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MENAION

f;reat dike of Cochcichc at present utilized. Accord- ing to Revillout in "Le Nil" (1880), 19, 25, "terrible floods must have buried the great cities of Thebes and Memphis under enormous masses of clay". The great Egyptologist Mariette sees in this destruction of Memphis the verification of the prophetic predictions. "There is no city", he writes, "whose end was so la- mentable as that of Memphis. It was formerly the chief of cities, the pride of Egypt. It astonished the world by the number and the magnificence of its buildhigs. To-day it is not even a ruin. Thus is fulfilled the word of the prophet (Jer., xlvi, 19): "Furnish thyself to go into captivity, thou daughter inhabitant of Egypt, for Memphis shall be made desolate and shall be forsaken and uninhabited" (Mariette, "Voyage en Haute-Egypte", 1878, I, 31).

See in Le Quien, II, 585-88 (Gams, 461) the list of the known bishops of Memphis. John, the first on this list, was one of the opponents of St. Athanasius (.\than., "Apol. de fuga sua"; "Apol. contra .Ari- anos"; "Epist. ad solitarios"; Sozomen, II, xxxi). Antiochus of Memphis took part in the Council of Nica;a. Palladius (Hist, laus., LXXVI) and Rufinus (Vit. Patrum, II, v) state that they saw in the neigh- bourhood of Memphis and Babylon innumerable mul- titudes of monks. Some Synaxaria mention for 5 Oct., the holy virgin St. Hierais of Memphis (Delehaye, "Synaxarium Ecoles. Constantinop., Propylsea ad ActaSanctor." 112, 8).

Peter, Martyr of Anghera, Legatio habylonica (1577), 434; Le Mascrier, Description de VEgypte d'apres les mcmoires de Maillet (Paris, 1735), 261 sq.; Mgypti historiw compendium (Oxford, 17S9), 199 sq.; Description de VEgypte, expedition de Varmee fram;aise, V; Abd-Allatif, Relation de VEgypte (tr. Paris, 1810). 184-94; Brugsch, Diet. geog. de VEgypte (Leipzig. 1879-80): Idem, Egypt under the Pharaohs (1881), I, 50; de Rouge, Geog. ancienne de la Basse-Egypte (1891), 1-7; Annates du musee egyptien (Cairo, 1899), I, 149, 230, 280; II, 97, 240, 244, 285; III, 1. 169, 182; IV, 76, etc.; Maspero, Mission archeol. institiU francais, II, ii, 133; De Vit, Totius latinitatis onomastieon, IV (1887), cites all the passages from ancient authors, Greek and Latin, where mention is madeof Memphis; Larrivaz in Vig., Diet, de la Bible, s. v. Memphis: Le Quien, Oriens christ. (Paris, 1740), II, 585-88; Smith, Diet, of Greece and Roman Geogr., s. v.

S. Salaville.

Mena, Juan de, Spanish poet^ b. 1411 at Cordova; d. 14.')6 at Torrelaguna. Prominent at the court of Juan II of Castile, Mena was for a while the monarch's secretario de cartas latinas and then the royal histo- riographer. In his work as a poet he manifests little originality, and shows to a considerable degree the influence of Italian and classic Latin models, for the impress of the Renaissance is already clear in him. The Dantesque allegory gave form to his poem " La Coronacion ", an allegorical vision in which he makes a journey to Parnassus to witness the coronation of his friend, the Marquis of Santillana, as poet and hero. Didactic and allegorizing tendencies are visible in his versified " Siete pecados mortales". Along with a para- mount influence of Dante there is noticeable also a considerable influence of the Latin poet Luean in his poetical masterpiece, the " Laberinto" (also termed Las Trecientas). Here the poet pictures himself as wan- dering in a forest where he is threatened by wild beasts. A beautiful woman (Providence) appears and offers to guide him and explain the secrets of life. A description of the universe is then given. It consists of three wheels of fate set within a number of circles or spheres. The wheels are those of the past, present, and future. That of the present is in motion, the other two are constantly moving. In these wheels are seen various personages, whom his guide points out to him, expatiating on their characteristics. The machinery is obviously borrowed from the Divine Comedy and especially from the Paradise. Certain passages are genuinely poetical. Of the prose works of Mena there may be mentioned his " Ili.ada ", an arid compendium of the story of Troy, and his pedantic Commentary on X.— 12

See Trichub, Vicariate

his own poem " La Coronacion ". His minor lyrics found in the Cancioneros are of shght importance.

06ms. ed Sanchez (Madrid, 1804); Laberinto, ed. Foulche- Delbosc (Macon, 1904); Re^me Hispanique, IX, 75 sqq • Men- ENDEZ y Pelayo, Antologia, V, 165 sqq.

J. D. M. Ford.

Menachery, JoH>f. Apostolic op.

Menahem. See Manaheii.

Menaion (Miraror from iiriv, "month") is the name of the twelve books, one for every month, that contain the offices for immovable feasts in the Byzantine rite. As in the West, the Byzantine Calendar consists of two series of offices. First there are the movable days, the days of the ecclesiastical year turning around Easter (propritim de tempore) ; overlying this, as it were, are the feasts of our Lord, the Blessed Virgin, and the Saints that are fixed to certain days of the month of the civil year. The oflSces for these feasts are con- tained in the menaia, which therefore correspond to the proprium sanctorum in the Roman breviary.

The origin and first compilation of the menaia is obscure. Apparently the various elements that make up the collection were put together gradually. It seems that the Synaxarion (now an extract from the menaia) was composed first. The Synaxarion con- tains only short accounts of the saints' lives, the his- tory of the feast and so on, like the lessons of the sec- ond nocturn in the breviary. These lives of saints are attributed to Symeon Metaphrastes (q. v.). The menaia include the Synaxarion and supply also all the other texts and poems (the Canons with their heirmoi, troparia, stichera, kontakia, and so on) required to complete the office. A great part, of these poems are ascribed to Romanos, the chief hymn-writer of the Byzantine Church (fifth century). The menaia do not affect the holy liturgy (which is hardly influenced by the calendar), being used only in the Divine Office. The Byzantine ecclesiastical year begins with Septem- ber. That month therefore forms the first menaion; there is then one for each month to August. The rules for coincidence of feasts and the manner of say- ing the office on any day must be sought in the typi- kon; but extracts from the typikon are printed in the menaia. Each office fills five or six small folio pages, the rubrics being printed In red. The general arrange- ment is this: first come the verses (stichera) sung at the Hesperinos, then the Biblical lessons with the prokeimena and any troparia that may be wanted. The Canon sung at the Orthros follows with all its odes and their troparia. The Synaxarion of the feast fol- lows the sixth ode. The psalms and other unchang- ing matter are not given. They are found in the other books (Triodion, Parakletike, Oktcechos). The churches of the Byzantine rite that do not use Greek liturgically have translations of the menaia with ad- ditional offices for their special feasts and any other modifications they may have introduced. The Slavonic name for the book is mineja, Arabic minaiun, Rumanian mineiu. Parts of the menaia were trans- lated into Syriac by the Melchites during the time that they used that language (a list in Charon: "Le Rite byzantin dans les Patriarcats melkites", Rome, 1908, pp. 33^4). The whole has not been translated into Arabic. "The Orthodox and Melchites of Egypt and Syria use instead a selection from them called in Greek " kv0oK6yi.ov" (but "minaiun" in Arabic). The "Menology" {urimXb^iov) is either an ecclesiastical calendar or a kind of Synaxarion. The first printed edition of the menaia was made by Andrew and James Spinelli at Venice (1528-1596), and reprinted (1596-1607). The latest Greek editions were pub- lished at \'em'ce, in 1873 (Orthodox) and at Rome, in

ISSN I rrii:il,.l.

A, I SMI, I), hl.ris eecles. Grmcorum (Paris, 1645 and 1646); Km Mm iM 1., i,,::,h. dcr byzantrLHt. (iMunich, 1897), 6.58-659; NiLLi.^, KaUnduiiummaniuile(,2aded., Innsbrucic, 1896); Malt-