Melia, a daughter of Oceanus, who married Inachus.——A nymph, &c. Apollodorus.——A daughter of Oceanus, sister to Caanthus. She became mother of Ismarus and Tenerus by Apollo. Tenerus was endowed with the gift of prophecy, and the river Ladon in Bœtia assumed the name of Ismarus. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 10.——One of the Nereides.——A daughter of Agenor.
Mĕlĭbœa, a daughter of Oceanus, who married Pelasgus.——A daughter of Amphion and Niobe. Apollodorus.——A maritime town of Magnesia in Thessaly, at the foot of mount Ossa, famous for dyeing wool. The epithet of Melibœus is applied to Philoctetes, because he reigned there. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 401; bk. 5, li. 251.—Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 188.——Also an island at the mouth of the Orontes in Syria, whence Melibœa purpura. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 3.
Melibœus, a shepherd introduced in Virgil’s eclogues.
Mĕlĭcerta, Melicertes, or Melicertus, a son of Athamas and Ino. He was saved by his mother from the fury of his father, who prepared to dash him against the wall as he had done his brother Learchus. The mother was so terrified that she threw herself into the sea, with Melicerta in her arms. Neptune had compassion on the misfortunes of Ino and her son, and changed them both into sea deities. Ino was called Leucothoe or Matuta, and Melicerta was known among the Greeks by the name of Palæmon, and among the Latins by that of Portumnus. Some suppose that the Isthmian games were in honour of Melicerta. See: [Isthmia]. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 9; bk. 3, ch. 4.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 44.—Hyginus, fables 1 & 2.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 4, li. 529, &c.—Plutarch de Convivium Septem Sapientium.
Meligūnis, one of the Æolian islands near Sicily.
Melīna, a daughter of Thespius, mother of Laomedon by Hercules.
Melīsa, a town of Magna Græcia.
Melissa, a daughter of Melissus king of Crete, who, with her sister Amalthæa, fed Jupiter with the milk of goats. She first found out the means of collecting honey; whence some have imagined that she was changed into a bee, as her name is the Greek word for that insect. Columella.——One of the Oceanides, who married Inachus, by whom she had Phoroneus and Ægialus.——A daughter of Procles, who married Periander the son of Cypselus, by whom, in her pregnancy, she was killed with a blow of his foot, by the false accusation of his concubines. Diogenes Laërtius.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 28.——A woman of Corinth, who refused to initiate others in the festivals of Ceres, after she had received admission. She was torn to pieces upon this disobedience, and the goddess made a swarm of bees rise from her body.
Melissus, a king of Crete, father to Melissa and Amalthæa. Hyginus, Poetica Astronomica, bk. 2, ch. 13.—Lactantius [Placidus], bk. 1, ch. 22.——An admiral of the Samian fleet, B.C. 441. He was defeated by Pericles, &c. Plutarch, Pericles.——A philosopher of Samos, who maintained that the world was infinite, immovable, and without a vacuum. According to his doctrines, no one could advance any argument upon the power or attributes of Providence, as all human knowledge was weak and imperfect. Themistocles was among his pupils. He flourished about 440 years before the christian era. Diogenes Laërtius.——A freedman of Mecænas, appointed librarian to Augustus. He wrote some comedies. Ovid, ex Ponto, bk. 4, ltr. 16, li. 30.—Suetonius, Lives of the Grammarians.
Melĭta, an island in the Libyan sea, between Sicily and Africa, now called Malta. The soil was fertile, and the country famous for its wool. It was first peopled by the Phœnicians. St. Paul was shipwrecked there, and cursed all venomous creatures, which now are not to be found in the whole island. Some, however, suppose that the island on which the Apostle was shipwrecked, was another island of the same name in the Adriatic on the coast of Illyricum, now called Melede. Malta is now remarkable as being the residence of the knights of Malta, formerly of St. John of Jerusalem, settled there A.D. 1530, by the concession of Charles V., after their expulsion from Rhodes by the Turks. Strabo, bk. 6.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.—Cicero, Against Verres, bk. 4, ch. 46.——Another on the coast of Illyricum, in the Adriatic, now Melede. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 26.——An ancient name of Samothrace. Strabo, bk. 10.——One of the Nereides. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 5, li. 825.