Marsyas, one of the satyrs.
He found the flute that Athena, the goddess of cities, handicrafts, and
wisdom, had invented and later discarded because playing on it puffed out
her cheeks and distorted her features. Marsyas became such an accomplished
musician that he challenged the god Apollo, who played the lyre, to a contest,
the winner of which would have the right to punish the loser. The Muses
awarded the victory to Apollo. The god thereupon flayed Marsyas, from whose
blood the river Marsyas sprang.
Medea, sorceress, the daughter
of Aeëtes, king of Colchis. When the hero Jason, in command of the
Argonauts, reached Colchis in search of the Golden Fleece, Medea fell hopelessly
in love with him. In return for Jason's pledge of everlasting fidelity
and his promise to take her back to Greece with him, she used her magic
gifts to enable him to deceive her father and obtain the fleece. Medea
then sailed away from Colchis with Jason, taking Apsyrtus, her young brother,
with her. To escape from Aeëtes's pursuit, Medea killed Apsyrtus and
scattered his remains on the sea. The king stopped to gather them up, and
the delay enabled Jason and his party to escape. In another legend, it
was Jason who killed Apsyrtus after Aeëtes had sent him in pursuit
of the fugitives. When Jason and Medea reached Greece, they found that
Jason's wicked uncle Pelias had been responsible for the death of Jason's
parents. To avenge their deaths, Jason once again asked Medea to aid him
with her magic. Responsive as always to his wishes, Medea brought about
the death of Pelias by a cunning trick. Telling his daughters she knew
how they could make their aging parent young again, she dismembered an
old sheep and boiled the pieces. After she uttered a charm, a frisky young
lamb jumped from the pot of hot water. The daughters were convinced they
could similarly restore their father to his youth. So, after Medea had
given Pelias a powerful sleeping potion, they were persuaded to cut him
into pieces, but Medea then disappeared without saying the magic words
that would bring him back to life. After this Jason and Medea fled to Corinth,
where two sons were born to them. They lived happily there until Jason
fell in love with the daughter of King Creon of Corinth. In revenge, Medea
killed her rival by sending her a poisoned robe. Fearing that Creon would
attempt to avenge the death of his daughter by harming her sons, Medea
killed them. Medea escaped the wrath of Jason by leaving Corinth in a winged
car and fleeing to Athens. There she achieved great influence over King
Aegeus. Through her sorcery, she realized that Aegeus was unknowingly the
father of Theseus, a young hero, who was arriving in Athens. She did not
wish to have her influence with Aegeus disturbed by the appearance of a
son, so she plotted with Aegeus to invite Theseus to a banquet and give
him a poisoned cup. Aegeus willingly conspired with her through fear that
the Athenians would prefer the popular young hero to him and would want
to place Theseus on the throne. Fortunately, Theseus made himself known
to his father, who dashed the poisoned cup to the ground. Medea escaped
the wrath of Aegeus by fleeing to Asia.
Meleager, son of Oeneus
and Althea, king and queen of Calydon. Meleager led the hunt for a boar
that the goddess Artemis sent to devastate the country. The hero finally
killed the animal, but gave the head and skin to the huntress Atalanta,
who had been the first to wound the beast and with whom Meleager was in
love. When his maternal uncles, angered at this award, took the trophies
from Atalanta, Meleager killed them.
Memnon, king of Ethiopia,
the son of the Trojan prince Tithonus and of Eos, goddess of the dawn.
In the tenth year of the Trojan War, Memnon brought his army to the assistance
of Troy. He fought bravely but was eventually killed by the Greek hero
Achilles. To comfort Memnon's mother, however, the god Zeus made him immortal.
A colossal statue near Thebes in Egypt was said to represent Memnon.
Menelaus, king of Sparta,
brother of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, and husband of Helen of Troy. When
Helen was abducted by the Trojan prince Paris, Menelaus organized an expedition
to bring her back. Under the leadership of Agamemnon, Menelaus and the
other Greek kings set sail for Troy. At the close of the ensuing Trojan
War, Menelaus was one of the Greeks who hid in the wooden horse and sacked
the city. After being reconciled with Helen, Menelaus set out for Greece.
After a series of adventures in the eastern Mediterranean,Menelaus and
Helen finally reached Sparta. There Menelaus prospered greatly, and he
and Helen enjoyed a long and happy life. According to Homer's Odyssey,
Menelaus was promised a place in Elysium after his death.
Mentor , elderly friend
and counselor of the hero Odysseus and tutor of his son Telemachus. In
the Odyssey of Homer, the goddess Athena frequently assumes the form of
Mentor when she appears to Odysseus or Telemachus. In modern English the
tutor's name has become an eponym for a wise, trustworthy counselor or
teacher.
Midas, king of Phrygia
in Asia Minor. For his hospitality to the satyr Silenus, Dionysus, god
of wine, offered to grant Midas anything he wished. The king requested
that everything he touched be turned to gold, but he soon regretted his
choice because even his food and water were changed to gold. To free himself
from the enchantment, Midas was instructed by Dionysus to bathe in the
Pactolus River. It was said that afterward the sands of the river contained
gold. Midas was also one of the judges in a musical contest between the
gods Apollo and Pan. When Midas preferred Pan's playing of the pipes to
Apollo's playing of the lyre, Apollo changed Midas's ears to those of an
ass. Midas was able to conceal his ears from all but his barber, who whispered
the secret into a hole in the ground. When the wind blew, the reeds that
grew over the hole repeated the story.
Minos, legendary ruler
of Crete. Some ancient writers identified several kings by his name, especially
Minos the Elder and his grandson Minos the Younger, but this distinction
never appears in the accounts themselves. Minos was the son of Zeus, father
of the gods, and of the princess Europa. From the city of Knossos he colonized
many of the Aegean islands, and he was widely considered a just ruler.
In the most famous story about Minos, he refused to sacrifice a certain
bull. The god Poseidon punished him by making his wife Pasiphaë fall
in love with the animal, and she subsequently gave birth to the Minotaur.
According to Attic legend, Minos was a tyrant who took harsh measures to
avenge the death of his son Androgeos at the hands of the Athenians. At
stated intervals he exacted a tribute from Athens of seven youths and seven
maidens to be sacrificed to the Minotaur. Minos eventually met his death
in Sicily, and he then became one of the judges of the dead in the underworld.
The legends concerning Minos probably have a historical basis and reflect
the age when Crete was supreme in the Aegean region and certain cities
of Greece were subject to the kings of Knossos.
Minotaur, monster with
the head of a bull and the body of a man. It was the offspring of Pasiphaë,
queen of Crete, and a snow-white bull the god Poseidon had sent to Pasiphaë's
husband, King Minos. When Minos refused to sacrifice the beast, Poseidon
made Pasiphaë fall in love with it. After she gave birth to the Minotaur,
Minos ordered the architect and inventor Daedalus to build a labyrinth
so intricate that escape from it without assistance would be impossible.
Here the Minotaur was confined and fed with young human victims Minos forced
Athens to send him as tribute. The Greek hero Theseus was determined to
end the useless sacrifice and offered himself as one of the victims. When
Theseus reached Crete, Minos's daughter Ariadne fell in love with him.
She helped him escape by giving him a ball of thread, which he fastened
to the door of the maze and unwound as he made his way through it. When
he came upon the sleeping Minotaur, he beat the monster to death and then
led the other sacrificial youths and maidens to safety by following the
thread back to the entrance.
Mnemosyne, the goddess
of memory. She and Zeus, father of the gods, were the parents of the nine
Muses. Mnemosyne was one of the pre-Olympian Titans, who were the children
of the god of the heavens, Uranus, and the goddess of the earth, Gaea.
Morpheus, god of dreams,
the son of Hypnos, god of sleep. Morpheus formed the dreams that came to
those asleep. He also represented human beings in dreams. The name Morpheus
is derived from the Greek word for "shape" or "form."
Muses, nine goddesses and
daughters of the god Zeus and of Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory. The
Muses presided over the arts and sciences and were believed to inspire
all artists, especially poets, philosophers, and musicians. Calliope was
the muse of epic poetry, Clio of history, Euterpe of lyric poetry, Melpomene
of tragedy, Terpsichore of choral songs and the dance, Erato of love poetry,
Polyhymnia of sacred poetry, Urania of astronomy, and Thalia of comedy.
They were said to be the companions of the Graces and of Apollo, the god
of music. They sat near the throne of Zeus, king of the gods, and sang
of his greatness and of the origin of the world and its inhabitants and
the glorious deeds of the great heroes. The Muses were worshiped throughout
ancient Greece, especially at Helicon in Boeotia and at Pieria in Macedonia.
Myrmidons, inhabitants
of the island of Aegina in the Gulf of Saronikós, the followers
of Achilles during the Trojan War. During the reign of Achilles' grandfather
Aeacus, Hera, the wife of Zeus, sent a plague that destroyed the island's
inhabitants, because Zeus loved Aegina, the maiden for whom the island
was named. Aeacus, in despair, prayed to Zeus; seeing a troop of ants as
he did so, he asked that they be transformed into people numerous enough
to fill his empty city. Zeus answered his prayer in this manner, and because
Aegina was repopulated from an anthill, its people became known as Myrmidons,
from the Greek word meaning "ants" (myrmêkes).
Mysteries, secret rites
and ceremonies connected with various religious worships of ancient Greece
and Rome. These rites and ceremonies were known to, and practiced by, congregations
of men and women who had been duly initiated; no other persons were allowed
to participate. The origin and purpose of the mysteries are unknown. The
theory that the mysteries concealed deep truths and remnants of a primitive
revelation too profound for the popular mind is no longer believed, but
undoubtedly the sacred rituals brought to the initiates secret religious
doctrines, which in many instances were concerned with the continuance
of life beyond the grave. The mysteries consisted of purifications, sacrificial
offerings, processions, songs, dances, and dramatic performances. Often
the birth, suffering, death, and resurrection of a god were enacted in
dramatic form. The aim of the mysteries seems to have been twofold, namely,
to give comfort and moral instruction for life on earth, and to inspire
hope for life after death. The earliest and most important Greek mysteries
were the Orphic, the Eleusinian, and the Dionysiac. The Orphic mysteries
were those of a mystic cult founded, according to tradition, by the legendary
poet and musician Orpheus, to whom was attributed a great mass of religious
literature (see Orphism). Far more celebrated were the Eleusinian mysteries,
connected with the worship of the goddesses Demeter and Persephone at Eleusis
in Attica; with these divinities were associated Pluto, god of the underworld;
Iacchus, a name of the youthful Dionysus, god of vegetation and of wine;
and other gods. The worship of Dionysus, or Bacchus, at Athens was accompanied
by feasts, processions, and musical and dramatic performances. In later
times the mysteries associated with Dionysus became occasions for intoxication
and gross licentiousness. They were forbidden at Thebes and later elsewhere
in Greece. As the Bacchanalia these rites were introduced into Rome early
in the 2nd century BC. At first the mysteries were celebrated only by women;
when they were opened to men, the gatherings were suspected of gross immoralities,
and in 186 BC the Roman Senate attempted to suppress the rites by decree.
Secret rites were a part of the worship of several Greek deities, such
as Hera, queen of the gods, Aphrodite, goddess of love, and Hecate, goddess
of the underworld. Many foreign religions adopted by the Greeks and Romans
had mysteries connected with the worship of the divinity; these religions
included the worship of the Phrygian goddess Cybele, the "great mother"
of the gods; the Egyptian Isis, goddess of the moon, nature, and fertility;
and the Persian Mithras, god of the sun. The worship of these deities spread
throughout the Greco-Roman world and was extremely popular in the early
centuries of the Roman Empire. Isis, who at an early date had been identified
with Demeter, was worshiped in Italy as late as the 5th century AD.
