Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/1057

Rh MENON. grandson of Pentheus, and father of Hipponotne, Jocaste or Epicaste, and Creon. (Apollod. ii. 4. § 5, iii. 5. § 7 ; Eurip. Phoen. 10, and the schol. on 942.) 2. A grandson of the former, and a son of Creon. (Eurip. Phoen. 768 ) In the war of the Seven Argives against Thebes, Teiresias declared that the Thebans should conquer, if Menoeceas would sacrifice himself for his country. Menoeceus accordingly killed himself outside the gates of Thebes (Eurip. Phoen. 913, 930 ; Apollod. iii. 6. § 7). Pausanias (ix. 25. § 1) relates that Me- noeceus killed himself in consequence of an oracle of the Delphian god. His tomb was shown at Thebes near the Neitian gate. (Paus. /. c. ; comp. Stat. Theh. X. 755, &c., 790.) [L. S.] M EN ETAS. [Meleager, No. 2.] MENOETES. The name of two mythical per- sonages. (Virg. Aen. v. 161, &c. ; Ov. Met. xii. 116.) [L.S.] MENOETIUS (MemVioy). 1. A son of la- petus and Clymene or Asia, and a brother of Atlas, Prometheus and Epimetheus, was killed by Zeus with a flash of lightning, in the fight of the Titans, and thrown into Tartarus. (Hes. Theog. 507, &c., 514 ; Apollod. i. 2. § 3 ; Schol. ad Aeschyl. Prom. 347.) 2. A son of Ceuthonymus, a guard of the oxen of Pluto. (Apollod. ii. 5. § ] ; comp. Heracles.) 3. A son of Actor and Aegina, a step-brother of Aeacus, and husband of Polymele, by wliom he became the father of Patroclus. He resided at Opus, and took part in the expedition of the Argo- nauts (Horn. Z/. xi. 785, xvi. 14, xviii. 326). Some accounts call his mother Damocrateia, and a daughter of Aegina ; and instead of Polymele they call his wife Sthenele or Periapis (Apollod. iii. 13. § 8 ; Schol. ad Pind. 01. ix. 107 ; Strab. p. 425 ; comp. Val. Flacc. i. 407 ; Eustath. 'ad Horn. p. 112). When Patroclus, during a gam'e, had slain the son of Aniphidamas, Menoetius fled with him to Peleus in Phthia, and had him edu- cated there (Hom. //. xi. 770, xxiii. 85, &c. ; Schol. ad Pind. 01. ix. 104). Menoetius was a friend of Heracles. (Diod. iv. 39.) [L. S.] MENO'GENES {Mivoyh-ns one of the nu- merous commentators on Homer, who wrote a work in 23 books on the catalogue of ships in the second book of the Iliad. (Eustath. ad Horn. p. 1 ^9, ed. Basil.) [L. S.] MENO'GENES, a statuary, who was admired for his quadriyae. (Plin. H. N. xxxiv. 8. s. 19. § 30.) [P. S.] MENON (MeVwj/). 1. A citizen of Pharsalus in Thessaly, who aided the Athenians at Eion with 12 talents and 200 horsemen, raised by him- self from his own penestae, and was rewarded by them for these services with the freedinn of the city. (Dem. c. Arid. pp. 686, 687 ; Pseudo-Dem. Trept arvvrd^eus., p. 173; Wolf, Proleg. ad Dem. c. Lept. p. 74.) By some this Menon has been iden- tilied with the Pharsalian who commanded the troops sent from his native city to the aid of the Athenians in the first year of the Peloponnesian war, B. c. 431 ; while the above mentioned assist- ance at Eion is referred by them to the eighth year of the same war, B. c 424. (Thuc. ii. 22, iv. 102, &c. ; Gedik. ad Plat. Men. p. 70.) Perhaps, however, the service may have been rendered at the siege of Eion by Cimon in b. c. 476 ; and in that case the Menon alluded to by Demosthenes MENON. 1043 may have been the father of the leader of Thessa- lian cavalry mentioned by Thucydides in B. c. 431. (Herod, vii. 107; Plut. Cim. 7; Pans. viii. 8; Thirlwall's Greece^ vol. iii. p. 3.) [Boges.] 2. An Athenian, a fellow- workman of Phei- DiAS, was suborned to bring against him the accu- sation by which he was ruined. For this service the faction which had employed Menon obtained for him from the people the privilege of aTeAeto. (Plut. Per. 31.) 3. A Thessalian adventurer, was a favourite of Aristippus of Larissa, who placed him in command of the forces, which he had obtained by the help of C3'rus the Younger in order to make head against a party opposed to him. When Cyrus began his expedition, in B. c. 401, Menon was sent by Ari- stippus to his aid with 1500 men, and joined the prince's army at Colossae. Cyrus having reached the borders of Cappadocia, employed Menon to escort back into her own country Epyaxa, the wife of Syennesis, the Cilician king. In passing through the defiles on the frontiers Menon lost a number of his men, who, according to one account, were cut off by the Cilicians ; and in revenge for this, his troops plundered the city of Tarsus and the royal palace. When the Cyrean army reached the Euphrates, Menon persuaded the soldiers under his command to be the first to cross the river, and thus to ingra- tiate themselves with the prince. At the battle of Cunaxa he commanded the left wing of the Greeks, and, after the battle, when Clearchus sent to Ariaeus to make an off"er of placing him on the Persian throne, he formed one of the mission at his own request, as being connected with Ariaeus by ties of friendship and hospitality. He was again one of the four generals who accompanied Clearchus to his fatal interview with Tissaphernes, and was detained, together with his colleagues. Clearchus, in seeking the interview for the purpose of deliver- ing up on both sides those who had striven to ex- cite their mutual suspicions, had been instigated in a great measure by resentment against Menon, whom he suspected of having calumniated him to Ariaeus and Tissaphernes, with the view of obtain- ing the entire command of the army for himself. According to the statement which Ariaeus made to the Greeks immediately after the apprehension of the generals, Menon and Proxenus were honourably treated by the Persians, as having revealed the treachery of which he said Clearchus had been guilty ; and Ctesias relates, in ignorance certainly of the details and in direct opposition to Xenophon, that Clearchus himself distrusted Tissaphernes, and that the army was induced by the arts of Menon to compel him to agree to the interview. That Menon did really act a treacherous part to- wards his countrymen is by no means improbable, as well from the circumstances of the case as from his character, even if we make all allowance for some colouring which Xenophon 's personal hostility to the man may have thrown into his invective against him. As to his fate, Ctesias merely says thjit he was not executed with the other generals ; but Xenophon tells us that he was put to death by lingering tortures, which lasted for a whole year. If this latter account is the true one, Bishop Thirl- wall's hypothesis seems not improbable, viz., that he was given up to the vengeance of Parysatis as a compensation for the rejection of her entreaties on behalf of Clearchus and his colleagues. There can be no doubt of the identity of the subject of the a X 2