seeks to overthrow both, by giving Thmuis the meaning of "island" (L'Egypte sous les Pharaons, vol. 2, p. 119. Compare Creuzer, Symbolik, vol. 1, p. 476.-Knight, Inquiry into the Symb. Lang., &c., 191.-Class. Journ., vol. 26, p. 265.)—The ruins of Mendes are in the neighbourhood of the modern town of Achmun. (Mannert, Geogr., vol. 10, pt. 1, p. 579.)

about 270 B.C. He was the author of a treatise | Jablonski (Voc., p. 89, seqq.) inclines to the former of Пepi 'EmidεIKTIK@v, “ Concerning discourses delivered these explanations; while Champollion, on his side, for mere display.". III. Surnamed Protector," a Greek writer, who lived at Constantinople during the latter half of the sixth century. He was one of the emperor's body-guard, whence he derived the name of "Protector." (Cod. Theodos., 6, 24.) He wrote a history of the Eastern empire, from A.D. 559 to A.D. 582, in eight books, of which considerable extracts have been preserved in the "Ecloga Legationum," attributed to Constantine Porphyrogenitus. The best edition of Menander is by Bekker and Niebuhr, Bonn., 1830, together with the fragments of Dexippus, Eunapius, Patricius, &c. (Encycl. Us. Knowl., vol. 15, p. 92.)

er.

MENECLES, a native of Barce in Cyrenaïca, who wrote an historical work on the Athenians. Harpo cration and the scholiast on Aristophanes are in doubt whether to assign this production to Menecles, or to a certain Callistratus. The scholiast on Pindar (Pyth.,

ecles, which relates to Battus, the founder of Cyrene. It is supposed to be taken from the Aibukά of this writer. (Schöll, Hist. Lit. Gr., vol. 3, p. 225.)

MENAPII, I. a powerful tribe of Belgic Gaul, occu-4, 10) has preserved a fragment from a work of Menpying originally all the country between the Rhenus and Mosa (Rhine and Meuse) as far nearly as the territory of Julich. In Cæsar's time they had even possessions on the eastern side of the Rhine, until driven MENECRATES, I. a native of Elæa, in Æolis, conthence by the German tribes. (Cæs., B. G., 4, 4.) temporary with Hecatæus. Strabo cites his work "On At a later period they removed from the banks of the the origin of cities" (πɛρì kтioɛwv), and his " Descrip Rhine, when the Ubii and Sigambri, from Germany, tion of the Hellespont" (Eλλnoπovτiakη πεpíodos). established themselves on the western bank of the riv-II. Tiberius Claudius, a physician in the reign of From a passage in Tacitus (Hist., 4, 28), it ap- Tiberius, and a resident at Rome. Galen makes pears that the territory of this tribe was subsequently mention of him, and speaks also of several of his to be found along the lower Meuse. They had a for- preparations. He was the inventor of the diachylon, tress on this last-mentioned stream, whose name of a species of plaster much used even in modern times Castellum still subsists in Kessel. In Cæsar's days (Gaten, de Compos. Medic., 5, p. 228), and also of a the Menapii had no city, but lived after the German preparation called κdópios, composed of escharotic fashion, in the woods and among the fens. (Man- substances. (Id. ib.) An inscription given by Montnert, Geogr., vol. 2, pt. 1, p. 201.)-II. A Gallic tribe faucon informs us that he was imperial physician, and who migrated into Hibernia (Ireland), and settled in that he composed 155 works. (Montfaucon, suppl., part of the modern province of Leinster. (Mannert, vol. 3, pt. 4.-Sprengel, Hist. Med., vol. 2, p. 50, Geogr., vol. 2, pt. 2, p. 218.) seq.)-III. A physician, a native of Syracuse, who became extremely vain in consequence of his success in curing epilepsies. He assumed, in consequence, the appellation of Jupiter, as the dispenser of life unto others, while he gave the names of other deities to the individuals whom he had cured, and always had some of them following him as minor gods throughout the cities of Greece. He is said to have stipulated for this service on their part before he undertook to cure them. In a letter which he wrote to Philip of Macedon, he employed the following language: "Menecrates, Jupiter (ó Zevs) to Philip, the king of the Macedonians, success" (εv прúттεш). The reply of the Macedonian monarch was characteristic: " Philip to Menecrates, a sound mind (vyiaíveiv): I advise thee to betake thyself to Anticyra.”—The same king played off, on one occasion, a good practical joke on this crazy disciple of Esculapius. Having invited him to a splendid banquet, he seated him apart from the other guests, and placed before him a censer containing frankincense. The fumes of this were his only portion of the feast, while the rest of the company banqueted on more substantial food. Menecrates at first was delighted at the compliment, but the cravings of hunger soon convinced him that he was still a mortal, and he abruptly left the apartment, complaining of having been insulted by the king. (Athenæus, 7, p. 289.-Elian, V. H., 12, 51.) Plutarch makes Menecrates to have written the letter in question to Agesilaus, king of Sparta (Apophth. Reg. et Duc.), but incorrectly according to Perizonius. (Perizon., ad El., l. c.)

MENAS, a freedman of Pompey the Great, noted for frequently changing sides in the war between Sextus Pompeius and the triumvirs. He first deserted the party of Sextus, under whom he held an important naval command, and went over to Augustus: then he returned to his former side; and again abandoned it and joined the forces of the enemy. (Compare Appian, B. C., 5, 78, seqq.) The historian just quoted applies to him the very appropriate title of manpoSórne Horace has been thought to allude to him in his 4th Epode; but this opinion, though countenanced by the earlier commentators, has been rejected by "nore recent scholars. (Döring, ad Horat., Epod., 4, Arg.)

MENDES, a city of Egypt, in the Delta Parvum, northeast of Sebennytus, and near the coast. It was the chief city of, and gave name to, the Mendesian nome. From it also the Mendesian mouth of the Nile (Ostium Mendesium), now the canal of Achmun, derived its appellation. The goat was here an object of adoration, and Herodotus states (2, 46) that both this animal and the god Pan were called in the Egyptian language Mendes. Pan was worshipped at this place with the visage and feet of a goat; though what the Greek writers here call Pan answers more correctly to the deity Priapus, or the generative attribute considered abstractedly. At Mendes, female goats were also held sacred. The fable of Jupiter having been suckled by a goat probably arose from some emblematic composition, the true explanation of which was known only to the initiated.-The city of Mendes gradually disappeared from history, and in its immediate vicinity rose the city of Thmuis, where the goat was still worshipped as at Mendes.-Jablonski (Panth. Egypt., 1, 2, 7) makes Mendes signify "fertile" or "prolific." and regards it as expressive of the fertilizing and productive energies of nature, especially of the sun. In like manner, we find it stated that Thmuis in the Egyptian tongue also signified "a goat." (Hieron., ad Jovin., 2, 6.) Lacroze, on the contrary, makes Thmuis equivalent to "the city of Lions."

MENEDÉMUS, I. a Greek philosopher, a native of Eretria, who flourished towards the close of the fourth century before Christ. Though nobly descended, he was obliged, through poverty, to submit to a mechanical employment, either as a tent-maker or mason. He formed an early acquaintance with Asclepiades, who was a fellow-labourer with him in the same occupation. Having resolved to devote themselves to philosophy, they abandoned their mean employment and went to Athens, where Plato presided in the Academy. It was soon observed that these strangers had no visi

ble means of subsistence, and, according to a law of | p. 409.-Gell, Itin. of the Morea, p. 222), so that Solon's, they were cited before the court of Areopagus, perhaps we should read, in the text of Polybius, củ to give an account of the manner in which they were diapeрóvтws výnλovs. (Cramer's Anc. Greece, vol. 3, supported. The master of one of the public prisons p. 210.) was, at their request, sent for, and attested, that every night these two youths went among the criminals, aud, by grinding with them, earned two drachinas, which enabled them to spend the day in the study of philosophy. The magistrates, struck with admiration at such an extraordinary proof of an indefatigable thirst after knowledge, dismissed them with high applause, and presented them with two hundred drachmas. (Athenæus, 4, p. 168.) They met with several other friends, who liberally supplied them with whatever was necessary to enable them to prosecute their studies. By the advice of his friend, and probably in his society, Menedemus went from Athens to Megara, to attend upon the instructions of Stilpo. He expressed his approbation of the manner in which this philosopher taught, by giving him the appellation of "the Liberal." He next visited Elis, where he became a disciple of Phædo, and afterward his successor. Transferring the Eliac school from Elis to his native city, he gave it the name of Eretrian. In his school he neglected those forms which were commonly observed in places of this kind; his hearers were not, as usual, placed on circular benches around him; but every one attended him in whatever posture he pleased, standing, walking, or sitting. At first Menedemus was received by the Eretrians with contempt, and, on account of the vehemence with which he disputed, he was often branded with the appellation of cur and madman. But afterward he rose into high esteem, and was intrusted with a public office, to which was affixed an annual stipend of 200 talents. He discharged the trust with fidelity and reputation, but would only accept a fourth part of the salary. He was afterward sent as ambassador to Ptolemy, Lysander, and Demetrius, and did his countrymen several important services. Antigonus entertained a personal respect for him, and professed himself one of his disciples. His intimacy with this prince made the Eretrians suspect him of a design to betray their city to Antigonus. To save himself, he fled to Antigonus, and soon after died, in the 84th year of his age. It is thought he precipitated his death by abstaining from food, being oppressed with grief at the ingratitude of his countrymen, and on being unable to persuade Antigonus to restore the lost liberties of his country. (Diog. Laert., 2, 125, seqq.-Enfield's History of Philosophy, vol. 1, p. 204, seqq.)-II. A native of Lampsacus, in whom the spirit of the Cynic sect degenerated into downright madness. Dressed in a black cloak, with an Arcadian cap upon his head, on which were drawn the figures of the twelve signs of the zodiac, with tragic buskins on his legs, with a long beard, and with an ashen staff in his hand, he went about like a maniac, saying that he was a spirit, returned from the lower world to admonish the living. He lived in the reign of Antigonus, king of Macedon. (Diog. Laert., 6, § 102.-Suid., s. v. paóc.-Enfield's History of Philosophy, vol. 1, p. 314.)

MENELAUS, king of Sparta, and brother of Agamemnon. He was the son of Plisthenes; but his father dying young, and his mother Aerope having been taken in marriage by Atreus, her father-in-law, both Menelaus and Agamemnon received the common name of Atridæ, as if they had been the sons of Atreus. After the murder of Atreus, Thyestes his brother ascended the throne, and compelled Menelaus and Agamemnon to flee from Argolis. They found an asylum, first with Polyphides, king of Sicyon, and then with Eneus, king of Calydon. From the latter court they proceeded to Sparta, where Menelaus became the successful candidate for the hand of Helen (Vid. Helena); and, at the death of his father-in-law, succeeded to the vacant throne. His conjugal felicity, however, was not destined to be of long continuance. Paris, the son of Priam, king of Troy, came on a visit to Sparta, accompanied by Eneas. Here he was hospitably entertained by Menelaus. The Trojan prince, at the banquet, bestowed gifts on his fair hostess Helen, and shortly after Menelaus sailed to Crete, directing his queen to entertain the guests as long as they stayed. Venus, however, inspired Paris and Helen with mutual love, and, filling a vessel with the property of Menelaus, they fled from Sparta during his absence. A tempest sent by Juno drove them to Sidon, which city Paris took and plundered, and, sailing thence to Ilium, he there celebrated his union with Helen. Menelaus, being informed by Iris of what had occurred, returned home and consulted with his brother Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, about an expedition to Ilium; he then repaired to Nestor at Pylos, and, going through Greece, they assembled the chieftains for the war, all of them having been bound, as is said, by an oath to lend such aid whenever it might be demanded of them.-After the destruction of Troy (vid. Troja) and the recovery of Helen (vid. Helena and Deiphobus), Menelaus, who had commanded the Spartan forces in that memorable war, kept company with Nestor, on his return to Greece, until they reached the promontory of Sunium in Attica. Apollo here slew Phrontis, the pilot of Menelaus' ship, and the latter was obliged to stay and bury him. ing performed the funeral rites, he again put to sea; but, as he approached Cape Malea, Jupiter sent forth a storm, which drove some of his vessels to Crete, where they went to pieces against the rocks. Five, on board of one of which was Menelaus himself, were carried by the wind and waves to Egypt. (Od., 3, 276, seqq.) During the eight years of his absence, Menelaus visited all the adjacent coasts, Cyprus, Phoenicia, Egypt, the Ethiopians, Sidonians, and Erembians, and also Libya (Od., 4, 81, seqq.), where the lambs are born horned, and the sheep yean three times a year, and milk, cheese, and flesh are in the utmost abundance, for king and shepherd alike. In these various countries he collected much wealth; but, leaving Egypt on his voyage homeward, he neglected offering sacrifices to the gods, and was, in consequence, detained by want of wind at the isle of Pharos. They were here twenty days, and their stock of provisions were nearly exhausted, when Menelaus was informed of what he ought to do by Proteus, whom he had caught for that purpose by the advice of the seanymph Idothea. Having offered due sacrifices to the MENELATUM (or Menelai Mons), a range of hills on immortal gods, a favourable wind was sent, which the left bank of the Eurotas, stretching to the south-speedily carried him homeward; and he arrived in his east of the city, and rising abruptly from the river. Polybius (5, 22) says these hills were remarkably high (diapeρóvτws výnλoúc), but modern traveliers assure us that this is not the case, and that they are mere hillocks when compared to Taygetus (Dodwell, vol. 2,

MENELAI PORTUS (Meveλdios hiμnv, Herod., 4, 169), a harbour on the Mediterranean coast of Africa, in Cyrenaica, and between the city of Cyrene and Egypt. It was fabled to have derived its name from Menelaus, who, on fleeing from Egypt, landed upon this coast. (Strab., 1195.-Scylax, p. 45.-Corn. Nep., Vit. Ages., 17.-Mannert, Geogr., vol. 10, pt. 2, p. 86.)

Hav

native country on the very day that Orestes was giv ing the funeral-feast for his mother and Ægisthus, whom he had slain. (Od., 4, 351, seqq.) Such is the narrative of Homer. Helena, according to this same poet, was the companion of all the wanderings of

Menalaus; but the Egyptian priests pretended that | forming his various adventures, he was elected king. Paris was driven by adverse winds to Egypt, where Proteus, who was then king, learning the truth, kept Helena and dismissed Paris; that the Greeks would not believe the Trojans, that she was not in their city, till they had taken it; and that then Menelaus sailed to Egypt, where his wife was restored to him. (Herod., 2, 113, seqq.-Vid. Helena.-Keightley's Mythology, p. 492, seqq.)-As regards the reconciliation of Menelaus and Helen, Virgil follows the account which makes the latter to have ingratiated herself into the favour of her first husband by betraying Deiphobus into his hands on the night when Troy was taken. (En., 6, 494, seqq.-Compare Quint. Col., 13, 354, seqq.-Dict. Cret., 5, 116.)

MENENIUS, I. Agrippa, a celebrated Roman, who obtained the consulship B.C. 501, and who afterward prevailed upon the people, when they had seceded to the Mons Sacer, to return to the city. He related on this occasion the well-known fable of the stomach and the limbs. (Liv., 2, 16.—Id., 2, 32.)-II. Titus, son of the preceding, was chosen consul with C. Horatius, B.C. 475, when he was defeated by the Tusci, and being called to an account by the tribunes for this failure, was sentenced to pay a heavy fine. He died of grief soon after. (Liv., 51, seqq.)

The lawful monarch, at his return home, was expelled, and Menestheus established his usurpation by his popular manners and great moderation. As he had been one of Helen's suiters, he went to the Trojan war at the head of the people of Athens, and died on his return in the island of Melos. He was succeeded by Demophoön, the son of Theseus. (Plut., Vit. Thes.) MENINA, or LOTOPHAGITIS INSULA, an island off the coast of Africa, in the vicinity of the Syrtis Minor, and forming part of its southern side. Its name of Lotophagitis (Awropayiriç) or Lotophagorum insula (Awrooάywv vñoos) was given it by the Greeks, from the belief that in this quarter was to be placed Homer's land of the Lotophagi; and, in fact, both the island itself, and also the adjacent country along the coast of the Syrtis, produced abundance of this sweet and tempting fruit. (Herod., 2, 92.-Id., 4, 177.—Polyb., 12, 2.-Eustath. ad Hom., Od., 10, 84, p. 1616.) In our editions of Scylax, the island is called Brachion (Bpaxɛiwv), a manifest interpolation, which has found its way into the text from the note or gloss of some individual, who wished to convey the information that there were many shallows in the neighbourhood. (Mannert, Geogr., vol. 10, pt. 2, p. 144.)-The island fell into the hands of the Romans during the first Punic war, and then, for the first time, we learn that the true name, and the one used among the natives themselves, was Meninx (Mrveys.—Polyb., 1, 39.-Compare Dionys. Perieg, v. 480). From this time forward, Meninx remained the more usual appellation among the geographical writers.-Strabo (834) informs us that the chief city bore the same name with the island. Pliny (5, 4) speaks of the city of Meninx towards Africa, and of another named Thoar. Ptolemy likewise mentions two cities, Meninx and Gerra, the former of which he places to the northeast, and the latter to the southwest. It is more than probable, that the chief city of the island was not called Meninx, but only received this name from those who traded thither, and that the true appellation was Girba, which was given at a later period to the whole island. (Aurel. Vict., Epit., c. 31. "Creati in insula Meninge, quæ nunc Girba dicitur.") The Arabs still give it the name of Gerbo or Zerbi.-Meninx was famed for its purple dye, obtained from the shellfish along its shores, and Pliny ranks it next in value to the Tyrian.

MENES, the first king mentioned as having reigned over Egypt, and who is supposed to have lived above 2000 B.C., about the time fixed by biblical chronologists for the foundation of the kingdom of Assyria by Nimrod, and corresponding also with the era of the Chinese emperor Yao, with whom the historical period of China begins. All inquiries concerning the history of nations previous to this epoch are mere speculations unsupported by evidence. The records of the Egyptian priests, as handed down to us by Herodotus, Manetho, Eratosthenes, and others, place the era of Menes several thousand years farther back, reckoning a great number of kings and dynasties after him, with remarks on the gigantic stature of some of the kings, and on their wonderful exploits, and other characteristics of mystical and confused tradition. (Consult Eusebius, Chron. Canon., ed. Maii et Zohrab., Mediol., 1818.) It has been conjectured that several of Manetho's dynasties were not successive, but contemporaneous, reigning over various parts of the country. From the time of Menes, however, something like a chronological series has been made MENIPPUS, a cynic philosopher, born at Sinope in out by Champollion, Wilkinson, and other Egyptian Asia Minor, but whose family were originally from chronologists, partly from the list of Manetho, and Gadara, in Palestine. According to an authority cited partly from the Phonetic inscriptions on the monu- by Diogenes Laertius, he was at first a slave, but afments of the country.-Menes, it is said by some terward obtained his freedom by purchase, and event(Herod., 2, 99), built the city of Memphis, and, in the ually succeeded, by dint of money, in obtaining citiprosecution of his work, stopped the course of the zenship at Thebes. Here he pursued the employment Nile near it, by constructing a causeway several miles of a money-lender or usurer, and obtained from this cirbroad, and caused it to run through the mountains. cumstance the appellation of 'Huɛpodavɛiorńs (“one (Vid. Nilus.) Diodorus Siculus, however (1, 50), as- who lends money at daily interest"). Having been signs the foundation of Memphis to Uchoreus. Bish- defrauded, and having lost, in consequence, all his propop Clayton contends that Menes was not the first king erty, he hung himself in despair. Menippus was the of Egypt, but that he only transferred the seat of em- author of several works, and his satiric style was imipire from Thebes to Memphis. (Vid. remarks under tated by Varro. (Vid. remarks on the Menippean Sathe article Memphis.) Zoega finds an analogy be- tire, under the article Varro.) Among other productween the names Menes and Mnevis; to which may tions, he wrote a piece entitled Aloyévovs pāσis, be added those of the Indian Menu and the Cretan "The Sale of Diogenes," and another called NeKvía, Minos, to say nothing of the German Mannus. (Zoe-"Necromancy." It is thought by some, that this latga, de Obelisc., p. 11.)

MENESTHEI PORTUS, a harbour not far from Gades, on the coast of Spain, in the territory of Bætica. An oracle of Menestheus was said to have been in or near the place. The modern Puerto de Santa Maria is thought to correspond to the ancient spot. (Ukert, Geogr., vol. 2, p. 342.)

MENESTHEUS OF MNESTHEUS, a son of Peteus, and great-grandson of Erechtheus, who so insinuated himself into the favour of the people of Athens, that, during the long absence of Theseus, who was engaged in per

ter performance suggested to some imitator of Lucian the idea of composing the "Menippus, or Oracle of the Dead," which is found among the works of the native of Samosata. (Schöll, Hist. Lit. Gr., vol. 2, p. 363.)

MENNIS, a city of Assyria, in the district of Adiabene, to the south of Arbela. The adjacent country abounded with bitumen. Mannert supposes it to have been near the modern Dus-Churmalu. (Mannert, Geogr., vol. 5, p. 453.) Curtius calls it Memnium (5, 1). MENODOTUS, a physician of the empiric school, born

at Nicomedia. He was a disciple of Antiochus of orators, of merchants, of all dishonest persons, and Laodicea in Lycia, and lived during the reigns of Tra- particularly thieves, of travellers, and of shepherds. jan and Hadrian. Sextus Empiricus ranks him among He also presided over highways and crossways, and the Sceptics. (Pyrrhon. hypotyp., 1, 222, p. 57.) conducted the souls of the dead to the world below. He banished analogy from the Empiric system, and The Greeks ascribed to their Hermes the invention of substituted what was called epilogism. The hatred the lyre, of letters, of commerce, and of gymnastic which he bore towards the dogmatists was so great, exercises, and they placed his birth either on Mount that he never designated them by any other but the Cerycius in Boeotia, or on Mount Cyllene in Arcamost derisory epithets, such as Tpibavikoi, “old-rou- dia. In the Iliad he is called the son of Jupiter tine-men;" dpiμvhéovres, “furious lions;" dpiμvμí-|(24, 333), but his mother is unnoticed. In the later ρους, contemptible fools," &c. (Galen, de subfig. empir., c. 9, p. 65.--Sprengel, Hist. Med., vol. 1, p. 494.)

MENCETIADES.

Vid. Menotius.

MENCETIUS, a son of Actor and Ægina after her amour with Jupiter. He left his mother and went to Opus, where he had, by Sthenele, Patroclus, often called from him Menatiades. Menoetius was one of the Argonauts. (Apollod., 3, 14.- Hom., Il., 1, 307. — Hygin., fab., 97.)

MENON, a Thessalian commander in the expedition of Cyrus the Younger against his brother Artaxerxes. He commanded the left wing in the battle of Cunaxa. He was entrapped along with the other generals after the battle by Tissaphernes, but was not put to death with them. Xenophon states that he lived an entire year after having had some personal punishment inflicted, and then met with an end of his existence. (Anab., 2, 6, 29.) Diodorus states that he was not punished with the other generals, because it was thought that he was inclined to betray the Greeks, and he was therefore allowed to escape unhurt. (Diod. Sic., 14, 27.) Marcellinus, in his life of Thucydides, accuses Xenophon of calumniating Menon, on account of his enmity towards Plato, who was a friend of Menon. (Vit. Thucyd., p. 14, ed. Bip.-Schneider, ad Xen., Anab., loc. cit.)

legends, however, he is styled the offspring of Jupiter and Maia. His infancy was intrusted to the Seasons or Hora; but he had hardly been laid in his cradle, MENECEUS (three syllables), the father of Jocasta. when he gave a proof of his skill in abstracting the MENETES, I. the pilot of the ship Gyas, at the na-property of others, by stealing away the oxen of Adval games exhibited by Æneas at the anniversary of metus, which Apollo was tending on the banks of his father's death. He was thrown into the sea by the Amphrysus. He displayed his thievish propenhis commander for having so unskilfully steered his sities on other occasions also, by depriving Neptune vessel as to prevent his obtaining the prize in the of his trident, Venus of her girdle, Mars of his sword, contest. He saved himself by swimming to a rock. Jupiter of his sceptre, and Vulcan of many of the im(Virg, En., 5, 161.)-II. An Arcadian, killed by plements of his art. It was his dexterity that recomTurnus in the war of Æneas. (Id., 12, 517.) mended him to the notice of the gods, and that procured for him the office of cup-bearer to Jupiter, in which station he was succeeded by Hebe. Jupiter presented him with a winged cap (petasus), winged sandals (talaria), and a short sword (harpe) bent like a scythe. This last he lent on one occasion to Perseus, to enable him to destroy the Gorgon Medusa. (Vid. Perseus and Gorgones.) By means of his cap and sandals he was enabled to go into whatever part of the universe he pleased with the greatest celerity, and, besides, he was permitted to make himself invisible, and to assume whatever shape he pleased. He was the ambassador and plenipotentiary of the gods, and was concerned in all alliances and treaties. He was the confidant of Jupiter also in his erotic relations with the fair ones of earth, and was often set to watch and baffle the jealous schemes of Juno. After inventing the lyre, he gave it to Apollo, and received from him in exchange the "golden three-leafed rod," the giver of wealth and riches. (Vid. Caduceus.) In the wars of the giants against the gods, Mercury showed himself brave, spirited, and active. He delivered Mars from the long confinement which he had suffered from the Aloide; he tied Ixion to his wheel in the infernal regions; he destroyed the hundred-eyed Argus; he sold Hercules to Omphale, the queen of Lydia; he conducted Priam to the tent of Achilles, to redeem the body of his son Hector; and he carried the infant Bacchus to the nymphs of Nysa. Mercury had many surnames and epithets. He was called Cyllenius, Caduceator, Argiphontes (or the slayer of Argos), Chtho nius (or the god who guides the dead to the world below), Agoneus (or the god who presides over gymnastic exercises), &c. He was father of Autolycus, by Chione; Myrtilius, by Cleobula; Libys, by Libya; Echion and Eurytus, by Antianira; Cephalus. by Creusa; Prylis, by Issa; Hermaphroditus, by Venus; Eudorus, by Polimela, &c. The Roman merchants yearly celebrated a festival on the the 13th of May, in honour of Mercury, in a temple near the Circus Maximus. A pregnant sow was then sacrificed, and sometimes a calf, and particularly the tongues of animals were offered. After the votaries had sprinkled themselves with lustral water, they offered prayers to the divinity, and entreated him to be favourable to them, and to forgive whatever dishonest means they had employed in the acquisition of gain-Mercury is usually represented with a chlamys or cloak neatly arranged on his person, with his petasus or winged cap, and the talaria or winged sandals. In his hand he bears his caduceus or staff, with two serpents twined about it, and which sometimes has wings at its extremity. The more ancient statues of Mercury were nothing more than wooden posts, with a rude head and a pointed beard carved on them. They were set up on the roads and

MENTOR, I. One of the most faithful friends of Ulysses, and the person to whom, before his departure for Troy, he consigned the charge of his domestic affairs. Minerva assumed his form and voice in her exhortation to Telemachus, not to degenerate from the valour and wisdom of his sire. (Od., 2, 268.) The goddess, under the same form, accompanied him to Pylos. (Od., 3, 21, seqq.)-II. A very eminent engraver on silver, whose country is uncertain. He flourished before the burning of the temple at Ephesus, in B.C. 356, as several of his productions were consumed in this conflagration. (Plin., 32, 12, 55.-Martial, Ep., 3, 41.-Sillig, Dict. Art., s. v.)

MERA or MÆRA, a dog of Icarius, who by his cries showed Erigone where her murdered father had been thrown. Immediately after this discovery the daughter hung herself in despair, and the dog pined away, and was made a constellation in the heavens, known by the name of Canis. (Ovid, Met., 7, 363.-Hygin., fab., 130.-Elian, H. A., 7, 28.)

MERCURII PROMONTORIUM, the same with the Hermæum Promontorium. A promontory of Africa, on the coast of Zeugitana, now Cape Bon.

MERCURIUS, I. a celebrated god of antiquity, called Hermes ('Epuns) by the Greeks. Homer and Hesiod, however, style him Hermeias ('Epueias); and wherever the form 'Épuns occurs in these poets, the passage may be regarded as an interpolation. Mercury was the messenger of the gods, and of Jupiter in particular; he was the god of speech, of eloquence; the patron of

footpaths, and in the fields and gardens. The Herma | the feet of Saturn serve to explain the wings of Merwere pillars of stone; and the heads of some other cury. Saturn is represented in this state, because it deity at times took the place of that of Hermes; such requires thirty years nearly to complete its revolution were the Hermathenæ, Hermeracles, and others. The round the sun; while Mercury has wings, because this veneration in which these Hermee were held by the planet accomplishes the same revolution in little less Athenians may be inferred from the odium excited than three months. Again, if, in memory of the diagainst Alcibiades when suspected of having disfigured rections given by the priests of Ammon to the caravans these images. Hermes or Mercury may be regarded that traversed the desert, the Egyptian Hermes beas in some degree a personification of the Egyptian comes the protector of commerce, the Greeks managed priesthood. It is in this sense, therefore, that he was to deprive this peculiar attribute of all its gravity. With regarded as the confidant of the gods, their messenger, them Hermes or Mercury, by a ludicrous analogy, is the interpreter of their decrees, the genius who presi- made the god of fraud and falsehood. Is this a reacded over science, the conducter of souls; elevated in- tion of the Grecian spirit against the pretensions of a deed above the human race, but the minister and the sacerdotal order, and one which preserves, at the same agent of celestial natures. He was designated by the time, a reminiscence of what the Egyptian Hermes name Thot. According to Jablonski (Panth. Egypt., was ?-It is worthy of remark, moreover, how, even 5, 5, 2), the word Thot, Theyt, Thayt, or Thoyt, sig- when all the sacerdotal attributes of this deity have nified in the Egyptian language an assembly, and more disappeared from the popular belief, they again appear particularly one composed of sages and educated per- in the mystic portion of the early Greek religion which sons, the sacerdotal college of a city or temple. Thus the Orphic and Homeric hymns have preserved to us. the collective priesthood of Egypt, personified and The Hermes of these hymns has nothing in common considered as unity, was represented by an imaginary with the Hermes of the Iliad, or even of the Odyssey. being, to whom was ascribed the invention of language At one time he recalls to our minds all the peculiar and writing, which he had brought from the skies and qualities of the Egyptian Hermes, at another the imparted to man, as well as the origin of geometry, strange legends of the Hindoo avatars. The difarithmetic, astronomy, medicine, music, rhythm: the ference between the sacerdotal and the Greek Herinstitution of religion, sacred processions, the intro- mes becomes very perceptible among the Romans. duction of gymnastic exercises, and, finally, the less This people first received the sacerdotal Hermes, indispensable, though not less valuable, arts of archi- whose worship had been brought into Etruria by the tecture, sculpture, and painting. So many volumes Pelasgi previous to the time of Homer; and as were attributed to him, that no human being could the earlier Hermes was represented by a column possibly have composed them. (Fabric., Biblioth. (Jablonski, Panth. Egypt., 5, 5, 15), he became Græc., 1, 12, 85-94.) To him was even accorded the with them the god Terminus. When, however, the honour of discoveries made long subsequent to his ap- Romans were made acquainted with the twelve great pearance on earth. All the successive improvements deities of the Athenians, they adopted the Grecian in astronomy, and, generally speaking, the labours of Hermes under the name of Mercury, preserving at the every age, became his peculiar property, and added to same time the remembrance of their previous tradihis glory. In this way, the names of individuals were tions. (Compare Constant, de la Religion, vol. 2, p. lost in the numerous order of priests, and the merit 122, in notis, ibid., p. 409.-Creuzer's Symbolik, par which each one had acquired by his observations and Guigniaut, vol. 1, pt. 1, p. 453, id., pt. 2, p. 851.)— labours turned to the advantage of the whole sacer- II. Trismegistus, a celebrated Egyptian priest and dotal association, in being ascribed to its tutelary ge- philosopher. Manetho distinguishes him from the first nius; a genius who, by his double figure, indicated the Hermes or Thot, and says of him (ap. Syncell., p. necessity of a double doctrine, of which the more im- 40), that from engraved tables of stone, which had been portant part was to be confined exclusively to the buried in the earth, he translated the sacred characters priests. An individual of this order, therefore, found written by the first Mercury, and wrote the explanahis only recompense in the reputation which he ob- tions in books, which were deposited in the Egyptian tained for the entire caste. To these leading attributes temples. He calls him the son of Agathodæmon, and of Thoth was joined another, that of protector of com- adds, that to him are ascribed the restoration of the merce; and this, in like manner, was intended to ex- wisdom taught by the first Mercury, and the revival press the influence of the priesthood on commercial of geometry, arithmetic, and the arts among the enterprises. Our limits will not permit any far- Egyptians. The written monuments of the first Herther development of the various ideas which, besides mes having been lost or neglected in certain civil those already mentioned, were combined in the imagi- revolutions or natural calamities, the second Hermes nary character of Hermes: his identity, namely, with recovered them, and made use of them as means of esSirius, the star which served as the precursor of the tablishing his authority. (Herod., 2, 82.- Marsham, inundation of the Nile, and the terrestrial symbol of Chron., p. 241.- Clem. Alex., Strom., 5, p. 242.) which was the gazelle, that flies to the desert on the By an ingenious interpretation of the symbols inscribed rising of the stream; his rank in demonology, as the upon the ancient columns, he impressed the sacred father of spirits and guide of the dead; his quality of sanction of antiquity upon his own institutions; and, incarnate godhead, subject to death; and his cosmo- to perpetuate their influence upon the minds of the gonical alliance with the generative fire, the light, the people, he committed the columns, with his own insource of all knowledge, and with water, the principle terpretations, to the care of the priesthood. Hence of all fecundity. It is surprising, however, to observe he obtained a high degree of respect among the peohow strangely the Grecian spirit modified the Egyptian ple, and was long revered as the restorer of learning. Hermes, to produce the Hermes or Mercury of Hel- From the tables of the first Hermes he is said to have lenic mythology. The Grecian Hermes is quite a dif- written, as commentaries and explanations, an incredferent being from the Egyptian. He neither presides ible number of books. It has been asserted that he over the sciences, over writing, over medicine, nor was the author of more than 20,000 volumes, which over astronomy. He has not composed any divine treated of universal principles, of the nature and orders works containing the germe and elements of these sev- of celestial beings, of astrology, medicine, and other eral departments of knowledge. The interpreter of topics. For an account of his pretended works, con the gods in Egypt, he is in Greece only their messen- sult the article Trismegistus. ger; and it is by virtue of this latter title that he preserves his wings, which were among the Egyptians merely an astronomical symbol. For the shackles on

MERIONES, Son of Molus, a Cretan prince, and of Melphidis. He had been among the suitors of Helen, and was therefore bound to join in the common cause