Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/1027

Rh MELANCOMAS. and henceforth remained in Messenia (Apollod. i. 9. § 12 ; Paus. iv. 36. § 2 ; Schol. ad Thcocrit. iii. 43). His dominion over Argos is said to have heen acquired in the following manner. In the reign of Anaxagoras, king of Argos, the women of the kingdom were seized with madness, and roamed about the country in a frantic state. Me- lampus cured them of it, on condition that he and his brother Bias should receive an equal share with Anaxagoras in the kingdom of Argos (Paus. ii. 18. § 4 ; Diod. iv. 68). Others, however, give the following account. The daughters of Proetus, Iphinoe, Lysippe and Iphianassa, were seized with madness, either because they opposed the worship of Dionysus (Diod. I. c. ; Apollod. i. 9. § 12), or because they boasted of equalling Hera in beauty, or because they had stolen the gold from the statue of the goddess (Serv. ad Virg. Ed. vi. 48). Me- lampus promised to cure the women, if the king would give him one-third of his territory and one of his daughters in marriage. Proetus refused the proposal : but when the madness continued, and also seized the other Argive women, messengers came to Melampus to request his aid ; but he now demanded two-thirds of the kingdom, one for him- self, and the other for his brother. The demand was complied with, and with a band of youths, he pursued the women as far as Sicyon, with Bacchic shouts. Iphinoe died during the pursuit, but the surviving women were cured by purifications in a well, Anigrus, or in a temple of Artemis near Lusi, or in the town of Sicyon itself ; and Melampus and Bias married the two daughters of Proetus. (Apollod. ii. 2. § 2 ; Strab. viii. p. 346 ; Ov. Met. XV. 322 ; Paus. ii. 7. § 8, viii. 18, in fin.; Herod, ix. 34 ; Schol. ad Find. Nem. ix. 30.) Another mythical personage of the same name occurs in Virgil {Aen. x. 320). [L. S.] MELAMPUS (MeAaA^TToiis), the author of two little Greek works still extant, one entitled Ilepl IlaA./uwt' Mai'TtKT^, Divinatio ex Palpitatione^ the other Tlfpl 'EXaiwv roO ^cifMaros^ De Naevis Oleaceis in Corpore. He lived probably in the third cen- tury B. c, as the former of these works is addressed to " king Ptolemy," who is supposed by Fabricius {Biblioth. Gr. vol. i. p. 99, ed. vet.) to have been Ptolemy Philadelphus. Both the works (as might be anticipated from the titles) are full of super- stitions and absurdities. They were first published in Greek by Camillus Peruscus, in his edition of Aelian's Varia Historia, &c., Rom. 1545, 4to. They were translated into Latin by Nicolaus Pe- treius, and published together with Meletius, De Natura Hominis, Venet. 1552, 4 to. They have also been translated into French and German. The last and best edition is that by J. G. F. Franz, in his " Scriptores Physiognomiae Veteres," Alten- burg, 1780, 8vo. (Fabric. Bibl. Gr. vol. i. p. 99, ed. vet. ; Choulant, //aW6. d. Buclierkunde jiir die Aeltere Me.didn., p. 415.) [W. A. G.] MELAMPUS, an architect, of little note, who wrote Praecepta Si/mmeiriarum. (Vitruv.vii. Praef. § 14.) [P. S.] MELANAEGIS (Mehamiyls), i.e. armed or clad with a black aegis, occurred as a surname of Dionysus at Eleutherae (Suid. s.v. *EAeu0epos; Paus. i. 38. § 8), and at Athens (Suid. s. v. 'Atto- Toripia ; Conon, Narrat. 39 ; Paus. ii. 35. § 1 ; comp. Melanthus), and of the Erinnys. (Aeschyl. Sept. 700.) [L. S.] MELA^NCOM AS ( MeAa7Ko/xas), an Ephesian, MELANIPPIDES. 1013 and NICOMACHUS (Nt/ctJ/xaxos), a Rhodian, were the two men whom Achaeus, the rebellious general of Antiochus the Great, employed to carry on his negotiations with Ptolemy IV. (Philopator), as well as all his other transactions with foreign powers. It was chiefly through recommendatory letters fr»m Melancomas and Nicomachus that Bolis, of whose treachery they had no suspicion, was enabled to gain, to a great extent, the confidence of Achaeus, and so to betray him to Antiochus, in B. c. 214. (Polyb. viii. 17, 18, 20, 21.) E. E.] ME'LANEUS ( MeAai/eus), a son of Apollo,and king of the Dryopes. He was the father of Eurytus and a famous archer. According to a Messenian legend Melaneus came to Perieres who assigned to him a town as his habitation which he called Oechalia, after his wife's name. (Paus. iv. 2. § 2 ; Anton. Lib. 4.) Two other mythical personages of this name occur in Ovid {Met. xii. 306) and in the Odyssey (xxiv. 103). [L. S.] MELANIPPE (MeAaj/fTTTTTj). 1. A daughter of Cheiron, is also called Euippe. Being with child by Aeolus, she fled to mount Pelion ; but Cheiron made search after her ; and in order that her condition might not become known, she prayed to be metamorphosed into a mare. Artemis granted the prayer, and in the form of a horse she was placed among the stars. (Eratosth. Catast. 18 ; Aristoph. Thesm. 512; lly gin. Fab. 86.) Another account describes her metamorphosis as a punish- ment for having despised Artemis or divulged the counsels of the gods. (Hygin. Foet. Astr. ii. 18.) 2. The wife of Hippotes and the mother of Aeolus. (Diod. iv. 67.) 3. A daughter of Aeolus, or, according to others, of Hippotes or Desraontes. (Schol. ad Horn. Od. X. 2; Hygin. Fa6. 186.) 4. A queen of the Amazons, whom Heracles, in his fight with the Amazons, restored to freedom in consequence of a present she gave him. (Diod. iv. 16 ; '^ch.oX. ad Find. i!Ve7n. iii. 64 ; Apollon. Rhod. ii. d'oQ.) For two other mythical personages of this name, see Boeotus and Meleager. [L. S.] MELANPPPIDES (MeAa^tTTTriSTjs), of Melos, one of the most celebrated lyric poets in the de- partment of the dithyramb. Suidas (s. «.) distin- guishes two poets of this name, of whom the elder was the son of Criton, and flourished about 01. 65 (b. c. 520), and wrote numerous books of dithy rambs, and epic poems, and epigrams, and elegies, and very many other things ; he was the grand- father, on the mother's side, of the younger Mela- nippides, whose father's name was also Criton. No other ancient writer recognises this distinction, which, therefore, probably arises out of some con- fusion in the memory of Suidas. At all events, it is better to place under one head all that we know of Melanippides. The date of Melanippides can only be fixed within rather uncertain limits. He may be said, somewhat indefinitely, to have flourished about the middle of the 5th century B.C. He was younger than Lasus of Hermione (Plut. Mus. p. 1141, c), and than Diagoras of Melos (Suid. s. v. Aiayopas). He was contemporary with the comic poet Phere- crates (Plut. /. c). He lived for some time at the court of Perdiccas, of Macedonia* and there died (Suid. s. v.). He must therefore have died before B.C. 412. His high reputation as a poet is intimated by 3t 3