Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/1146

1132   MYRTILUS. MYS. into Thessaly, to take vengeance for the desertion of the Thessalian troops to the Lacedaemonians at the battle of Tanagra; but he failed in his attempt on the town of Pharsalus, and was obliged to return to Athens. It is possible that the subject of the present article may have been the father of, the Athenian statesman, who took a chief part in the overthrow of the thirty tyrants, 403; for Demosthenes mentions a son of Archinus, called Myronides, who may have been named after his grandfather, according to a custom by no means uncommon. (Thuc. i. 105, 106, 108, iv. 95; Aristoph. Lys. 801, Eccl. 303; Aristot. Polit. v. 3, ed. Bekk.; Lys. 'E7riTo<|). p. 195; Diod. xi. 79—83; Plat. Menex. p. 242; Dem. c. Timocrat. p. 742; Herm. ''Pol. Ant.'' § 169, note 1; Wachsmuth, ''Hist. Ant.'' vol. ii. p. 133, Eng. transl.; Thirlwall's Greece, vol. iii. p. 30, note 2, p. 33, notes; Thuc. i. iii.) [E. E.] MYRRHA (Mu/5pa), a daughter of Cinyras and mother of Adonis. (Luc. D. Syr. 6; comp. .) Lycophron (829) calls Byblos in Phoenicia Mvppas dcTTV. [L. S.] MYRSILUS. [.] MY'RSILUS, a Greek historical writer, a native of Lesbos. When he lived is not known. Dionysius of Halicarnassus (i. 23) has borrowed from him almost verbatim a part of his account of the Pelasgians. He refers to him again in i. 28. Myrsilus was the author of the notion that the Tyrrhenians, in consequence of their wandering about after they left their original settlements, got the name of n€Aap7ot, or storks. Athenaeus (xiii. p. 610, a.) quotes from a work by Myrsilus, entitled 'laropiKcL Trapddo^a. He is also quoted by Strabo (i. p. 60, xiii. p. 610), and by Pliny (H. N. iii. 7, iv. 12). By Arnobius (iii. 37, iv. 24), he is called Myrtilus. (Voss. ''de Hist. Græc.'' p. 473, ed. Westermann). [C. P. M.] MYRSUS (Mwpa-os), a Lydian, son of Gyges, was the bearer to Polycrates of the letter containing the treacherous promises by which he was induced to place himself in the power of Oroetes, satrap of Sardis. Myrsus was one of those who were slain in an ambuscade by the Carians in the Ionian war, 498. (Herod, iii. 122, v. 121.) [E. E.]

MY'RTILUS (MupTiAos), a son of Hermes by Cleobule, or by Clytia (Hygin. Poet. Astr. ii. 13), or, according to others, by Phaetusa or Myrto. (Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. i. 752.) He was the charioteer of Oenomaus, king of Elis, and, having betrayed his master, he was thrown into the sea by Pelops near Geraestus in Euboea; and that part of the Aegean is said to have thenceforth been called after him the Myrtoan sea. At the moment he expired, he pronounced a curse upon the house of Pelops, which was hence harassed by the Erinnyes of that curse. His father placed him among the stars as auriga. (Soph. Elect. 509; Eurip. Or. 993, &c.; Apollon. Rhod. i. 755; Paus, ii. 18. §2, v. 1. §5, viii. 14. §8; Tzetz. ad Lyc. 156, 162; Hygin. Fab. 84, Poet. Astr. ii. 13; Serv. ad Virg. Georg. i. 205, iii. 7; Eustath. ad Horn. p. 184.) His tomb was shown at Pheneus, behind the temple of Hermes, where the waves were believed to have washed his body on the coast. There he was also worshipped as a hero, and honoured with nocturnal sacrifices. (Paus. vi. 20. §8, viii. 14. §7.) [L. S.] MY'RTILUS (MuprfAos), a Greek comic poet, the brother of Hermippus. Suidas has preserved the names of two of his plays, the Tirav6Trave% and the ''Epcores. One object of his ridicule in the former was the tasteless love of display shown by the Megarian Choregi. (Aspasius ad Aristot. Ethic. Nic. iv. 2; Meineke, Hist. Crit. Coin. Græc, p. 100; Bode, Geschichte der Hellen. Dichtkunst, vol. iii part ii. p. 170). [C. P. M.] MY'RTILUS, a slave or a freedman, seems to have been bribed by Antony, or some one of that party, to make an attempt upon the life of D. Brutus, but was detected and put to death. (Cic. ad Att. xv. 13, xvi. 11.)

MY'RTILUS, L. MINU'CIUS, was handed over to the Carthaginians, because he had beaten the ambassadors of the latter, 187. (Liv. xxxviii. 42.)

MYRTIS (MvpTis), an Argive, whom, with several others of that and other states, Demosthenes (de Cor. p. 324, ed. Reiske) charged with treachery on the ground of their having misled their fellow-citizens with respect to the danger to be apprehended from the growing power of Philip, and so kept them from combining against him. He charges them also with having done so from corrupt motives. Polybius (xvii. 14) exonerates them from the charge of treachery. [C. P. M.]

MYRTIS (MvpTts a lyric poetess, a native of Anthedon. She was reported to have been the instructress of Pindar, and to have contended with him for the palm of superiority. This is alluded to in an extant fragment of Corinna. (Bergk's Poetae Lyrici Græci, p. 815.) There were statues in honour of her in various parts of Greece. She was also reckoned amongst the nine lyric Muses. (''Anthol. Pal.'' ix. 26; Suidas s. vv. ni*'8af)os, Kdpivva; Tatian. Orat. ad Græce. 52; Fabric. Bibl. Grace, vol. ii. p. 133; Bode, Gesch. der Hellen. Dichtkunst, vol. ii. pt. 2, p. 112.) [C.P.M.] MYRTO (Mvprd), a woman from whom, according to some, the Myrtoan sea derived its name. (Paus. viii. 14. §8; Apollon. Rhod. i. 752; comp. .) [L. S.]

MYRTO (MvpTcS), a daughter of one Aristeides, was, according to some accounts, the first wife of Socrates. (Ath. xiii. p. 555, d.; Böckh, Publ. Econ. of Athens, b. i. c. 20. ) [ E. E.]

MYRTOESSA (Muprcceo-o-a), the nymph of a well of the same name in Arcadia; she was represented at Megalopolis along with Archiroe, Hagno, Anthracia and Nais. (Paus. viii. 31. §2.) [L. S.]

MYRTON (MipTwy), and his son NICANOR ('NiKdvwp), were men of weight and influence in Epeirus, and are mentioned by Polybius (who bears testimony at the same time to their previous high character for uprightness) as having lent themselves to abet the cruel and oppressive conduct of [No. 2]. Charops was accompanied by Myrton, when he went to Rome to endeavour to obtain the senate's confirmation of his proceedings. (Polyb. xxxii. 21, 22.) [E, E.]

MYS (Mi/s), an artist in the toreutic department, engraved the battle of the Lapithae and the Centaurs and other figures on the shield of Phidias's colossal bronze statue of Athena Promachos, in the Acropolis of Athens. (Paus. i. 28. §2.) If we are to believe Pausanias, these works were executed from designs by Parrhasius, who flourished half a century later than Phidias. It is probable that there is a mistake in the passage of Pausanias, and that Mys ought to be considered as a contemporary of