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

-1 048 MEROPE. - MEROVEUS.
lines have been pared off when the sheets were mother of Aepytus. (Apollod. ii. 8. ~ 5; Pans.
bound up into a new volume, and in some places iv. 3. ~ 3, &c.; Hygin. Fab. 184; comp. Asthe original writina has been completely obliterated. PYTUS.): [L. S.]
What remains consists of MEROPS.(Mipo*). 1. The.father.of Eumelus,
I. Four Carpmina. The first, a fragment com- king of the island of Cos, which he thus. called after
prising 23 lines in elegiac measure, is a description his daughter, while the inhabitants, were called
apparently of the Triclinium of Valentinian. The after him, Meropes. His wife, the nymph Ethesecond, a fragment comprising 14 lines in elegiac mea, was killed by Artemis, because she had negmeasure, is a description of a garden probably lected to worship that goddess, and was carried by
attached to the Triclinium. The third, a fragment Persephone to the lower world. Merops, from a
comprising 7 lines in elegiac measure, depicts the desire after his wife, wished to make away with
beauties of a garden, the property Vi-i Jul. himself, but Hera changed him into an eagle, whom
Fausti. The fourth, a fragment in 46 hendeca- she placed among the stars. (Hygin. Piet. Astr.
syllabics, is a birthday ode in honour of the son of ii. 16; Anton. Lib. 15; Eustath. ad Hornm. p. 318;
Aiitius Patricius. Eurip. Helen. 384.
II. A fragment, extending to.197 hexameters, 2. Also called Maerops, a king of the Ethiopians,
of a panegyric on the third consulship of A;tius by whose wife, Clymene, Helios became the father
Patricius, to which is prefixed an introduction in of Phaeton. (Strab. i. p. 33; Ov. Met. i. 763,
prose, in a very wretched condition. This Agtius 7Tist. iii. 4. 30; comp. Welcker, Die Aescllyl.
was consul for the first time A. D. 432, for the Tril. p. 572, &c.)
second time A. D. 437, for the third time A. D. 446. 3. A king of Rhindacus, of Percote, on the
If we assume that the whole of these five scraps. Hellespont, is also called Macar, or Macareus.. He
are by the same author, and that he is the Spanish was a celebrated, soothsayer and the father of Cleite,
Merobaudes who wrote De Ckristo, a proposition Arisbe, Amphius, and Adrastus. (Hom. II. ii. 831,
which, although highly probable, cannot be strictly xi. 329; Apollon. Rhod. i. 975; Strab. xiii. p.
demonstrated, it follows, as. a matter of course,.that 586; Conon, Narrat. 41; Steph. Byz. s. v.
he must have been a Christian, although unques-'Apl~q; Serv. ad Aen. ix, 264; Apollod. iii. 12.
tionably the terms in which he laments that the ~ 5.)
-morals of the olden time and the ancient religion 4. A Trojan, who was slain by Turnus in his
had passed away together. seem at first sight little attack on the camp of Aeneas. (Virg. Aen. ix.
favourable to siuch an idea. On the other hand, 702.) [L. S.]
the reference to baptism (Carm. i, sub fin.) is such MEROVEUS, a Frankish chieftain, of whom
as could scarcely have proceeded from a gentile. little is known that is authentic, beyond the fact that
Niebuhr conjectures that the Disticha de Miraculis he was the grandfather of Clovis, the real founder
Cl/risti, and the Carmen Pasc/hale, placed side by of the Frankish monarchy in Gaul. The chroniside with the De Christo, among the epigrams of clers of the middle ages augmented this little by
Claudian (xcv. xcix.), to whom they confessedly their fables, and Meroveus figured in the lists of
do not belong, ought to be assigned to Merobaudes. the kings of the Frankish nation, of which he
(The fragments were first published by Niebuhr at could have been only one among many petty chiefs..Jonn, Ovo, 1823, again in 1824, and will be found, This list of French kings included Pharamundus
edited by Bekker, in the " Corpus Scriptorum His- or Pharamond, the reputed founder of the monarchy,
toriae Byzantinae," in the same volume with Co- and after him, in regular descent and succession,
rippus, 8vo. Bonn, 1836. See RleinischesMuseum, Clodion, Meroveus, Childefacus or Childeric, and
1843, p. 531. The inscription is in Orelli, No. Chlodoveus or.Clovis. Pharamundus is not men1183. With regard to Aeitius, consult Hansen, tioned by Gregory of Tours, the best, as well as
De Vita A'tii, 8vo. Dorpat. 1840; see also Nicol. the first in point of time, of the early historians of
Anton. Bibl. Hispa:. Vet. ii. 3.) [W. R.] France. Gregory, however, does mention Clodion,
ME'ROPE:(MepJ6r7). 1. A daughter of Ocea- or, as he writes the name, Chlogion, and states
niis, and by Clymenus the mother of Phaeton. that, according to some accounts, he resided in the
(Hygin. Fab. 154.). castle of Dispargum;, on the border of the Thoringi,
2. One of the Heliades or sisters of Phaeton. the locality of which is much disputed; that he
(Ov. Met. ii. 340, &c.'tHygin. Fab. 154.)' surprised and took Camaracum (Caulbrai) andsub3. A daughter of Atlas, one of the Pleiades, and dued all the country as far as the Sumina (Somme);
the, wife of Sisyphus of Corinth, -by whom she he adds, that some affirmed that Meroveus was of
became. themother of Glaucus. In the constella- the race of this Chlogion. (Greg. Turon. Histor.
tion of the Pleiades she is the seventh and the Francor. ii. 9.) The date of this conquest is not
least visible star, because she.isashamed of having determined. Some place it before A. D. 428, in
had intercourse with a mortal man. (Apollod. i. which. year the Clodion who had occupied a
9. ~ 3, iii. 10. ~ 1; Ov. Fast. iv. 175; Eustath. ad part of Gaul was driven out by Aetius; others.11om. p. 1155; Serv. ad Virg. Georg. i. 138 comp. make this a second and later' invasion, placiag it as
Ho-m.'l vi. 154; Schol. ad Pind. No7n. ii. 16; late as A. Di 445,:and. consider the acquisition as
SISYPHiUS.)... permanent. That Meroveus succeeded Clodion is
4. A daughter of Oenopion and Helice in Chios, probable, but it could scarcely have been in more
is also called Haero, Aerope, and Maerope. She than a-petty chieftainship, Whether he was the
was beloved by Orion, who was, in consequence, son of Clodion or his nephew is very doubtful: the
blinded by her father. (Apollod. i. 4. ~ 3; Hygin. accounts of his' descent vary; one of them, which
Poet. Astr. ii. 34.).. makes him the offspring of Clodion's wife by a sea5. The wife of Megareus, by whom she became monster, is obviously of later date, but may sugthe mother of Hippomenes. (Hygin. Fab. 185.) gest the suspicion that he was illegitimate. The
6. A daughter of Cypselus, and wife of Cres- Chxonicon of Ado of Vienne ascribes to. the
phontes, and afterwards of Polyphontes, and Franks under Meroveus the capture of Treveri