Mæŏnis, an epithet applied to Omphale, as queen of Lydia or Mæonia. Ovid.——The epithet is also applied to Arachne, as a native of Lydia. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 6.
Mæōtæ, a people of Asiatic Sarmatia.
Mæōtis Palus, a large lake, or part of the sea between Europe and Asia, at the north of the Euxine, to which it communicates by the Cimmerian Bosphorus, now called the sea of Azof or Zaback. It was worshipped as a deity by the Massagetæ. It extends about 390 miles from south-west to north-east, and is about 600 miles in circumference. The Amazons are called Mæotides, as living in the neighbourhood. Strabo.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 1, &c.—Justin, bk. 2, ch. 1.—Curtius, bk. 5, ch. 4.—Lucan, bk. 2, &c.—Ovid, [♦]Tristia, bk. 3, poem 12; epistles of Sabinus, ltr. 2, li. 9.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 739.
[♦] ‘Fasti’ replaced with ‘Tristia’
Mæsia sylva, a wood in Etruria, near the mouth of the Tiber. Livy, bk. 1, ch. 33.
Mævia, an immodest woman. Juvenal, satire 1, li. 22.
Mævius, a poet of inferior note in the Augustan age, who made himself known by his illiberal attacks on the character of the first writers of his time, as well as by his affected compositions. His name would have sunk in oblivion if Virgil had not ridiculed him in his third eclogue, and Horace in his 10th epode.
Magas, a king of Cyrene, in the age of Ptolemy Philadelphus. He reigned 50 years, and died B.C. 257. Polyænus, bk. 2.
Magella, a town of Sicily about the middle of the island.
Magetæ, a people of Africa.