Mimallŏnes, the Bacchanals, who, when they celebrated the orgies of Bacchus, put horns on their heads. They are also called Mimallonides, and some derive their name from the mountain Mimas. Persius, bk. 1, li. 99.—Ovid, Ars Amatoria, li. 541.—Statius, Thebiad, bk. 4, li. 660.
Mimas, a giant whom Jupiter destroyed with thunder. Horace, bk. 3, ode 4.——A high mountain of Asia Minor, near Colophon. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 2, fable 5.——A Trojan, son of Theano and Amycus, born on the same night as Paris, with whom he lived in great intimacy. He followed the fortune of Æneas, and was killed by Mezentius. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 10, li. 702.
Mimnermus, a Greek poet and musician of Colophon in the age of Solon. He chiefly excelled in elegiac poetry, whence some have attributed the invention of it to him; and, indeed, he was the poet who made elegy an amorous poem, instead of a mournful and melancholy tale. In the expression of love, Propertius prefers him to Homer, as this verse shows:
Plus in amore valet Mimnermi versus Homero.
In his old age Mimnermus became enamoured of a young girl called Nanno. Some few fragments of his poetry remain, collected by Stobæus. He is supposed by some to be the inventor of the pentameter verse, which others, however, attribute to Callinus or Archilochus. The surname of Ligustiades, λιγυς (shrill-voiced), has been applied to him, though some imagine the word to be the name of his father. Strabo, bks. 1 & 14.—Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 29.—Diogenes Laërtius, bk. 1.—Propertius, bk. 1, poem 9, li. 11.—Horace, bk. 1, ltr. 6, li. 65.
Mincius, now Mincio, a river of Venetia, flowing from the lake Benacus, and falling into the Po. Virgil was born on its banks. Virgil, Eclogues, poem 7, li. 13; Germania, ch. 3, li. 15; Æneid, bk. 10, li. 206.
Mindărus, a commander of the Spartan fleet during the Peloponnesian war. He was defeated by the Athenians, and died 410 B.C. Plutarch.
Mīnēĭdes, the daughters of Minyas or Mineus, king of Orchomenos in Bœotia. They were three in number, Leuconoe, Leucippe, and Alcithoe. Ovid calls the two first Clymene and Iris. They derided the orgies of Bacchus, for which impiety the god inspired them with an unconquerable desire of eating human flesh. They drew lots which of them should give up her son as food to the rest. The lot fell upon Leucippe, and she gave up her son Hippasus, who was instantly devoured by the three sisters. They were changed into bats. In commemoration of this bloody crime, it was usual among the Orchomenians for the high priest, as soon as the sacrifice was finished, to pursue, with a drawn sword, all the women who had entered the temple, and even to kill the first he came up to. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 4, fable 12.—Plutarch, Quæstiones Græcæ, ch. 38.
Mĭnerva, the goddess of wisdom, war, and all the liberal arts, was produced from Jupiter’s brain without a mother. The god, as it is reported, married Metis, whose superior prudence and sagacity above the rest of the gods, made him apprehend that the children of such a union would be of a more exalted nature, and more intelligent than their father. To prevent this, Jupiter devoured Metis in her pregnancy, and some time after, to relieve the pains which he suffered in his head, he ordered Vulcan to cleave it open. Minerva came all armed and grown up from her father’s brain, and immediately was admitted into the assembly of the gods, and made one of the most faithful counsellors of her father. The power of Minerva was great in heaven; she could hurl the thunders of Jupiter, prolong the life of men, bestow the gift of prophecy, and, indeed, she was the only one of all the divinities whose authority and consequence were equal to those of Jupiter. The actions of Minerva are numerous, as well as the kindnesses by which she endeared herself to mankind. Her quarrel with Neptune concerning the right of giving a name to the capital of Cecropia deserves attention. The assembly of the gods settled the dispute by promising the preference to whichever of the two gave the most useful and necessary present to the inhabitants of the earth. Neptune, upon this, struck the ground with his trident, and immediately a horse issued from the earth. Minerva produced the olive, and obtained the victory by the unanimous voice of the gods, who observed that the olive, as the emblem of peace, is far preferable to the horse, the symbol of war and bloodshed. The victorious deity called the capital Athenæ, and became the tutelar goddess of the place. Minerva was always very jealous of her power, and the manner in which she punished the presumption of Arachne is well known. See: [Arachne]. The attempts of Vulcan to offer her violence, are strong marks of her virtue. Jupiter had sworn by the Styx to give to Vulcan, who had made him a complete suit of armour, whatever he desired. Vulcan demanded Minerva, and the father of the gods, who had permitted Minerva to live in perpetual celibacy, consented, but privately advised his daughter to make all the resistance she could to frustrate the attempts of her lover. The prayers and force of Vulcan proved ineffectual, and her chastity was not violated, though the god left on her body the marks of his passion, and, from the impurity which proceeded from this scuffle, and which Minerva threw down upon the earth, wrapped up in wool, was born Erichthon, an uncommon monster. See: [Erichthonius]. Minerva was the first who built a ship, and it was her zeal for navigation, and her care for the Argonauts, which placed the prophetic tree of Dodona behind the ship Argo, when going to Colchis. She was known among the ancients by many names. She was called Athena, Pallas [See: [Pallas]], Parthenos, from her remaining in perpetual celibacy; Tritonia, because worshipped near the lake Tritonis; Glaucopis, from the blueness of her eyes; Agorea, from her presiding over markets; Hippia, because she first taught mankind how to manage the horse; Stratea and Area, from her martial character; Coryphagenes, because born from Jupiter’s brain; Sais, because worshipped at Sais, &c. Some attributed to her the invention of the flute, whence she was surnamed Andon, Luscinia, Musica, Salpiga, &c. She, as it is reported, once amused herself in playing upon her favourite flute before Juno and Venus, but the goddesses ridiculed the distortion of her face in blowing the instrument. Minerva, convinced of the justness of their remarks by looking at herself in a fountain near mount Ida, threw away the musical instrument, and denounced a melancholy death to him who found it. Marsyas was the miserable proof of the veracity of her expressions. The worship of Minerva was universally established; she had magnificent temples in Egypt, Phœnicia, all parts of Greece, Italy, Gaul, and Sicily. Sais, Rhodes, and Athens particularly claimed her attention, and it is even said that Jupiter rained a shower of gold upon the island of Rhodes, which had paid so much veneration and such an early reverence to the divinity of his daughter. The festivals celebrated in her honour were solemn and magnificent. See: [Panathenæa]. She was invoked by every artist, and particularly such as worked in wool, embroidery, painting, and sculpture. It was the duty of almost every member of society to implore the assistance and patronage of a deity who presided over sense, taste, and reason. Hence the poets have had occasion to say,
Tu nihil invitâ dices faciesve Minervâ,