Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

MUNYCHIA. MURUS. - 769
manner represented in a painting on the tomb of sians at Salamis, and that it was held every year
Remeses III. at Thebes (see woodcut, left-hand on the sixteenth of Munycllion. (Compare Suidas
figure taken from Wilkinson, vol. ii. p. 383); for and Harpocrat. s. v. MourvXc6vr.) The sacrifices
there is no reason to doubt that the Egyptians and which were offered to the goddess on this day
the Greeks fashioned and used their mortars in the consisted of cakes called a&/jwpVErTes, either besame manner. (See also Wilkinson, vol. iii. p. cause at this season the full moon was seen in the
181, showing three stone mortars with metal pes- west at the moment the sun rose in the east, or,
tles.) In these paintings we may observe the as is more probable, and also confirmed by most
thickening of the pestle at both ends, and that two authorities, because these cakes were adorned all
men pound in one mortar, raising their pestles round with burning candles. (Athen. xiv. p. 645;
alternately as is still the practice in Egypt. Pliny Suidas, s. v.'AYcideraro: Hesych. and Etymol.
(H. N. xxxvi. 43) mentions the various kinds of Mag. s. v.'A/ucLp&v.) Eustathius (ad Iliad. xviii.)
stone selected for making mortars, according to the says that these cakes were made of cheese. [L. S.]
purposes to which they were intended to serve. MURA'LIS CORO'NA. [CORONIA.]
Those used in pharmacy were sometimes made, as MUREX. [TRIBuLUS.]
he says, "of Egyptian alabaster." The annexed MU'RIES. [VESTALES.]
woodcut shows the forms of two preserved in the MU'RRHINA VASA, or MU'RREA VASA,
were first introduced into Rome by Pompey, who
dedicated cups of this kind to Jupiter Capitolinus.
(Plin. I. N. xxxvii. 7.) Their value was very.M~~~ ~~i~ C great. (Sen. de Benef. vii. 9, Epist. 119; Mar- tial, iii. 82. 25; Dig. 33. tit. 10. s. 3. ~ 4.) Pliny
(1. c.) states that 70 talents were given for one.../... \|holding three sextarii, and speaks of a murrhine
trulla, which cost 300 talents. Nero gave even.300 talents for a capis or drinking cup.
Pliny (xxxvii. 8) says that these murrhine
vessels came from the East, principally from places
S wE A l X rXawithin the Parthian empire, and chiefly from Caramania. He describes them as made of a substance
i)/II,IA I I I I 7 1 A, formed by a moisture thickened in the earth by
heat, and says that they were chiefly valued on
account of their variety of colours. Modern writers
differ much respecting the material of which they
Egyptian collection of the British Museum, which were composed. Some think that they were vaexactly answer to this description, being made of riegated glass, and others that they were made of
that material. They do not exceed three inches in onyx, since that stone presents a variety of colours;
height: the dotted lines mark the cavity within but the latter conjecture is overthrown by a paseach. The woodcut also shows a mortar and sage of Lampridius (Heliogab. 32), who speaks of
pestle, made of baked white clay, which were dis- onyx and murrhine vases. Most recent writers,
covered, A. D. 1831, among numerous specimens of however, are inclined to think that they were true
Roman pottery in making the northern approaches Chinese porcelain, and quote in support of their
to London-bridge (Arhclaeologia, vol. xxiv. p. 199, opinion the words of Propertius (iv. 5. 26):plate 44.) "Murreaque in Parthis pocula cocta focis."
Besides the uses already mentioned, the mortar
was employed in pounding charcoal, rubbing it This opinion would be rendered still more probable
with glue, in order to make black paint (atramen.. if we could place dependence on the statement of
tum, Vitruv. vii. 10. ed. Schneider); in making Sir W. Gell (Ponmpeiana, vol. i. pp. 98, 99), " that
plaster for the walls of apartments (Plin. H. N. the porcelain of the East was called Mirrha di
xxxvi. 65); in mixing spices and fragrant herbs Smyrna to as late a date as 1555." (Becker,
and flowers for the use of the kitchen (Athen. ix. Gallus, vol. i. p. 143.)
70; Brunck, Anal. iii. 51); and in metallurgy, as MURUS, MOENIA (Te7XOS), the wall of a
in triturating cinnabar to obtain mercury from it city, in contradistinction to PARIEs (roXos), the
by sublimation. (Plin. II. N. xxxiii. 41, xxxiv. wall of a house, and Melaceria, a boundary wall.
22.) [J. Y.] Both the Latin and Greek words appear to contain,
MOS. [Jus, p. 657, a.] as a part of their root meaning, the idea of afisrm,
MO'THACES, MOTHO'NES (uagles, pdOew- strong wall; and they are nearly always used for
yes), [CIVITAS, p. 290, b.] walls of stone or someother massive construction.
MUI2IA'NA CAUTIO. [CAUTIO.] A2lurus and re7Xos are also used for the outer wall
MU'LLEUS. [PATRICIm.] of a large building.
MULSUM. [ViNvsU.] We find cities surrounded by massive walls at
MULTA. [POENA.] the earliest periods of Greek and Roman history,
MUNERA'TOR. [GLADIATORES, p. 574, a.] of which we have any records. Homer speaks of
MU'NICEPS, MUNICI/PIUM. [COLONIA; the chief cities of the Argive kingdom as " the
FOEDERATAE CIVITATES.] v;, walled Tiryns," and c" Mycenae the well-built
MUNUS. [HONORES.] city" (II. ii. 559, 569), not only thus, as in other
MUNUS. [GLADIATOREs, p. 574, a.] passages, proving the common use of such strucMUNY'CHIA (,uovmixia), a festival cele- tures in the Homeric period, but also attesting the
brated in honour of Artemis Munychia. Plutarch great antiquity of those identical gigantic walls
(de Glor. Ath. p. 349, F.) says that it was insti- which still stand at Tiryns and MIycenae, and
tuted to commemorate the victory over the Per- other cities of Greece and Italy. In Epirus, in
3 D