Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/742

Rh 7J?8 LEMURES. LEIO'DES (Ae/w57js), one of the suitors of Penelope, was slain by Odysseus. (Horn. Od. xxi. 144, xxii. 328.) [L. S.] LEIS. [Althepus.] LEITUS(A77iTos),asonof AlectororAlectryon, by Cleobule, and father of Peneleus. (Apollod. iii. 10. § 8 ; Diod. iv. 67.) He is mentioned among the Argonauts (Apollod. i. 9. § 16), and com- manded the Boeotians in the war against Troy (Horn. //. ii. 494, xvii. 602 ; Pans. ix. 4. $ 3), from whence he took with him the remains of Arcesilaus. (Pans. ix. 39. § 3.) His tomb was shown in later times at Plataeae. (Pans. ix. 4. § 3 ; corap. Hygin. /ai. 97.) [L. S.] LELEX (Ae'Ael). 1. One of the original in- habitants of Laconia which was called after him, its first king, Lelegia. He was married to the Naiad Cleochareia, by whom he became the father of Myles, Polycaon, and Eurotas. He had a heroum at Sparta. (Apollod. iii. 10. § 3 ; Paus. iii. 1. § 1. 12. § 4, iv. 1. § 2.) Some call his wife Peridia, and his children Myles, Polyclon, Bomolochus, and Therapne ; while Eurotas is represented as a son of Myles and a grandson of Lelex. (Schol. adEurip. Orest. 61.5.) In other traditions, again, Lelex is described as a son of Spartus, and as the father of Amyclas. (Steph. Byz. s.v. AaKeSai/xccv.) 2. A son of Poseidon and Libya, the daughter of Epaphus. He was regarded as the ancestor of the Leleges, and is said to have immigrated from Egypt into Greece, where he became king of Me- gara ; and his tomb was shown below Nisaea, the acropolis of Megara. (Paus. i. 44. § 5, 39. § 5 ; Ov. Met. vii. 443, viii. 567, 617.) 8. One of the Calydonian hunters. (Ov. Met. viii. 312.) [L. S.] LE'MURES, i. e., spectres or spirits of the dead, which were believed by the Romans to return to the upper world and injure the living. Some writers describe Lemures as the common name for all the spirits of the dead (Apul. de Deo Soar. p. 237, ed. Bip. ; Serv. ad Aen. iii. 63 ; Mart. Capella, ii. § 162; Ov. Fast. v. 483), and divide all Lemures into two classes ; viz. the souls of those Avho have been good men are said to become Lares, while those of the wicked become Larvae. But the common idea was that the Lemures and Larvae were the same (August. De Civ. Dei, ix. 11); and the Lemures are said to wander about at night as spectres, and to torment and frighten the living. (Herat. Epist. ii. 2. 209 ; Pers. v. 185.) In order to propitiate them, and to purify the human habitations, certain ceremonies were per- formed on the three nights of the 9th, 1 1 th, and 13th of May every year. The pater familias rose at midnight, and went outside the door making certain signs with his hand to keep the spectre at a distance. He then washed his hand thrice in spring water, turned round, and took black beans into his mouth, which he afterwards threw behind him. The spectres were believed to collect these beans. After having spoken certain words without looking around, he again washed his hands, made a noise with brass basins, and called out to the spectres nine times : " be gone, you spectres of the house ! " This being done, he was allowed to look round, for the spectres were rendered harmless. The days on which these rites were performed were considered unlucky, and the temples remained closed during that period. (Varro, ap. Non. p. 135 J Fest. s.v. Faham; Ov. Fast. v. LENTULUS. 419, &c. ; corap. Hartung, Die Relig. der Rom. i, p.55,&c.) ^ [L. S.] LENAEUS {hrnvaios)., a surname of Dionysus, derived from t]v6s, the wine-press or the vintage. (Hesych. s. v. ; Virg. Georg. ii. 4. 529; Diet, of Ant. s. V. Lenaea.) [L. S.J • LENAEUS, a freedman of Pompey the Great, whence he is sometimes called Ponipeius Lenaeus. He was a native of Athens, possessed great know- ledge of natural history, and was acquainted with several languages, in consequence of which Pompey restored him to freedom. (Sueton. De Iltuatr. Graminat 2, 15; Plin. //. N. xxv. 2, 3.) He ac- companied his patron in nearly all his expeditions (Suet. l. c. 15), and by his command he translated into Latin the work of Mithridates on poisons. (Plin. I. c, comp. xv. 30, 39, xxiv. 9, 41, xxv. 6, 27, and Elench. lib. xiv. xv. xx. xxiii. xxvii.) After the death of Pompey and his sons, Lenaeus maintained himself by keeping a school at Rome, in tlie Carinae, near the temple of Tellus, tfie dis- trict in which the house of Pompey had been. This fact is a proof not only of his great attachment to the memory of his late master, but also of his not having made use of his friendship with Pompey for the purpose of enriching himself. His affection for Pompey also led him to write a very bitter satire against the historian Sallust, who had spoken of Pompey in an unjust and slanderous manner. Suetonius (/. c. 1 5) has preserved some of the op- probrious terms in which Lenaeus spoke of Sallust. (0. M. Mailer, Histor. Krit. Darsiellung der Nachriclit. vom Lehen., ^c^des Sallust, p. 10; Dri- mann, Gesch. Horns, vol. iv. p. 556.) [L. S.] LE'NIUS. [Laenius.] LENTI'CULA, LICl'NIUS, called in some manuscripts of Cicero Denticula, was one of An- tony's dissolute companions, who had been con- demned for gambling, but was restored by Antony to his former status. Dion Cassius falsely states that he was recalled from banishment by Antony ; but it would seem that infamia was a consequence of being condemned for gambling, and that he was restored by Antony to his full rights as a citizen. (Cic. Pliil. ii. 23 ; Abram. and Garaton. ad loc. ; Dion Cass. xlv. 47.) LENTI'DIUS, one of the leaders of the Clodian mob of slaves and gladiators in Januar}-, b. c. 57, when P. Sextius, tribune of the plobs, was assailed and left for dead in the temple of Castor in the forum. {Ck.proDom. 33, pro SeM. 37.) [W.B.D.] LENTO, CAESE'NNIUS, a follower of M. Antony ; and unless Cicero is speaking ironically, originally a stage player. {Phil. xi. 6.) Lento was one of Antony's seven agrarian commissioners — septemviratus (Cic. Phil. ii. 38, xii. 9, xiii. 12) — in B. c. 44, for apportioning the Campanian and Leontine lands, whence Cicero terms him " divisor Italiae." During the siege of Mutina in the spring of B. c. 43, Lento was stationed in Etruria to watch the communications with Rome by the Via Cassia, which circumstance furnished one among Cicero's various reasons for declining the legation to Antony in Cisalpine Gaul. {Phil. xii. 9, xiii. 2.) [W. B. D.] LENTULUS, the name of one of the haughtiest patrician families of the Cornelian Gens [Cornelia Gens] ; so that Cicero coins the words Appietas and Lentulitas to express the qualities of the high patrician party {ail Fam. iii. 7. § 5). When we find plebeians bearing the name (_as a tribune of