A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

MELETUS. MELINNO. 1021
which it was sinmilar in its argument, Aristophanes though Welcker defends Me'A1Tro. For the argumakes him one of the ambassadors sent by the poets ments on both sides, and respecting Meletus in
on earth to the poets in Hades(Athen. xii. p. 551). general, see Clinton, F.H. vol. ii. p. xxxvi.; Welcker,
He was also ridiculed by Sannyrion in his reAws die Griech. Trag. pp.. 872-874; Kayser, hlist.
(Athen.. c.); and his erotic poetry was referred to Crit rag. T Grae. pp. 284, 285. Plato makes
by Epicrates in his'AVTL1rats (Athen. xiii. p. 605, e.). Socrates pun upon the name several times in the
Suidas (s. v.) calls him an orator as well as a poet, Apology (p. 24, c. d., 25, c., 26, d.). [P. S.]
no doubt on account of his accusation of Socrates, ME'LIA (MeALa), a nymph, a daughter of
and perhaps of Andocides. (See below.) Oceanus, became by Inachus the mother of PhoroThe character of Meletus, as drawn by Plato neus and Aegialeus or Pegeus. (Apollod. ii. 1. ~ 1
and Aristophanes and their scholiasts, is that of a Schol. ad Earip. Orest. 920.) By Seilenus she
bad, frigid, and licentious poet, and a worthless became the mother of the centaur, Pholus (Apollod.
and profligate man, —vain, silly, effeminate, and ii. 5. ~ 4), and by Poseidon of Amycus. (Apollon.
grossly sensual. Plato makes Socrates call him Rhod. ii. 4; Serv. ad Aen. v. 373.) She was
7ETavoT'rpoxa ca o 7,rdvv Eviyes'Eov, Ertypvnrov e'. carried off by Apollo, and became by him the
Aristophanes, in the rqpvTar6d's, ridiculed him for mother of Ismenius (some call her own brother
his excessive thinness, and light weight, and his Ismenus, Schol. ad Pind. Pyth. xi. 5; Tzetz. ad
natural tendency to the infernal regions, where, as Lye. 1211), and of the seer Tenerus. She was
Thirlwall remarks, "to understand the point of the worshipped in the Apollinian sanctuary, the Ismesarcasm, we must compare the balancing scene in nium, near Thebes. (Paus. ix. 10. ~ 5, 26, ~ 1
the Frogs, and: the remarks of Aeschylus, 867, Strab. p. 413.)
OTa 7j 7oiroLtSO lX om y vvTm'Cs IoL, 7'odTo of aloy- In the plural form Mesfat or MehsAdes is the.rd've,7c,"' (Hist. of Greece, vol. iv. p. 275, note). name of the nymphs, who, along with the Gigantes
Aristophanes again, in the IIeap'yod, calls him the son and Erinnyes, sprang from the drops of blood that
of LaYus, a designation which not only contains an fell from Uranus, and which were received by Gaea.
allusion to his Oedipodeia, but is also meant to insi- (Hes. Theog. 1 87.) The nymphs that nursed Zeus
nuate a charge of the grossest vice (see Meineke, are likewise called Meliae. (Callim. Hymn. in
ad loc., Frag. Comn. Graec. vol. ii. pp. 1126,1127). Jov. 47; Eustath. ad Horn. p. 1963.) [L. S.]
Misled by this passage, Suidas (s.v. Mde'Aros) makes MEL1ADES (MEsAamEs), the same as the Mahim a son of Laius (as Clinton has corrected the liades, or nymphs of the district of Melis, near
word from Adpov); the real name of his father Trachis. (Soph. Philoct. 715.) [L. S.]
was Meletus, as we learn from Diogenes Lairtius, MELIBOEA (MeXtioea.) 1. A daughter of
on the authority of Phavorinus, in whose time the Oceanus, and, by Pelasgus, the mother of Lycaon.
deed of accusation against Socrates was still pre- (Apollod. iii. 8. ~ 1.)
served'in the Metroum at Athens (Diog. Lag'rt. ii. 2. A daughter of Magnes, who called the town
40). The epithet Opi, applied to him by Aris- of Meliboea, in Magnesia, after her. (Eustath.
tophanes, in the fragment just referred to, probably ad Hornm. p. 338.)
alludes to the foreign origin of his family. 3. One of the daughters of Niobe. (Apollod.
In the accusation of Socrates it was Meletus iii. 5. ~6; Paus. ii. 21, ~ 10.)
who laid the indictment before the Archon Basi- 4. An Ephesian maiden who.was in love with a
leus; but in reality he was the most insignificant youth of the name of Alexis. As, however, her
of the accusers; and according to one account he parents had destined her for another man, Alexis
was bribed by Anytus and Lycon to take part in quitted his native place; and on the day of her
the affair.: (Liban. Apol. pp. 11, 51; ed. Reiske.) marriage Meliboea threw herself from the roof of
Soon after the death of Socrates, the Athenians her house. But she was not injured, and escaped
repented of their injustice, and Meletus was stoned to a boat which was lying near, and the ropes of
to death as one of the authors of their folly. (Diog. which became untied of their own accord. The
Lagrt. ii. 43; Diod. xiv. 37; Suid. s. v. M6XiTos: boat then carried her to her beloved Alexis. The
it may here be observed that the article in Suidas united happy lovers now dedicated a sanctuary to
is a mass of confusion; there is evidently in it a Aphrodite, surnamedAutomate and Epidaetia (Serv.
mixing up of the lives of two different persons, ad Aen. i. 724.)
Melissius of Samos and Meletus.) 5. The mother of Ajax, and wife, of Theseus.
There is room for some doubt whether the ac- (Athen. xiii. p. 557.)
cuser of Socrates was the same person as the Me- Meliboea occurs also as a surname of Persephone.
letus who was charged with participation in the (Lasus, ap. Athen. xiv. p. 624.) [L. S.]
profanation, of the mysteries, and in the mutilation MELICERTES (MAaKfcpr/s), a son of Athamas
of the Hermae, B. c. 415, and who was an active and Ino, was metamorphosed into a marine divipartizan of the Thirty Tyrants, both as the execu- nity, under the, name of Palaemon. (Apollod. i. 9.
tioner of their sentence of death upon Leon of Sa- ~ 5; comp. ATHAMAS, PALAEMON, and LEUlamis, and as an emissary to Lacedaemon on their COTHEA..) [L. S.]
behalf, and who was afterwards one of the accusers MELINAEA (M ieriaea), a surname of Aphroof Andocides in the case respecting the mysteries, dite, which she derived from the Argive town MeB. C. 400 (Andoc. de Myst. pp. 7, 18, 46, Reiske; line. (Steph. Byz. s. v.; Lycoph. 403.) [L. S.]
Xen. Hell. ii. 4. ~ 36): but as all this is perfectly MELINE (Medoiv), a daughter of Thespius,
consistent with the indications we have noticed became by Heracles the mother of Laomedon.
above respecting the age of Meletus, there seems'no (Apollod. ii. 7. ~ 8.). [L. S.]
good ground for distinguishing the two persons, MELINNO (MeAvvd), a lyric poetess, the'though they cannot be identified with absolute author of an ode on Rome in five Sapphic stanzas,
certainty. (Droysen, Rhein. Mus. vol. iii. p. 190.) which is commonly ascribed to Erinna of Lesbos.
Respecting the form of the name, MEA'rTos is Nothing is known of her' with certainty, except
almost universally adopted by modern scholars, what the ode itself shows, namely, that she lived in