of this legend, consult the article Proti- lay expiring, Minerva hastened to him with a remedy des. (Keightley's Mythology, p. 436, scq.)-II. A which she had obtained from Jupiter, and which would writer on divination, who lived in the time of Ptolemy make him immortal; but Amphiaraus, who hated Ty. Philadelphus. He was the author of a treatise en- deus as the chief cause of the war, perceiving what titled Μαντικὴ περὶ παλμῶν, "Divination from vi- the goddess was about, cut off the head of Melanip brations of the muscles," and of another styled Пepì pus, whom Tydeus, though wounded, had slain, and kλaiìv тov aúμaros, “ Art of divining from marks on brought it to him. The savage warrior opened it and the body." We have only fragments remaining of devoured the brain, and Minerva, in disgust, withheld these two works. The library at Vienna contains her aid. (Bacchyl., ap. Schol. ad Aristoph., Av., 1536. another work of this same writer's, in manuscript, on-Eurip., Frag. Meleag., 18.—Keightley's Mytholo the Art of predicting from the phases of the moon. The fragments of Melampus were edited by Perusius, at the end of his Elian, Roma, 1545, 4to, and subsequently by Sylburgius, who, in his edition of Aristotle, reunited them to the physiognomical works of that philosopher. They are to be found also in the Scriptores Physiognomia Veteres of Franz, Altenb., 1780, 8vo. MELAMPYGES, an epithet applied to Hercules in the Greek mythology, and connecting him with the legend of the Cercopes. These last, according to Diodorus Siculus (4, 31), dwelt in the vicinity of Ephesus, and ravaged the country far and wide, while Hercules was leading with Omphale a life of voluptuous repose. Their mother had cautioned them against one to whom the name Melampyges should apply, but they MELANIPPIDES, I. a lyric poet, who flourished about 500 B.C. He was either, as some suppose, a native of the island of Melos, or, as others think, of the city of Miletus.-II. A poet, who lived about 446 B.C., at the court of Perdiccas II., king of Macedonia. He was the grandson of the former. Various poems are ascribed to these two individuals, and it is a difficult matter to make a division between them. They composed dithyrambics, epopees, elegies, and songs. The number of those who corrupted the ancient music by gy, p. 479.) MELANTHIUS, I. an Athenian tragic poet, of inferior reputation, a contemporary of Aristophanes. He was afflicted with the leprosy, to which the comic poet alludes in the Aves (v. 151). In the Pax (v. 974) he is ridiculed for his gluttony.-II. A painter, whose native country is uncertain. He was a contemporary of Apelles, and received, in connexion with him, the instructions of Pamphilus in the art of painting. (Plin., 35, 10, 36.) Quintilian particularly mentions his skill in the designs of his pictures; and Pliny observes, that he was one of those painters who, with only four colours, produced pieces worthy of immortality. Even Apelles conceded to him the palm in the arrangement or grouping of his figures. (Plin., . c.) That his pictures were held in high estimation, is evident from the circumstance that Aratus, no mean judge of works | hearth should be consumed, the babe would die. Al of art, collected from every quarter the productions of Melanthius along with those of Pamphilus, and made a present of them to Ptolemy III., king of Egypt. (Plut., Vit. Arat., c. 21.) He left a treatise on Painting, a fragment of which has been preserved by Diogenes Laertius (4, 18), and of which Pliny availed himself in writing the 30th book of his Natural History. (Sillig, Dict Art., s. v.) thæa, on hearing this, snatched the billet from the fire, and laid it carefully away in a coffer. The fame of Meleager increased with his years; he signalized himself in the Argonautic expedition, and subsequently in the Calydonian boar-hunt. Of this latter event there appear to have been two legends, an earlier and a later one. The former appears to have been a tale of great antiquity, and is commemorated in the Iliad (9, 527). MELANTHUS, a son of Andropompus, whose ances- According to this version of the story, Eneus, in the tors were kings of Pylos, in Messenia. Having been celebration of his harvest-home feast (vahvoia), had driven by the Heraclidæ from his paternal kingdom, treated Diana with neglect, and the goddess took venhe came to Athens, where Thymoetes, monarch of geance upon him by sending a wild boar of surpassing Attica, gave him a friendly reception. Some time size and strength to ravage the territory of Calydon. after this, the Boeotians, under Xanthus, having invaded Hunters and dogs were collected from all sides, and Attica, Thymoetes marched forth to meet them. the boar was, with the loss of several lives, at length Xanthus thereupon proposed to decide the issue of destroyed. A quarrel arose, however, between the the war by single combat, but Thymoetes shrank from Curetes and Etolians about the head and hide, and a the risk, whereupon Melanthus came forward and ac- war was the consequence. As long as Meleager cepted the challenge. By a stratagem, famous in af- fought, the Curetes had the worst of it, and could not ter ages, he diverted the attention of his adversary, keep the field; but when, enraged at his mother Aland slew him as he turned to look at the ally whom thæa, he remained with his wife the fair Cleopatra, Melanthus affected to see behind him. The victor and abstained from the war, noise and clamour rose was rewarded with the kingdom, which Thymoetes about the gates, and the towers of Calydon were shahad forfeited by his pusillanimity, and which now pass-ken by the victorious Curetes: for Althæa, grieved at ed for ever from the house of Erechtheus. Melanthus the fate of her brother, who had fallen in the fight, had transmitted the crown to his son Codrus. (Pausan., with tears invoked Pluto and Proserpina to send death 2, 18.-Thirlwall's Greece, vol. 1, p. 274.) to her son. The elders of the Etolians supplicated MELAS (gen. -a), I. a deep gulf formed by the Meleager: they sent the priests of the gods to entreat Thracian coast on the northwest, and the shore of the him to come forth and defend them: they offered him Chersonese on the southeast; its appellation in mod- a piece of land (Téμevos) of his own selection. His ern geography is the Gulf of Suros.-II. A river of aged father Eneus ascended to his chamber and imThrace, now the Cavatcha, emptying into the Sinus plored him, his sisters and his mother supplicated Melas at its northeastern extremity. (Herod., 7, 58.— him, but in vain. He remained inexorable, till his Liv., 38, 40.-Plin., 4, 11.)—IIÍ. A river of Thes- very chamber was shaken, when the Curetes had saly, in the vicinity of the town of Trachis. (Herod., mounted the towers and set fire to the town. Then 7, 199.-Liv., 37, 24.)—IV. A small river of Boeotia, his wife besought him with tears, picturing to him the near Orchomenus, emptying into the Lake Copaïs. evils of a captured town, the slaughter of the men, the (Pausan., 9, 38.) Plutarch says that it rose close dragging away into captivity of the women and chilto the city, and very soon became navigable, but dren. Moved by this last appeal, he arrayed himself that part of it was lost in the marshes, while the re- in arms, went forth and repelled the enemy; but, not mainder joined the Cephissus. (Vit. Syll.-Strab., having done it out of regard for them, the Etolians 415.) Pliny remarks of its waters, that they had did not give him the proffered recompense.-Such the property of dying the fleeces of sheep black (2, is the more ancient form of the legend, in which it 103). In the marshes formed near the junction of would appear that the Etolians of Calydon and the this river with the Cephissus grew the reeds so much Curetes of Pleuron alone took part in the hunt. In esteemed by the ancient Greeks for making pipes and after times, when the vanity of the different states of other wind-instruments. (Pindar, Pyth., 12, 42. Greece made them send their national heroes to every Cramer's Anc. Greece, vol. 2, p. 249.)-V. A river war and expedition of the mythic ages, it underwent of Cappadocia, rising near Cæsarea ad Argæum, and various modifications. Meleager, it is said (Nicand., falling into the Euphrates near the city of Melitene. ap. Anton. Lib., 2.-Apollod., 1, 8, 2.-Ovid, Met., Schillinger (Reise., p. 68) calls it the Gensin; but on|8, 270, seqq.—Hygin., fab., 181, 5), invited all the D'Anville's map it bears in the beginning of its course the name of Koremoz, and near its mouth that of Kirkghedid. (Mannert, Geogr., vol. 6, pt. 2, p. 296.) -VI. A river of Pamphylia, rising in the range of Mount Taurus, to the west of Homonada, and running into the sea between Side and Coracesium. (Strabo, 667.) It formed originally the boundary between Pamphylia and Cilicia. (Plin., 5, 27.) According to Leake, there can be no doubt that the Melas is the river now called Menavgát-su, for Zosimus (5, 16) and Mela (1, 14) agree in showing its proximity to Side. Strabo, Mela, and the Stadiasmus, all place it to the eastward of Side, and the distance of 50 stadia in the Stadiasmus between the Melas and Side is precisely that which occurs between the ruins of Side and the mouth of the river of Menavgat. (Leake's Tour, p. 196.) MELDE OF MELDORUM URBS, a city of Gaul, now Meaux. (Cas., B. G., 5, 5.—Plin., 4, 13.) MELEAGER, I. a celebrated hero of antiquity, son of Eneus, king of Ætolia, by Althæa, daughter of Thestius. When he was seven days old, the Moira or Fates came to the dwelling of his parents, and declared that when the billet which was burning on the heroes of Greece to the hunt of the boar, proposing the hide of the animal as the prize of whoever should slay him. Of the Etolians there were Meleager, and Dryas son of Mars; of the Curetes, the sons of Thestius; Idas and Lynceus, sons of Aphareus, came from Messene; Castor and Pollux, sons of Jupiter and Leda, from Laconia; Atalanta, daughter of Iasus, and Ancæus and Cepheus, sons of Lycurgus, from Arcadia; Amphiaraus, son of Oicles, from Argos; Telamon, son of Eacus, from Salamis; Theseus, son of Egeus, from Athens; Iphicles, son of Amphitryon, from Thebes; Peleus, son of Eacus, and Eurytion, son of Actor, from Phthia; Jason, son of Æson, from Iolcos; Admetus, son of Pheres, from Phere; and Pirithous, son of Ixion, from Larissa.-These chiefs were entertained during nine days in the house of Eneus. On the tenth, Cepheus and Ancæus, and some others, refused to hunt in company with a maiden; but Meleager, who was in love with Atalanta, obliged them to give over their opposition. The hunt began; Ancæus and Cepheus speedily met their fate from the tusks of the boar: Peleus accidentally killed Eurytion: Atalanta, with an arrow, gave the monster the first wound; Amphiaraus shot him in the eye; and MELESIGENES or MELESIGENA, a name given to Homer. (Vid. Meles and Homerus.) MELIBEA, I. a town of Thessaly, in the district of Estiæotis, near Ithome. (Liv., 36, 13.)—II. A city of Thessaly, in the district of Magnesia. According to Livy (44, 13), it stood at the base of Mount Ossa, in that part which stretches towards the plains of Thessaly, above Demetrias. Homer assigns it to the domains of Philoctetes (I., 2, 716), hence called “Melibaus dux" by Virgil. (En., 3, 401.) Meliboa was attacked in the Macedonian war by M. Popilius, a Roman commander, at the head of five thousand men ; but the garrison being re-enforced by a detachment from the army of Perseus, the enterprise was abandoned. (Livy, l. c.) We know from Apollonius (Arg., 1, 592) that it was a maritime town. (Cramer's Anc. Greece, vol. 1, p. 423.) According to Pouqueville (Voyage, vol. 3, p. 404), the village of Daoukli indicates the site of the ancient Meliboa. (Compare Paul Lucas's map, appended to his Travels, 1704.) Meleager ran him through the flanks and killed him. | way into the inner bay, where the ancient city stood. He presented the skin and head to Atalanta; but the (Chandler's Travels, p. 76, seqq.) sons of Thestius, his two uncles, offended at this preference of a woman, took the skin from her, saying that it fell to them of right, on account of their family, if Meleager resigned his claim to it. Meleager, in a rage, killed them, and restored the skin to Atalanta. Althaa, on hearing of the death of her brothers, influenced by resentment for their loss, took from its place of concealment the billet, on which depended the existence of Meleager, and cast it into the flames. As it consumed, the vigour of Meleager wasted away; and when it was reduced to ashes, his life terminated. Repenting, when too late, of what she had done, Althea put an end to her own life. Cleopatra died of grief; and the sisters of Meleager, who would not be comforted in their affliction, were, by the compassion of the gods, all but Gorgo and Deianira, changed into birds called Meleagrides.-There was another tradition, according to which Meleager was slain by Apollo, the protecting deity of the Curetes. (Pausan., 10, 31, 3.-Keightley's Mythology, p. 321, seqq.)-II. A Greek poet, a native of Gadara in Colesyria, and MELICERTA OF MELICERTES, a son of Athamas and either contemporary with Antipater, or a very short Ino. He was saved by his mother from the fury of time subsequent to him. He composed several works his father, who prepared to dash him against a wall of a satirical character, which we find quoted under as he had done his brother Learchus. The mother the following titles: 1. Evμróotov, “The Banquet." was so terrified that she threw herself into the sea, 2. ▲ɛkíðov Kai pakñs σvykρlois, “A mixture of with Melicerta in her arms. Neptune had compassion yolks of eggs and beans."-3. Xúpites, "The Gra on Ino and her son, and changed them both into seaJacobs, however, thinks that the whole collec- deities. Ino was called Leucothoë or Matuta, and Metion of his satires may have been rather entitled Xáp-licerta was known among the Greeks by the name of ιτες. (Animadv. in Anthol., 1, 1.-Prolegom., p. Palamon, and among the Latins by that of Portumnus. xxxviii.)-III. Another poet, who has left about 130 (Vid. Leucothoe and Ino. Apollod., 1, 9; 3, 4.epigrams. They are marked by purity of diction and Pausan., 1, 44.-Ovid, Met., 4, 529.) by feeling, but they betray, at the same time, some- MELIGŪNIS, one of the earlier names of Lipara. thing of that sophistic subtlety which characterized his (Vid. Lipara.) age. Occasionally we meet with words rather too boldly compounded. Meleager was the first who made a collection of epigrams, or an anthology. He entitled it Erédavos," The Crown." It contained a selection of the best pieces of forty-six poets, arranged in alphabetical order according to the names of the authors. This compilation is lost. (Schöll, Hist. Lit. Gr., vol. 4, p. 45, 55.) ces." MELEAGRIDES, the sisters of Meleager, daughters of Eneus and Althea. They were so disconsolate at the death of their brother Meleager, that they refused all aliment, and were changed into birds called Meleagrides. The youngest of these sisters, Gorgo and Deianira, who had been married, alone escaped this metamorphosis. (Apollod., 1, 8.-Ovid, Met., 8, 540.) MELII. Vid. Malii. MELISSA, I. a daughter of Melissus, king of Crete, who, with her sister Amalthæa, fed Jupiter with the milk of goats. According to the account quoted by Lactantius, she was appointed by her father the first priestess of Cybele. (Lactant., 1, 22.)—II. A nymph, who first discovered the means of obtaining honey through the aid of bees. She was fabled to have been herself changed into one of these little creatures. (Columell., 9, 2.)-III. One of the Oceanides, who married Inachus, by whom she had Phoroneus and Egialus.-IV. 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. (Diog. Laert., 1, 100.-Herod., 3, 50.—Bähr, ad Herod., l. c.-Pausan., 1, 28.) MELES (etis), a river of Asia Minor, near Smyrna. Some of the ancients supposed that Homer was born MELISSUS, a philosopher of Samos, of the Eleatic on the banks of this river, from which circumstance sect, who flourished about 440 B.C. He was a discithey call him Melesigenes. They also showed a cave, ple of Parmenides, to whose doctrines he closely adwhere it was said that Homer had composed his verses. hered. As a public man, he was conversant with af(Pausan., 7, 5.) Chandler informs us that he search-fairs of state, and acquired great influence among his ed for this cavern, and succeeded in discovering it countrymen, who had a high veneration for his talents above the aqueduct of the Meles. It is about four and virtues. Being appointed by them to the comfeet wide, the roof of a huge rock, cracked and slant-mand of a fleet, he obtained a great naval victory over ing, the sides and bottom sandy. Beyond it is a passage cut, leading into a kind of well. (Travels in Asia Minor, p. 91.) According to the same traveller, the Meles, at the present day, is shallow in summer, not covering its rocky bed; but, winding in the deep valley behind the castle of Smyrna, it murmurs among the evergreens, and receives many rills from the slopes; after turning an overshot mill or two, it approaches the gardens without the town, where it branches out into small canals, and is divided and subdivided into still smaller currents, until it is absorbed, or reaches the sea, in ditches, unlike a river. In winter, however, after heavy rains, or the melting of snow on the mountains, it swells into a torrent rapid and deep, of ten not fordable without danger; and it then finds its the Athenians. As a philosopher, he maintained that the principle of all things is one and immutable, or that whatever exists is one being; that this one being includes all things, and is infinite, without beginning or end; that there is neither vacuum nor motion in the universe, nor any such thing as production or decay; that the changes which it seems to suffer are only illusions of our senses, and that we ought not to lay down anything positive concerning the gods, since our knowledge of them is so uncertain. Themistocles is said to have been one of his pupils. (Enfield's History of Philosophy, vol. 1, p. 418, seqq.) MELITA, I. an island in the Mediterranean, sixty miles southeast of Sicily, now Malta. It is first mentioned by Scylax (p. 50), but is considered by him as belonging to Africa, from its having Punic inhabitants, | roses, and the exhalations of a thousand flowers.→→→→ and being no farther from Africa than from Sicily. The city of Melita, the ancient capital, lay some distance The earlier Greek historians do not mention it, since inland, where Citta Pinto is at present situated.-Two it was regarded as a Carthaginian island, and lay with- questions are connected with this island. The first reout their historical limits. Diodorus Siculus is the lates to the voyage of St. Paul, which will be considfirst that gives us any account of it. "There are," ered under Melita II.; the other is of a more trivial nahe says, "over against that part of Sicily which lies to ture, namely, which island, this or the Illyrian Melita the south, three islands at a distance in the sea, each (now Meleda), furnished the Catuli Melitai, so much of which has a town and safe ports for ships overtaken esteemed by the Roman ladies. Pliny, on the authorby tempests. The first, called Melite, is about 800 ity of Callimachus and Stephanus of Byzantium, prostadia from Syracuse, and has several excellent har-nounces in favour of Meleda, Strabo of Malta (280).— bours. The inhabitants are very rich, inasmuch as II. An island in the Adriatic, northwest of Epidaurus, they exercise many trades, and, in particular, manufac- and lying off the coast of Dalmatia. Its modern name ture cloths remarkable for their softness and fineness. is Meleda. -The question has often been agitated, Their houses are large, and splendidly ornamented whether it was on this island, or Melita (now Malta) with projections and stucco (yeioooi kai koviάμaσt). below Sicily, that St. Paul was shipwrecked. (Acts,27 The island is a colony of the Phoenicians, who, trading and 28.) Upon a fair review of the whole subject, it to the Western Ocean, use it as a place of refuge, be- will be found that the Illyrian island presents the better cause it has excellent ports, and lies in the midst of claim to this distinction. The following reasons may the sea. Next to this island is another named Gaulus be alleged in favour of this side of the question: 1. (Gozo), with convenient harbours, which is also a The vessel, when lost, was in "Adria," the Adriatic colony of Phoenicians." (Diod. Sic., 5, 12.) Malta Gulf, which cannot by any geographical contrivance is said to have been subsequently occupied by the be made to extend, as some would wish to have it, to Greeks; but, however this may be, the Carthaginians the coast of Africa.-2. The island on which the obtained possession of it B.C. 402. In the first Pu- Apostle was wrecked was an obscure one in the Adrinic war it was plundered by the Roman consul Atatic sea, formerly called Melita, and now known by tilius. (Orosius, 4, 8.) In the second Punic war it the name of Meleda. This island lies confessedly in surrendered to the Romans, and was regarded hence- the Adriatic, off the coast of Illyricum; it lies, too, forth as an appendage to the province of Sicily. Its nearer the mouth of the Adriatic than any other island commerce declined under its new masters, and the isl- of that sea, and would, of course, be more likely to and became a not unfrequent haunt of pirates. It receive the wreck of any vessel that would be driven appears, however, that its temple of Juno was rich by tempests to that quarter.-3. Meleda is situate, enough to be an object of plunder to the rapacious moreover, nearly N.W. by N. of the southwest promVerres when he was prætor of Sicily. (Cic. in Verr., ontory of Crete, and nearly in the direction of a storm 4, 46.) The linen cloth of Malta was considered an from the southeast quarter.-4. The manner likewise article of luxury at Rome. After the division of the in which Melita is described by St. Luke agrees with Roman empire at the death of Constantine, this island the idea of an obscure place, but not with the celebrity was included in the share allotted to Constantius. It of Malta at that time. Cicero speaks of Melita (Malta) fell subsequently into the hands of the Goths, who as abounding in curiosities and riches, and possessing were expelled by Belisarius, A.D. 533. The Arabs a remarkable manufacture of the finest linen. (Orat. conquered it in 870, and though it was recovered, and in Verr., 4, 18, 46.) Malta, according to Diodorus held by the Eastern empire for the space of 34 years, Siculus (5, 1), was furnished with many and very good it was retaken by the Arabs, and the Greek inhabitants harbours, and the inhabitants were very rich; for it were exterminated. In 1120, Count Roger, the Nor- was full of all sorts of artificers, among whom were exman conqueror of Sicily, took possession of Malta and cellent weavers of fine linen. The houses were stateexpelled the Arabs. Malta was thus again attached to ly and beautiful, and the inhabitants, a colony of Phothe island of Sicily, and it became subject to the differ-nicians, famous for the extent and lucrative nature of ent dynasties which successively governed that island. their commerce. It is difficult to suppose that a place of In 1516, Sicily, with the Maltese islands, passed to this description could be meant by such an expression the Emperor Charles V., as heir to the crown of Arra- as "an island called Melita ;" nor could the inhabitants, gon. On the 4th March, 1530, Charles granted to with any propriety of speech, be understood by the the Knights of St. John, who had been recently expel- epithet "barbarous." But the Adriatic Melita perled from Rhodes by the Turks, the ownership of all the fectly corresponds with that description. Though too castles, fortresses, and isles of Tripoli, Malta, and obscure and insignificant to be particularly noticed by Gozo, with complete jurisdiction. The sovereignty ancient geographers, the opposite and neighbouring of Malta was by this grant, in effect, surrendered to the coast of Illyricum is represented by Strabo in such a knights, though the form of tenure from the crown of way as perfectly corresponds with the expression of Sicily was maintained by the reservation of the annual the apostle.-5. Father Giorgi, an ecclesiastic of payment of a falcon by the same to the King of Si- Melita Adriatica, who has written on this subject, sugcily or his viceroy. It was soon fortified by the knights, gests, very properly, that as there are now no serpents and underwent several memorable sieges. In 1798, Bo- in Malta, and as it should seem there were none in the naparte took possession of it on his expedition to Egypt; time of Pliny, there never were any there, the country and in 1800, the French garrison was obliged by famine being dry and rocky, and not affording shelter or proper to capitulate to a British force. In 1814, the possession nourishment for animals of this description. But Meof it was confirmed to Great Britain by the treaty of leda abounds with these reptiles, being woody and Paris. The cotton manufactories of Malta have been damp, and favourable to their way of life and propacelebrated for many ages, and would seem to trace gation.-6. The disease with which the father of Pubtheir origin to the times of the Phoenicians. The soil lius was affected (dysentery combined with fever, consists of a thin covering of earth on a soft, calcare- probably intermittent) affords a presumptive evidence ous rock, and is increased by breaking up the surface of the nature of the island. Such a place as Malta, of the stone into a sort of gravel, and mixing it through dry, and rocky, and remarkably healthy, was not likely the earth. It is no uncommon thing, however, for to produce such a disease, which is almost peculiar to soil to be transported from Sicily, especially when a moist situations and stagnant waters, but might well proprietor wishes to make a new garden; a fact that suit a country woody and damp, and, probably for want could hardly be inferred from the number and excel- of draining, exposed to the putrid effluvia of confined lent flavour of the Maltese oranges, from its beautiful moisture.-7. It has been alleged, however, in favour |