Our limits will not permit any far-
ther development of the various ideas which, besides
'.
ther development of the various ideas which, besides
'.
Charles - 1867 - Classical Dictionary
f Menelaus and Helen, Virgil follows the account
which makes the latter to have ingratiated herself into
'. he favour of her first husband by betraying Deipho-
bus into his hands on the night when Troy was taken.
(? n. , 6, 494. seqq. --Compare (faint. Col. , 13, 354,
seqq--Diet. Cret. , 5, 116. )
Menknius, I. Agrippa, a celebrated Roman, who
obtained the consulship B. C. 501, and who afterward
prevailed upon the people, when they had seceded to
the Mons Sacer, to return to the city. He related on
this occasion the well-known fable of the stomach and
the limbs. (Liv. , 2, id. --Id. , 2, 32. )--II. Titus, son
of the preceding, was chosen consul with C. Hora-
tius, B. C. 475, when he was defeated by the Tusci,
and being called to an account by the tribunes for this
failure, was sentenced to pay a heavy fine. He died
of grief soon after. (Lin. , 51, seqq. )
Menes, the first king mentioned as having reigned
over Egypt, and who is supposed to have lived above
2000 B. C. , about the time fixed by biblical chronolo-
gists for the foundation of the kingdom of Assyria by
Nimrod, and corresponding also with the' era of the
Chinese emperor Yao, with whom the historical pe-
riod of China begins. All inquiries concerning the
h:s\ory of nations previous to this epoch are mere
speculations unsupported by evidence. The records
of the Egyptian priests, as handed down to us by He-
rodotus, Manetho, Eratosthenes, snd others, place the
ara of Menes several thousand years farther back,
reckoning a great number of kings and dynasties after
tint, with remarks on the gigantic stature of some of
? ho kings, and on their wonderful exploits, and other
characteristics of mystical and confused tradition.
(Consult Eusebius, Chron. Canon. , ed. Mail et Zoh-
rab. , Mediol. , 1818. ) It has been conjectured that
several qf Manetho's dynasties were not successive,
but contemporaneous, reigning over various parts of
the country. From the time of Mcnes, however,
something like a chronological series has been made
out by Champollion, Wilkinson, and other Egyptian
chronologists, partly from the list of Manetho, and
partly from the Phonetic inscriptions on the monu-
ments of the country. --Menes, it is said by some
(Herod. , 2, 99), built the city of Memphis, and, in the
prosecution of his work, stopped the course of the
Nile near it, by constructing a causeway several miles
broad, and caused it to run through the mountains.
(Vid. Nilus. ) Diodorus Siculus, however (1, 50), as-
signs the foundation of Memphis to Uchorcus. Bish-
op Clayton contends that Menes was not the first king
of Egypt, but that he only transferred the seat of em-
pire from Thebes to Memphis. (Vid. remarks under
the article Memphis. ) Zoega finds an analogy be-
tween the names Mcnes and Mnevis; to which may
be added those of the Indian Menu and the Cretan
Miuot, to say nothing of the German Mannus. (Zoe-
ga, de Obelise. , p. 11. )
Mrnesthei Portus, a harbour not far from Gades,
? ? on the coast of Spain, in the territory of Baetica. An
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? MER
MERCURIUS.
tt IVicomerfia. Hi was a disciple of Antiochus of
Laodicea in Lycia, and lived during the reigns of Tra-
jan and Hadrian. Sextus Empiricus ranks him among
the Sceptics. (Pyrrhon. hypolyp. , 1, 222, p. 57. )
He banished analogy from the Empiric system, and
substituted what was called epilogism. The hatred
r. hich he bore towards the dogmatists was so great,
that lie never designated them by any other but the
B'. jst derisory epithets, such as TpiSavtuoi, "old-rou-
tint-men;" Spi/ivXiovrec, "furious lions;" Spi/ivpu-
,rr, "contemptible fooh," &c. (Galen, it subfig.
*npir. , c. 9, p. 65. --Sprengel, Hist. Med. , vol. 1, p.
4)4. )
Menceckus (three syllables), the father of Jocasti
Mencetes, I. the pilot of the ship Gyas, at the na-
val games exhibited by . Kueas at -the anniversary of
his father's d-. -ith. He was thrown into the sea by
r. s commander for having so unskilfully steered his
vessel as to prevent his obtaining the prize in the
contest. Ho saved himself by swimming to a rock.
(Virg*, JKn. , 5, 161. ) -- II. An Arcadian, killed by
Turnus in the war of . <Eneas. (Id. , 12, 517. )
Men'/. tiades. Vid. Mencetius.
Men'Etius, a son of Actor and . . Egina after her
amour with Jupiter. He left his mother and went to
Opi>>s, where he had, by Sthenelc, Patroclus, often call-
ed from him Main tunics. Mencetiua was one of the
Argonauts. (Apollod. , 3, 14. -- Horn. , II. , 1, 307. --
I'ygin, fab. , 97. )
Mtxox, a Thessallan commander in the expedition
? A Cyrus the Younger against his brother Artaxcrxes.
He commanded the left wing in the battle of Cunaxa.
He was entrapped along with the other generals after
the battle by Tissaphernes, but was not put to death
with them. Xenophon states that he lived an entire
year after having had some personal punishnient inflict-
t-. i, and then met with an end of his existence. (Anab. ,
I 6, 2! ). ) Dicdorus stales that he was not punished
v th the other generals, because it was thought that he
Ku inclined to betray the Greeks, and he was there-
fore allowed to escape unhurt. (Diod. Sic, 14, 27. )
I'arcellinu3, in his life of Thucydides, accuses Xeno-
phon of calumniating Menon, on account of his enmity
towards Plato, who was a friend of Menon. (Vit.
Thucyi. , p. 14, cd. Bip. --Schneider, ad Xcn. , Anab. ,
loc. cit. )
Mentor, I. one of the most faithful friends of Ulys-
ses, and the person to whom, before his departure for
Troy, he consigned the charge of his domestic affairs.
Minerva assumed his form and voice in her exhortation
to Telemachus, not to degenerate from the valour and
wisdom of his sire. ("</. , 2, 268. ) The goddess,
under the same form, accompanied him to Pyloa.
(Od, 3, 21, seqq. )--II. A very eminent engraver on
silver, whose country is uncertain. He flourished be-
fore tho burning of the temple at Ephesus, in B. C.
356, as several of his productions were consumed in
this conflagration. (Plin. , 32,12,55. --Martial, Up. ,
3. 41. --Sttlig, Diet. Art. , s. v. )
Mkra or Mara, a dog of Icarius, who by his cries
showed Erigonc where her murdered father had been
thrown. Immediately after this discovery the daugh-
ter hung herself in despair, and the dog pined away,
and was made a constellation in the heavens, known
by the name of Canis. (Ovid, Met. , 7, 363. --Hygin. ,
fab. . ISO. --AVian, H. A. , 7, 28. )
Mercdrii PkomontorIum, the same with the Her-
? ? niseiim Promontorium. A promontory of Africa, on
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? MEnCURIUS.
? otpeths, and ic tire ficlt's and garden*. The Herms
were pillars of alone; and the heads of some other
deity at times took the place of that of Hermes; such
were the Ilermather. e, Hermeracles, and others. The
veneration in which these Herms were held by the
Athenians may be inferred from the odium excited
? gainst Alcibiades when suspected of having disfigured
these images. --Hermes or Mercury may be regarded
a* in some degree a personification of the Egyptian
priesthood. It is in this sense, therefore, that he was
tegarded as the confidant of the gods, their messenger,
the interpreter of their decrees, the genius who presi-
ded over science, the conducter of souls; elevated in-
deed above the human race, but the minister and the
agent of celestial natures. He was designated by the
name Thot. According to Jablonski (Panth. JEgypt. ,
5, 5, 2), the word Thot, Thcyt, Thayt, or Thoyt, sig-
nified in the Egyptian language an assembly, and more
particularly one composed of sages and educated per-
sons, the sacerdotal college of a city or temple. 1 hus
the collective priesthood of Egypt, personified and
considered as unity, was represented by an imaginary
being, to whom was ascribed the invention of language
and writing, which he had brought from the skies and
imparted to man, as well as the origin of geometry,
aruhnetic, astronomy, medicine, music, rhythm: the
institution of religion, sacred processions, the intro-
duction of gymnastic exercises, and, finally, the less
indispensable, though not less valuable, arts of archi-
tecture, sculpture, and painting. So many volumes
were attributed to him, that no human being could
possibly have composed them. {Fabric, liMiolh.
Grac, 1, 12, 85-94. ) To him was even accorded the
honour of discoveries made long subsequent to bis ap-
pearance on earth. All the successive improvements
in astronomy, and, generally speaking, the labours of
every age, became his peculiar property, and added to
his glory. In this way, the names of individuals were
ost in the numerous order of priests, and the merit
which each one had acquired by his observations and
labours turned to the advantage of the whole sacer-
4olal association, in being ascribed to its tutelary ge-
nius; a genius who, by his dou'ile figure, indicated the
necessity of a double doctrine, of which the more im-
portant part was to be confined exclusively to the
priests. An individual of this order, therefore, found
nis only recompense in tho reputation which he ob-
tained for the entire caste. To these leading attributes
of Thoth was joined another, that of protector of com-
merce; and this, in like manner, was intended to ex-
press the influence of the priesthood on commercial
enterprises.
Our limits will not permit any far-
ther development of the various ideas which, besides
'. hose already mentioned, were combined in the imagi-
nary character of Hermes: his identity, namely, with
Sirius, the Btar which served as the precursor of the
inundation of the Nile, and the terrestrial symbol of
which was the gazelle, that flies to the desert on the
rising of tho stream; his rank in demonology, as the
father ol spirits and guide of the dead; his quality of
incarnate godhead, subject to death; and his cosmo-
gonies! alliance with the generative fire, the light, the
source of all knowledge, and with water, the principle
of all fecundity. It is surprising, however, to observe
bow strangely the Grecian spirit modified the Egyptian
Hermes, to produce the Hermes or Mercury of Hel-
lenic mythology. The Grecian Hermes is quite a dif-
ferent being from the Egyptian. He neither presides
? ? ever the sciences, over writing, over medicine, nor
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? MEB
MEROE
? gainst Tim. Mcriones assisted Idomeneus in the
conduct of tlie Cretan troops, under the character of
; harioteer, and not only distinguished himself by his
ralour, but, at the funeral games in honour of Patro-
elus, he obtained the irize for archery. (//. , 2, 651;
*, 864; 6,59, Ax. )
Mf. rmnad. *:, the name of a dynasty of kings in Lyd-
! a, of whom Gyges was the first. The line ended
with Croesus. They claimed descent from Hercules.
(Vi-l. Lyiia)
Merok, according to the ancient writers, an island
and state of Ethiopia. Herodotus only mentions the
city of Meroe. All other writers, however, describe
Meroe as an island, with a city of the samo name.
It was situated between the Astaboras and Astapus.
"The Astaboras," says Agatharchides, "which flows
through Ethiopia, unites its stream with the greater
Nile, and thereby forms the island of Meroe by flow-
ing round it. (Huds. , Geogr. Min. , 1, p. 37. ) Stra-
bo is still more precise. '" The Nile," says this geog-
rapher, "receives two great rivers, which run from
the cast out of some lakes, and encompass the great
island of Meroe. One is called the Astaboras, which
flows on the eastern side; the other the Astapus.
Seven hundred stadia above the junction of the Nile
and the Astaboras is the city of Meroe, bearing the
same name as the island. " (Strab. , 786. ) A glance
at the map, remarks Hecrcn (ldctn, vol. 4, p. 397;
vol. 1, p. 385, Oxford transl. ), will immediately show
where the ancient Meroe may be found. The Asta-
boras, which flovs round it on the easlern side, is the
presi nt Albar -m Tacazzc; the Astapus, which bounds
it on the left, and runs parallel with the Nile, is the
Bakt el Abiai, or White River. From these and
ether statements, Heercn comes to the following con-
clusions: /? '/. . ? ,/. - that the ancient island of Meroe is
the present province of Albar, between the river of
the same name, or the Tacazzc, on the right, and the
White stream and the Nile on the left. The point
nrhere the island begins is at the junction of the Ta-
imzze and the Nile; in the south it is enclosed by a
branch of the above-mentioned river, the Waldubba,
and a branch of the Nile, the Bahad, whose sources
are nearly in the same district, although they flow in
different directions. It lies between 13? and 18? N.
lat. In recent times a great part is included in the
kingdom of Sennaar, while the southern part belongs
to Abyssinia. -- Secondly: Meroe was, therefore, an
extensive district, surrounded by rivers; whose super-
ficial contents exceeded those of Sicily rather more
than one half. It cannot be called an island in the
? trictest sense of the word, because, although it is very
nearly, it is not completely enclosed by rivers; but it
waa taken for an island of the Nile, because, as Pliny
i'S, 9) expressly observes, the various rivers which
flow round it were all considered as branches of that
stream. It becomes, moreover, as we are told by
Bruce, a complete island in the rainy season, in con-
sequence of the overflowing of the river. --Thirdly:
Upon this island stood the city of the same name. It
ia impossible, from the statements of Herodotus, to de-
termine precisely its site. Fortunately, other writers
give us more assistance. According to Eratosthenes
(a/. . Slrab. , I. e. ), it lay 700 stadia (about 80 English
miles) above the junction of the Tacazzc or Astabo-
ras and the Nile. Pliny (6, 29), following the state-
ments of those whom Nero had sent to explore it,
? ? reckons 70 miUiaria (63 English miles); and adds
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? MEKUii
MKROE.
ttscnpl i. n ? ? ( particular deities, we may venture a step
farther, adds the same writer, without fear of contradic-
tion, and assert that this worship had its origin in nat-
ural religion connected with agriculture. The great
works of nature were revered accordingly as they pro-
moted o; icf aided and hindered this. It seems nat-
ural that ;hs sun and moon, so far as they determined
the seasons and the year, the Nile and the earth as
sources of fruilfulness, the sandy deserts as the oppo-
ters of it, should all be personified. One thing is re-
markable, namely, that of all the representations of
Nubia yet known, there is not one which, according
:o our notions, is offensive to decency. But this wor-
ship had, besides, as we know with certainty, a sec-
ond element, oracles. Amnion was the original ora-
cle-god of Africa: if afterward, as was the case in
Egypt, ether deities delivered oracles, yet they were
of his race, of his kindred. Even beyond Egypt we
hear of the oracles of Ammon. "The only gods wor-
shipped in Meroe," says Herodotus (2, 29), "are
Zeus and Dionysus" (which he himself explains to be
A mmon and Osiris). "They also have an oracle of
Ammon, and undertake their expeditions when and
how the god commands. " How these oracles were
delivered we learn partly from history, partly from
representations on monuments. In the sanctuary
stands a ship; upon it many holy vessels; but. above
all, in the midst a portable tabernacle, surrounded with
curtains, which may be drawn back. In this is an
image of the god, set, according to Diodorus (2, 199),
hi precious stones; nevertheless, according to one
account, it could have no human shape. (Curtius,
4, 7. "Umbilico similis. ") This statement of Cur-
tius, however, is incorrect, not only because contra-
dicted by tho passage just quoted from Diodorus, but
also because we see on one of the common monu-
ments a complete portrait of Ammon. --The ship in
the great temples seems to have been very magnifi-
cent. Sesostris presented one to the temple of Am-
raon at Thebes, made of cedar, the inside of cedar
tod the outside of gold. (Diod. , 1, 57 ) The same
wea hung about with silver goblets. When the ora-
cle was to be consulted, it was carried around by a
body of priests in procession, and from certain move-
ments, either of the god or of the ship, both of which
the priests had well under their command, tho omens
were gathered, according to which the high-priest then
delivered the oracle. This ship is often represented,
both upon the Nubian and Egyptian monuments, some-
times standing still, and sometimes carried in proces-
sion; but never anywhere except in the innermost
ianctuary, which was its resting-place. Upon the
Nubian monuments hitherto made known we discover
this in two places; at Asseboa and Derar, and on each
twice. Those of Asseboa are both standing. In one
the tabernacle is veiled, but upon the other it is with-
out a curtain. (Gau, plate xlv. , B) Ammon ap-
",>cars in the same sitting upon a couch; before him
an altar with gifts. (Gau, plate xlv. , A ) Upon one
the king is kneeling before the ship at his devotions;
in the other he is coming towards it with an offering
of frankincense. In tfic sanctuary of the rock monu-
ment at Derar we a/so discover it twice. Once in
procession, borne by a number of priests (Gau, plate
li. , C. ); the tabernacle is veiled, the king meets it,
bringing frankincense: the other time at rest, (lhid. ,
plate lii. ) These processions are not only seen upon
? ? the great Egyptian temples at Phila? , Elephantis, and
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? MEROE.
MEROE.
At (ho time of his sovereignty," he continues, "Meroe
(s said to have contained 250,000 soldiers and 400,000
artificers. They still reckon there forty-five kings. "
Though these accounts lose themselves in the darkness
of tradition, yet we may, by tracing history upward, dis-
cover some certain chronological data. In the Persian
period Msrie was certainly free and independent, and
in important stato; otherwise Cambyses would hardly
have made so great preparations for his unfortunate ex-
pedition. {Herod. , 2, 25. ) The statement of Slrabo,
tccording to which Cambyses reached Meroe, may per-
haps be brought to accord with that of Herodotus, if we
understand him to mean northern Meroe, near Mount
Berkel. --During the last dynasty of the Pharaohs at
Sa'is, under Paammetichus and his successors, the
kingdom of Meroe not only resisted his yoke, although
his son Psammis undertook an expedition against
Ethiopia; but we have an important fact, which gives
a clew to the extent of the empire at that time towards
the south; the emigration of the Egyptian warrior-
caste. These migrated towards Meroe, whose ruler
assigned them dwellings about the sources of the Nile,
in the province of Gm'am, whose restless inhabitants
were expelled their country. (Herod, 2, 30) The
dominions of the ruler of Meroe, therefore, certainly
reached so far at that time, though his authority on
the borders fluctuated in consequence of the pastoral
hordes roving thereabout, and could only be fixed by
colonics. Let us go a century farther back, between
800 and 700 B. C. , and we shall mount to the flourish-
ing periods of this empire, contemporaneous with the
divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah; especially with
the reign of Uexekiuh, and the time of Isaiah, 750-
700, where we shall consequently have a light from the
Jewish annals, and the oracles of the prophets, in con-
nexion with Horodotus. This is the period in which
the three mighty rulers, Sabaco, Seuechus, and Tar-
haco started up as conquerors, and directed their
weapons against Egypt, which, at least Upper Egypt,
became an easy prey, from the unfortunate troubles
preceding the dodecarchy having just taken place. Ac-
cording to Eusebius (Chron, vol. 2, p. 181. --Com-
pare Marsham, p. 435), Sabaco reigned twelve, Seu-
echus also twelve, and Tarhaco twenty years: but by
Herodotus, who only mentions Sabaco, to whom he
gives a reign of fifty years, this name seems to des-
ignate the whole dynasty, which not unfrcqucntly fol-
lows that of its founder. Herodotus expressly says
that he had quilted Egypt at the command of his ora-
cle in Ethiopia (2, 137, tcqq. ). It may therefore be
seen, by the example of this conqueror, how great their
dependance must have been, in their native country,
upon the oracle of Amnion, when even the absent
monarch, as ruler of a conquered state, yielded obedi-
ence to it. Sabaco, however, is not represented by
nim as a barbarian or tyrant, but as a benefactor to the
community by the construction of dams. The chro-
nology of Seuechus and Tarhaco is determined by the
Jewish history. Seuechus was the contemporary of
Hosea, king of Israel, whose reign ended in 722, and
of Salmanassar (2 Kings, \7, 4; 19, 9). Tarhaco
was the contemporary of his successor Sennacherib,
and deterred him, in the year 714 B. C. , from the in-
vasion of Egypt merely by the rumour of his advance
against him. (2 Kings, 19, 9. ) His name, however,
does not seem to have been unknown to the Greeks.
Eratosthenes (ap. Strabo, 680) mentions him as a con-
? ? jueror who had penetrated into Europe, and as far as
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? MEROE.
MERGE.
tnm. iheii own body. Ammonium served as >> rest-
iug-placc Ijr the caravans passing from northern Afri-
ca to Meroe. Another still earlier settlement of this
kind was very probably Thebes in Upper Egypt. The
circumstance of a town flourishing to such an extent
in 'lie midst of a desert, of the same worship of
Amnion, of the all-powerful priest-caste, and its per-
manent connexion with Meroe (united with which it
founded Ammonium), conjoined with the express as-
? ertion of the Ethiopians that they were the founders
(Diod. , 3, 3), gives to this idea a degree of probability
bordering on certainty. The whole aspect of the cir-
cumstances connected with this wide-spread priest-
caste gains a clearer light, if we consider Ammonium,
Thebes, and Meroe the chief places of the African
caravan trade; in this view of the subject, the dark-
ness of -Ecypto-Ethiopian antiquity is cleared up, as
in the hands of this priest-caste the southern caravan
trade was placed, and they founded the proud tem-
ples and palaces along the banks of the Nile, and the
great trading edifices, which served their gods for
sanctuaries, themselves for dwellings, and their cara-
vans for place i of rest. To this caste, the states of
Meroe' and Upper Egypt very probably owed their
foundation ; except, indeed, that Egypt was much more
exposed to the crowding in of foreign relations from
Asia, than Meroe, separated as this last was from oth-
er countries by deserts, seas, and mountains. The
r'o<<n connexion, in high antiquity, between Ethiopia
and upper Egypt, is shown by the circumstance that
the oldest Egyptian states derived their origin partly
from Abyssinia; that Thebes and Meroe founded, in
common, a colony in Libya; that Ethiopian conquer-
ors several times advanced into Egypt, and, on the
other hand, that Egyptian kings undertook expeditions
to Ethiopia; that in both countries a similar worship,
similar manners and customs, and similar symbolical
? rrit. ig were found; and that the discontented soldier-
taste, when offended by Peammetichus, emigrated into
Ethiopia. By the Ethiopians Egypt was likewise pro-
fusely supplied with the productions of the southern
countries. Where else, indeed, could it have ob-
tained those aromatics and spices with which so many
thousands of its dead were annually embalmed 1
Whence those perfumes which burned upon its altars 1
Whence that immense quantity of coituu in which
the inhabitants clothed themselves, and which Egypt
itself furnished but sparingly 1 Whence, again, that
sarly report in Egypt of the Ethiopian gold-countries,
which Cambyses sought after, and lost half his army
in the fruitless speculation 1 Whence the quantity of
ivory and ebony which adorned the oldest works of art
of the Greeks as well as of the Hebrews 1 Whence,
especially, that early extension of the Ethiopian name,
which shines in the traditionary history of so many
nations, and which the Jewish poets as well as the
oldest Greek bards have celebrated \ Whence all
this, if the deserts which bordered on Ethiopia had
always kept the inhabitants isolated from those of
more northern countries 7--At a later period, in the
time of Ptolemy I. , it is astonishing how completely
that able prince had established the trade between his
own country, Indis, Ethiopia, and Arabia. The scries
of magnificent and similar monuments, interrupted on
the frontiers of Egypt, near Elephantine, and recom-
mencing on the southern side of the African desert, at
Mount Berkel, and especially at Meroe, to be contin-
? ? ued to Axum and Azab, certainly denote a people of
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? MEKOE
M ES
iti communication would mceaearily give rise to
moral and intellectual improvement. . --6. The curious
fact, that the images of some of the Egyptian gods
were at certain times conveyed up the Nile, from their
temples to others in Ethiopia; and, after the conclu-
sion of a festival, were brought back again into Egypt.
(Eustalh , ad II, 1, 424. )--7. The very remarkable
character of some of the Egyptian paintings, in which
Black (or, more correctly, dark-coloured) men aro rep-
resented in the costume of priests, as conferring on
certain red figures, similarly habited, the instruments
tnd symbols of the sacerdotal office.
which makes the latter to have ingratiated herself into
'. he favour of her first husband by betraying Deipho-
bus into his hands on the night when Troy was taken.
(? n. , 6, 494. seqq. --Compare (faint. Col. , 13, 354,
seqq--Diet. Cret. , 5, 116. )
Menknius, I. Agrippa, a celebrated Roman, who
obtained the consulship B. C. 501, and who afterward
prevailed upon the people, when they had seceded to
the Mons Sacer, to return to the city. He related on
this occasion the well-known fable of the stomach and
the limbs. (Liv. , 2, id. --Id. , 2, 32. )--II. Titus, son
of the preceding, was chosen consul with C. Hora-
tius, B. C. 475, when he was defeated by the Tusci,
and being called to an account by the tribunes for this
failure, was sentenced to pay a heavy fine. He died
of grief soon after. (Lin. , 51, seqq. )
Menes, the first king mentioned as having reigned
over Egypt, and who is supposed to have lived above
2000 B. C. , about the time fixed by biblical chronolo-
gists for the foundation of the kingdom of Assyria by
Nimrod, and corresponding also with the' era of the
Chinese emperor Yao, with whom the historical pe-
riod of China begins. All inquiries concerning the
h:s\ory of nations previous to this epoch are mere
speculations unsupported by evidence. The records
of the Egyptian priests, as handed down to us by He-
rodotus, Manetho, Eratosthenes, snd others, place the
ara of Menes several thousand years farther back,
reckoning a great number of kings and dynasties after
tint, with remarks on the gigantic stature of some of
? ho kings, and on their wonderful exploits, and other
characteristics of mystical and confused tradition.
(Consult Eusebius, Chron. Canon. , ed. Mail et Zoh-
rab. , Mediol. , 1818. ) It has been conjectured that
several qf Manetho's dynasties were not successive,
but contemporaneous, reigning over various parts of
the country. From the time of Mcnes, however,
something like a chronological series has been made
out by Champollion, Wilkinson, and other Egyptian
chronologists, partly from the list of Manetho, and
partly from the Phonetic inscriptions on the monu-
ments of the country. --Menes, it is said by some
(Herod. , 2, 99), built the city of Memphis, and, in the
prosecution of his work, stopped the course of the
Nile near it, by constructing a causeway several miles
broad, and caused it to run through the mountains.
(Vid. Nilus. ) Diodorus Siculus, however (1, 50), as-
signs the foundation of Memphis to Uchorcus. Bish-
op Clayton contends that Menes was not the first king
of Egypt, but that he only transferred the seat of em-
pire from Thebes to Memphis. (Vid. remarks under
the article Memphis. ) Zoega finds an analogy be-
tween the names Mcnes and Mnevis; to which may
be added those of the Indian Menu and the Cretan
Miuot, to say nothing of the German Mannus. (Zoe-
ga, de Obelise. , p. 11. )
Mrnesthei Portus, a harbour not far from Gades,
? ? on the coast of Spain, in the territory of Baetica. An
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? MER
MERCURIUS.
tt IVicomerfia. Hi was a disciple of Antiochus of
Laodicea in Lycia, and lived during the reigns of Tra-
jan and Hadrian. Sextus Empiricus ranks him among
the Sceptics. (Pyrrhon. hypolyp. , 1, 222, p. 57. )
He banished analogy from the Empiric system, and
substituted what was called epilogism. The hatred
r. hich he bore towards the dogmatists was so great,
that lie never designated them by any other but the
B'. jst derisory epithets, such as TpiSavtuoi, "old-rou-
tint-men;" Spi/ivXiovrec, "furious lions;" Spi/ivpu-
,rr, "contemptible fooh," &c. (Galen, it subfig.
*npir. , c. 9, p. 65. --Sprengel, Hist. Med. , vol. 1, p.
4)4. )
Menceckus (three syllables), the father of Jocasti
Mencetes, I. the pilot of the ship Gyas, at the na-
val games exhibited by . Kueas at -the anniversary of
his father's d-. -ith. He was thrown into the sea by
r. s commander for having so unskilfully steered his
vessel as to prevent his obtaining the prize in the
contest. Ho saved himself by swimming to a rock.
(Virg*, JKn. , 5, 161. ) -- II. An Arcadian, killed by
Turnus in the war of . <Eneas. (Id. , 12, 517. )
Men'/. tiades. Vid. Mencetius.
Men'Etius, a son of Actor and . . Egina after her
amour with Jupiter. He left his mother and went to
Opi>>s, where he had, by Sthenelc, Patroclus, often call-
ed from him Main tunics. Mencetiua was one of the
Argonauts. (Apollod. , 3, 14. -- Horn. , II. , 1, 307. --
I'ygin, fab. , 97. )
Mtxox, a Thessallan commander in the expedition
? A Cyrus the Younger against his brother Artaxcrxes.
He commanded the left wing in the battle of Cunaxa.
He was entrapped along with the other generals after
the battle by Tissaphernes, but was not put to death
with them. Xenophon states that he lived an entire
year after having had some personal punishnient inflict-
t-. i, and then met with an end of his existence. (Anab. ,
I 6, 2! ). ) Dicdorus stales that he was not punished
v th the other generals, because it was thought that he
Ku inclined to betray the Greeks, and he was there-
fore allowed to escape unhurt. (Diod. Sic, 14, 27. )
I'arcellinu3, in his life of Thucydides, accuses Xeno-
phon of calumniating Menon, on account of his enmity
towards Plato, who was a friend of Menon. (Vit.
Thucyi. , p. 14, cd. Bip. --Schneider, ad Xcn. , Anab. ,
loc. cit. )
Mentor, I. one of the most faithful friends of Ulys-
ses, and the person to whom, before his departure for
Troy, he consigned the charge of his domestic affairs.
Minerva assumed his form and voice in her exhortation
to Telemachus, not to degenerate from the valour and
wisdom of his sire. ("</. , 2, 268. ) The goddess,
under the same form, accompanied him to Pyloa.
(Od, 3, 21, seqq. )--II. A very eminent engraver on
silver, whose country is uncertain. He flourished be-
fore tho burning of the temple at Ephesus, in B. C.
356, as several of his productions were consumed in
this conflagration. (Plin. , 32,12,55. --Martial, Up. ,
3. 41. --Sttlig, Diet. Art. , s. v. )
Mkra or Mara, a dog of Icarius, who by his cries
showed Erigonc where her murdered father had been
thrown. Immediately after this discovery the daugh-
ter hung herself in despair, and the dog pined away,
and was made a constellation in the heavens, known
by the name of Canis. (Ovid, Met. , 7, 363. --Hygin. ,
fab. . ISO. --AVian, H. A. , 7, 28. )
Mercdrii PkomontorIum, the same with the Her-
? ? niseiim Promontorium. A promontory of Africa, on
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? MEnCURIUS.
? otpeths, and ic tire ficlt's and garden*. The Herms
were pillars of alone; and the heads of some other
deity at times took the place of that of Hermes; such
were the Ilermather. e, Hermeracles, and others. The
veneration in which these Herms were held by the
Athenians may be inferred from the odium excited
? gainst Alcibiades when suspected of having disfigured
these images. --Hermes or Mercury may be regarded
a* in some degree a personification of the Egyptian
priesthood. It is in this sense, therefore, that he was
tegarded as the confidant of the gods, their messenger,
the interpreter of their decrees, the genius who presi-
ded over science, the conducter of souls; elevated in-
deed above the human race, but the minister and the
agent of celestial natures. He was designated by the
name Thot. According to Jablonski (Panth. JEgypt. ,
5, 5, 2), the word Thot, Thcyt, Thayt, or Thoyt, sig-
nified in the Egyptian language an assembly, and more
particularly one composed of sages and educated per-
sons, the sacerdotal college of a city or temple. 1 hus
the collective priesthood of Egypt, personified and
considered as unity, was represented by an imaginary
being, to whom was ascribed the invention of language
and writing, which he had brought from the skies and
imparted to man, as well as the origin of geometry,
aruhnetic, astronomy, medicine, music, rhythm: the
institution of religion, sacred processions, the intro-
duction of gymnastic exercises, and, finally, the less
indispensable, though not less valuable, arts of archi-
tecture, sculpture, and painting. So many volumes
were attributed to him, that no human being could
possibly have composed them. {Fabric, liMiolh.
Grac, 1, 12, 85-94. ) To him was even accorded the
honour of discoveries made long subsequent to bis ap-
pearance on earth. All the successive improvements
in astronomy, and, generally speaking, the labours of
every age, became his peculiar property, and added to
his glory. In this way, the names of individuals were
ost in the numerous order of priests, and the merit
which each one had acquired by his observations and
labours turned to the advantage of the whole sacer-
4olal association, in being ascribed to its tutelary ge-
nius; a genius who, by his dou'ile figure, indicated the
necessity of a double doctrine, of which the more im-
portant part was to be confined exclusively to the
priests. An individual of this order, therefore, found
nis only recompense in tho reputation which he ob-
tained for the entire caste. To these leading attributes
of Thoth was joined another, that of protector of com-
merce; and this, in like manner, was intended to ex-
press the influence of the priesthood on commercial
enterprises.
Our limits will not permit any far-
ther development of the various ideas which, besides
'. hose already mentioned, were combined in the imagi-
nary character of Hermes: his identity, namely, with
Sirius, the Btar which served as the precursor of the
inundation of the Nile, and the terrestrial symbol of
which was the gazelle, that flies to the desert on the
rising of tho stream; his rank in demonology, as the
father ol spirits and guide of the dead; his quality of
incarnate godhead, subject to death; and his cosmo-
gonies! alliance with the generative fire, the light, the
source of all knowledge, and with water, the principle
of all fecundity. It is surprising, however, to observe
bow strangely the Grecian spirit modified the Egyptian
Hermes, to produce the Hermes or Mercury of Hel-
lenic mythology. The Grecian Hermes is quite a dif-
ferent being from the Egyptian. He neither presides
? ? ever the sciences, over writing, over medicine, nor
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? MEB
MEROE
? gainst Tim. Mcriones assisted Idomeneus in the
conduct of tlie Cretan troops, under the character of
; harioteer, and not only distinguished himself by his
ralour, but, at the funeral games in honour of Patro-
elus, he obtained the irize for archery. (//. , 2, 651;
*, 864; 6,59, Ax. )
Mf. rmnad. *:, the name of a dynasty of kings in Lyd-
! a, of whom Gyges was the first. The line ended
with Croesus. They claimed descent from Hercules.
(Vi-l. Lyiia)
Merok, according to the ancient writers, an island
and state of Ethiopia. Herodotus only mentions the
city of Meroe. All other writers, however, describe
Meroe as an island, with a city of the samo name.
It was situated between the Astaboras and Astapus.
"The Astaboras," says Agatharchides, "which flows
through Ethiopia, unites its stream with the greater
Nile, and thereby forms the island of Meroe by flow-
ing round it. (Huds. , Geogr. Min. , 1, p. 37. ) Stra-
bo is still more precise. '" The Nile," says this geog-
rapher, "receives two great rivers, which run from
the cast out of some lakes, and encompass the great
island of Meroe. One is called the Astaboras, which
flows on the eastern side; the other the Astapus.
Seven hundred stadia above the junction of the Nile
and the Astaboras is the city of Meroe, bearing the
same name as the island. " (Strab. , 786. ) A glance
at the map, remarks Hecrcn (ldctn, vol. 4, p. 397;
vol. 1, p. 385, Oxford transl. ), will immediately show
where the ancient Meroe may be found. The Asta-
boras, which flovs round it on the easlern side, is the
presi nt Albar -m Tacazzc; the Astapus, which bounds
it on the left, and runs parallel with the Nile, is the
Bakt el Abiai, or White River. From these and
ether statements, Heercn comes to the following con-
clusions: /? '/. . ? ,/. - that the ancient island of Meroe is
the present province of Albar, between the river of
the same name, or the Tacazzc, on the right, and the
White stream and the Nile on the left. The point
nrhere the island begins is at the junction of the Ta-
imzze and the Nile; in the south it is enclosed by a
branch of the above-mentioned river, the Waldubba,
and a branch of the Nile, the Bahad, whose sources
are nearly in the same district, although they flow in
different directions. It lies between 13? and 18? N.
lat. In recent times a great part is included in the
kingdom of Sennaar, while the southern part belongs
to Abyssinia. -- Secondly: Meroe was, therefore, an
extensive district, surrounded by rivers; whose super-
ficial contents exceeded those of Sicily rather more
than one half. It cannot be called an island in the
? trictest sense of the word, because, although it is very
nearly, it is not completely enclosed by rivers; but it
waa taken for an island of the Nile, because, as Pliny
i'S, 9) expressly observes, the various rivers which
flow round it were all considered as branches of that
stream. It becomes, moreover, as we are told by
Bruce, a complete island in the rainy season, in con-
sequence of the overflowing of the river. --Thirdly:
Upon this island stood the city of the same name. It
ia impossible, from the statements of Herodotus, to de-
termine precisely its site. Fortunately, other writers
give us more assistance. According to Eratosthenes
(a/. . Slrab. , I. e. ), it lay 700 stadia (about 80 English
miles) above the junction of the Tacazzc or Astabo-
ras and the Nile. Pliny (6, 29), following the state-
ments of those whom Nero had sent to explore it,
? ? reckons 70 miUiaria (63 English miles); and adds
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? MEKUii
MKROE.
ttscnpl i. n ? ? ( particular deities, we may venture a step
farther, adds the same writer, without fear of contradic-
tion, and assert that this worship had its origin in nat-
ural religion connected with agriculture. The great
works of nature were revered accordingly as they pro-
moted o; icf aided and hindered this. It seems nat-
ural that ;hs sun and moon, so far as they determined
the seasons and the year, the Nile and the earth as
sources of fruilfulness, the sandy deserts as the oppo-
ters of it, should all be personified. One thing is re-
markable, namely, that of all the representations of
Nubia yet known, there is not one which, according
:o our notions, is offensive to decency. But this wor-
ship had, besides, as we know with certainty, a sec-
ond element, oracles. Amnion was the original ora-
cle-god of Africa: if afterward, as was the case in
Egypt, ether deities delivered oracles, yet they were
of his race, of his kindred. Even beyond Egypt we
hear of the oracles of Ammon. "The only gods wor-
shipped in Meroe," says Herodotus (2, 29), "are
Zeus and Dionysus" (which he himself explains to be
A mmon and Osiris). "They also have an oracle of
Ammon, and undertake their expeditions when and
how the god commands. " How these oracles were
delivered we learn partly from history, partly from
representations on monuments. In the sanctuary
stands a ship; upon it many holy vessels; but. above
all, in the midst a portable tabernacle, surrounded with
curtains, which may be drawn back. In this is an
image of the god, set, according to Diodorus (2, 199),
hi precious stones; nevertheless, according to one
account, it could have no human shape. (Curtius,
4, 7. "Umbilico similis. ") This statement of Cur-
tius, however, is incorrect, not only because contra-
dicted by tho passage just quoted from Diodorus, but
also because we see on one of the common monu-
ments a complete portrait of Ammon. --The ship in
the great temples seems to have been very magnifi-
cent. Sesostris presented one to the temple of Am-
raon at Thebes, made of cedar, the inside of cedar
tod the outside of gold. (Diod. , 1, 57 ) The same
wea hung about with silver goblets. When the ora-
cle was to be consulted, it was carried around by a
body of priests in procession, and from certain move-
ments, either of the god or of the ship, both of which
the priests had well under their command, tho omens
were gathered, according to which the high-priest then
delivered the oracle. This ship is often represented,
both upon the Nubian and Egyptian monuments, some-
times standing still, and sometimes carried in proces-
sion; but never anywhere except in the innermost
ianctuary, which was its resting-place. Upon the
Nubian monuments hitherto made known we discover
this in two places; at Asseboa and Derar, and on each
twice. Those of Asseboa are both standing. In one
the tabernacle is veiled, but upon the other it is with-
out a curtain. (Gau, plate xlv. , B) Ammon ap-
",>cars in the same sitting upon a couch; before him
an altar with gifts. (Gau, plate xlv. , A ) Upon one
the king is kneeling before the ship at his devotions;
in the other he is coming towards it with an offering
of frankincense. In tfic sanctuary of the rock monu-
ment at Derar we a/so discover it twice. Once in
procession, borne by a number of priests (Gau, plate
li. , C. ); the tabernacle is veiled, the king meets it,
bringing frankincense: the other time at rest, (lhid. ,
plate lii. ) These processions are not only seen upon
? ? the great Egyptian temples at Phila? , Elephantis, and
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? MEROE.
MEROE.
At (ho time of his sovereignty," he continues, "Meroe
(s said to have contained 250,000 soldiers and 400,000
artificers. They still reckon there forty-five kings. "
Though these accounts lose themselves in the darkness
of tradition, yet we may, by tracing history upward, dis-
cover some certain chronological data. In the Persian
period Msrie was certainly free and independent, and
in important stato; otherwise Cambyses would hardly
have made so great preparations for his unfortunate ex-
pedition. {Herod. , 2, 25. ) The statement of Slrabo,
tccording to which Cambyses reached Meroe, may per-
haps be brought to accord with that of Herodotus, if we
understand him to mean northern Meroe, near Mount
Berkel. --During the last dynasty of the Pharaohs at
Sa'is, under Paammetichus and his successors, the
kingdom of Meroe not only resisted his yoke, although
his son Psammis undertook an expedition against
Ethiopia; but we have an important fact, which gives
a clew to the extent of the empire at that time towards
the south; the emigration of the Egyptian warrior-
caste. These migrated towards Meroe, whose ruler
assigned them dwellings about the sources of the Nile,
in the province of Gm'am, whose restless inhabitants
were expelled their country. (Herod, 2, 30) The
dominions of the ruler of Meroe, therefore, certainly
reached so far at that time, though his authority on
the borders fluctuated in consequence of the pastoral
hordes roving thereabout, and could only be fixed by
colonics. Let us go a century farther back, between
800 and 700 B. C. , and we shall mount to the flourish-
ing periods of this empire, contemporaneous with the
divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah; especially with
the reign of Uexekiuh, and the time of Isaiah, 750-
700, where we shall consequently have a light from the
Jewish annals, and the oracles of the prophets, in con-
nexion with Horodotus. This is the period in which
the three mighty rulers, Sabaco, Seuechus, and Tar-
haco started up as conquerors, and directed their
weapons against Egypt, which, at least Upper Egypt,
became an easy prey, from the unfortunate troubles
preceding the dodecarchy having just taken place. Ac-
cording to Eusebius (Chron, vol. 2, p. 181. --Com-
pare Marsham, p. 435), Sabaco reigned twelve, Seu-
echus also twelve, and Tarhaco twenty years: but by
Herodotus, who only mentions Sabaco, to whom he
gives a reign of fifty years, this name seems to des-
ignate the whole dynasty, which not unfrcqucntly fol-
lows that of its founder. Herodotus expressly says
that he had quilted Egypt at the command of his ora-
cle in Ethiopia (2, 137, tcqq. ). It may therefore be
seen, by the example of this conqueror, how great their
dependance must have been, in their native country,
upon the oracle of Amnion, when even the absent
monarch, as ruler of a conquered state, yielded obedi-
ence to it. Sabaco, however, is not represented by
nim as a barbarian or tyrant, but as a benefactor to the
community by the construction of dams. The chro-
nology of Seuechus and Tarhaco is determined by the
Jewish history. Seuechus was the contemporary of
Hosea, king of Israel, whose reign ended in 722, and
of Salmanassar (2 Kings, \7, 4; 19, 9). Tarhaco
was the contemporary of his successor Sennacherib,
and deterred him, in the year 714 B. C. , from the in-
vasion of Egypt merely by the rumour of his advance
against him. (2 Kings, 19, 9. ) His name, however,
does not seem to have been unknown to the Greeks.
Eratosthenes (ap. Strabo, 680) mentions him as a con-
? ? jueror who had penetrated into Europe, and as far as
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? MEROE.
MERGE.
tnm. iheii own body. Ammonium served as >> rest-
iug-placc Ijr the caravans passing from northern Afri-
ca to Meroe. Another still earlier settlement of this
kind was very probably Thebes in Upper Egypt. The
circumstance of a town flourishing to such an extent
in 'lie midst of a desert, of the same worship of
Amnion, of the all-powerful priest-caste, and its per-
manent connexion with Meroe (united with which it
founded Ammonium), conjoined with the express as-
? ertion of the Ethiopians that they were the founders
(Diod. , 3, 3), gives to this idea a degree of probability
bordering on certainty. The whole aspect of the cir-
cumstances connected with this wide-spread priest-
caste gains a clearer light, if we consider Ammonium,
Thebes, and Meroe the chief places of the African
caravan trade; in this view of the subject, the dark-
ness of -Ecypto-Ethiopian antiquity is cleared up, as
in the hands of this priest-caste the southern caravan
trade was placed, and they founded the proud tem-
ples and palaces along the banks of the Nile, and the
great trading edifices, which served their gods for
sanctuaries, themselves for dwellings, and their cara-
vans for place i of rest. To this caste, the states of
Meroe' and Upper Egypt very probably owed their
foundation ; except, indeed, that Egypt was much more
exposed to the crowding in of foreign relations from
Asia, than Meroe, separated as this last was from oth-
er countries by deserts, seas, and mountains. The
r'o<<n connexion, in high antiquity, between Ethiopia
and upper Egypt, is shown by the circumstance that
the oldest Egyptian states derived their origin partly
from Abyssinia; that Thebes and Meroe founded, in
common, a colony in Libya; that Ethiopian conquer-
ors several times advanced into Egypt, and, on the
other hand, that Egyptian kings undertook expeditions
to Ethiopia; that in both countries a similar worship,
similar manners and customs, and similar symbolical
? rrit. ig were found; and that the discontented soldier-
taste, when offended by Peammetichus, emigrated into
Ethiopia. By the Ethiopians Egypt was likewise pro-
fusely supplied with the productions of the southern
countries. Where else, indeed, could it have ob-
tained those aromatics and spices with which so many
thousands of its dead were annually embalmed 1
Whence those perfumes which burned upon its altars 1
Whence that immense quantity of coituu in which
the inhabitants clothed themselves, and which Egypt
itself furnished but sparingly 1 Whence, again, that
sarly report in Egypt of the Ethiopian gold-countries,
which Cambyses sought after, and lost half his army
in the fruitless speculation 1 Whence the quantity of
ivory and ebony which adorned the oldest works of art
of the Greeks as well as of the Hebrews 1 Whence,
especially, that early extension of the Ethiopian name,
which shines in the traditionary history of so many
nations, and which the Jewish poets as well as the
oldest Greek bards have celebrated \ Whence all
this, if the deserts which bordered on Ethiopia had
always kept the inhabitants isolated from those of
more northern countries 7--At a later period, in the
time of Ptolemy I. , it is astonishing how completely
that able prince had established the trade between his
own country, Indis, Ethiopia, and Arabia. The scries
of magnificent and similar monuments, interrupted on
the frontiers of Egypt, near Elephantine, and recom-
mencing on the southern side of the African desert, at
Mount Berkel, and especially at Meroe, to be contin-
? ? ued to Axum and Azab, certainly denote a people of
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? MEKOE
M ES
iti communication would mceaearily give rise to
moral and intellectual improvement. . --6. The curious
fact, that the images of some of the Egyptian gods
were at certain times conveyed up the Nile, from their
temples to others in Ethiopia; and, after the conclu-
sion of a festival, were brought back again into Egypt.
(Eustalh , ad II, 1, 424. )--7. The very remarkable
character of some of the Egyptian paintings, in which
Black (or, more correctly, dark-coloured) men aro rep-
resented in the costume of priests, as conferring on
certain red figures, similarly habited, the instruments
tnd symbols of the sacerdotal office.
