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

1022 MELISSENUS. MELISSUS..the flotfrishing period of the Roman empire.- The MELISSEUS (MehsLcraes or MeXLoos),: an
ode is printed, with an admirable essay upon it, ancient king of Crete, who, by Amalthea, became
by Welcker, in -Creuzer's Meletemata, 1817, p. 1, the father of the nymphs Adrastea and Ida, to
and in Welcker's Kleine Schriften, vol. ii. p. whom Rhea entrusted the infant Zeus to be
160. [P. S.] brought up. (Apollod. i.. 1. ~ 6; Hygin. Poet.
MELISANDER (Me-Atoaavpos), of Miletus, is Astr. ii. 13.) Other accounts call the daughters
said to have written an account of the battles of of this king Melissa and Amalthea. (Lactant. i.
the Lapithae and Centaurs, and is classed by 22.) [L. S.]
Aelian with the poets Oroebantius and Dares, who MELISSEUS (Mexzaosevs), a Greek writer of
-are stated to have been the predecessors of Homer. uncertain date, wrote a work entitled AeAhqKcd.
(Aelian, V. IT. xi. 2.) (Tzetz. Chil. vi. 90; Schol. in Hesiod. p. 29, ed.
MELISSA (MeAro-a), that is, the soother or Oxon.)
propitiator (from Ase;acsw or /MeLAiaOw), occurs, MELISSUS (ME;'Atos), of Samos, a Greek
1. As the name of a nymph who discovered and philosopher, the son of Ithagenes, is said to have
*taught the use of honey, and from whom bees were been likewise distinguished as a statesman, and to
believed to have received their name, iuAe'Aolaa. have commanded the fleet which first conquered a
(Schol. ad Pind. Pyth. iv. 104.) Bees seem to part of the Athenian armament which blockaded
have been the symbol of nymphs, whence they the island under the command of Pericles; but it
themselves are sometimes called Melissae, and are is stated afterwards that he was conquered by:sometimes said to have been metamorphosed into Pericles, in 01. 85. Thucydides does not mention
bees. (Schol. ad Pined.. c.; Hesych. s. v.'Opo- Melissus. (Plut. Pericl. 26, 27; comp. Thermist.
3etuvlames; Columell. ix. 2; Schol. ad Theoeit. iii. 2, adv. Colot. 32.) This account is supported by
13.) Hence also nymphs in the form of bees are the statement of Apollodorus, that Melissus flousaid to have guided the colonists that went to rished in 01. 84; but it is irreconcilable with the
Ephesus (Philostr. Icon. ii. 8); and the nymphs account which represents him as personally conwho nursed the infant Zeus are called Melissae, or nected with Heracleitus, who lived at a much
Meliae. (Anton. Lib. 19; Calliin. Hymn. in Jov. earlier period. (Diog. La'rt. ix. 24.) There seems
47; Apollod. i. i. ~ 3.) to be less reason for doubting that he was a dis2. From the nymphs the name Melissae was ciple of Parmenides, and it is quite certain that lie
transferred to priestesses in general, but more was acquainted with the doctrines of the Eleatics,
especially to those of Demeter (Schol. ad Pind. 1. c.; which in fact he completely adopted, though he
Callim. Hymn. in Apoll. 110; Hesych. s. v. Me- took up the letter rather than the spirit of their
XLoraL), Persephone (Schol. ad Taeocrit. xv. 94), system, as is proved by the fragments of his work,
and to the priestess of the Delphian Apollo. (Pind. which was written in prose, and in the Ionic
Pyth. iv. 106; Schol. ad Eurip. Hippol. 72.) Ac- dialect. They have been preserved by Simplicius,
cording to the scholiasts of Pindar and Euripides, and their genuineness is attested by the work of
priestesses received the name Melissae from the Aristotle or Theophrastus. He proves that the
purity of the bee. Comp. a story about the origin coming into existence and the annihilation of any
of bees in Serv. ad Aen. i. 434. thing that exists are both inconceivable, whether
3. Melissa is also a surname of Artemis as the it be supposed that it arises from a non-existence
goddess of the moon, in which capacity she alle- or from some existence. But even here Melisslus
viates the suffering of women in childbed. (Por- is unable to -maintain the pure idea of existence,
phyr. De Antr. Nymph. p. 261.) which we find in Parmenides, for he denies that
4. A daughter of Epidamnus, became by Posei- existence, and still more absolute existence (So
don the mother of Dyrrhachius, from whom the dbrXcas io') can arise from non-existence. Parmetown of Dyrrhachium derived its name. (Steph. nides could not have admitted the difference of deByz. s. v. Avt3pdX)o v.) [L. S.] grees of existence, which is here assumed, any
MELISSA (MEhA~aa), the wife of Periander, more than the parts of existence which Melissus
tyrant of Corinth. She was the daughter of Procles, assumes as possible, or at least as not absolutely
tyrant of Epidaurus, and Eristheneia; and, accord- opposed to the idea, since he thinks it necessary to
ing to Diogenes Laiirtius (i. 94), was called Lysis prove that no part of existence could have come
before her marriage, and received the name Me- into existence any more than existence itself.
lissa from Periander. She bore two sons, Cypselus (Simplic. in Aristot. Phys. f. 22, b; Aristot. De
and Lycophron, and her husband was passionately Xenophl. Gorg. et Meliss. 1.) The inference of
attached to her; but in a fit of jealousy, produced Melissus which now follows, that things which
by the slanderous tales of some courtesans, he have neither beginning nor end must be infinite
killed her in a barbarous manner. [PERIANDER.] and unlimited in magnitude, and accordingly one
From the story of the appearance of the shade of (ibid. and Simplic. f. 23, b. firaym. 2 and 7-1.0;
Melissa to the ambassadors sent by Periander to in Brandis, Commentat. Eleatic.), is manifestly
consult the oracle of the dead among the Thespro- erroneous, since, without even attempting a mediatians, and the mode in which Periander sought to tion, he assumes infinitude of space in things which
appease her, we may gather that he sought to still have no beginning or end in time. The simplicity
his remorse by the rites of a dark and barbarous of existence he infers from its unity, and he appears
superstition: he took a horrible revenge on those to have endeavoured very minutely to show that
who had instigated him to the murder of his wife. no change could take place either in quantity or
(Herod. iii. 50, v. 92; Athen. xiii. p. 589, f.; quality, and neither internal nor external motion.
Diog. Larft. i. 94;Plut. Sept. Sap. Conv. p. 146.) (Fr. 4. 11, &c.; Aristot. 1. c.) From this he then
Pausanias (ii. 28. ~ 8) mentions a monument in argued backwards, and assumed the impossibility
memory of Melissa, near Epidaurus. [C. P. M.] of finding existence in the actual world. (Simplic.
MELISSE'NUS GREGO'RIUS. [MAM- De Coelo, f. 138, and the corrected text of the
MAs.] Schol. in Azistot. ed. Brandis, p. 509, b.) He thus