Owing to the expression ‘great tree’ (Lk 13%), some have sought for an arboreal plant. Salva- dora Persica, Garcin, has been suggested by Royle, on the authority of Ameuny, who states that this plant is found all along the banks of the Jordan, near Damascus, and is called by the Arabs khardal =‘mustard.’ We unhesitatingly reject this plant for the following reasons. (1) tt is not found in the localities mentioned, but only around the Dead Sea. It would have been quite unknown to most of the hearers of the parable, and to them only by chance. (2) We have not heard it called khardal, and doubt the fact of its being generally known by this name. But, admitting that it is known locally by this name, as attested by Ameuny, it would not have suggested itself at once to the simple hearers of the parable. (3) Its seed is never sown in gardens, while it is expressly stated that the mustard seed was so pet (Lk 13:99. (4) It is a perennial shrub, and therefore not a plant conspicuous by its rapid propagation from seed, a@ point of prime importance in the parable. (5) Although a taller plant than the mustard usually is, it would not suit the literal requirements of a ‘great tree.’ It is a shrub, seldom more than 6 to 8 ft. tall, and grows in thickets. It would require as much exaggeration to call it a ‘great tree’ as to so designate the mustard. (6) Salva- dora Persica could, by no stretch of the imagina- tion, be called an herb, while of mustard it is expressly said that it is μεῖζον τῶν λαχάνων, ‘the greatest among herbs’ (Mt 13%). G. E. Post.
MUTH-LABBEN.—See PsALms.
MUTILATION. — See CRIMES AND PUNISH MENTS, vol. i. p. 525°.
MYNDUS (Mvvdos) was a city of Cana, situated on the extreme western extremity of the peninsula on whose southern coast lies Halicarnassus. It plays very little part in ancient history; and its only importance seems to have lain in the silver mines beside it, which were worked in ancient and in mediwval times. From them the site de-
164 MYRA
MYRRH
rives its modern name, Gumushli. It was one of the places to which letters in favour of the Jews were sent by the Romans about B.c. 139, 1 Mac 15"; cf. DELUS, Cos, CNripuS, HALICARNASSUS., This fact proves that Myndus must have been a self-governing and independent city at that time, and not one of the cities of the Carian confederacy; see CARIA. It also shows that Jews went there, and the silver trade would naturally attract per- sons with their financial instincts. On the site, see Paton in Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1887, p. 66; 1896, p. 204. W. M. RAMSAY.
MYRA (Μύρα or Μύῤῥα), a city of Lycia.—The name is used in neuter plural, Ac 27°, where, however, many authorities have feminine singular. The same doubt between neuter plural and femi- nine singular exists in Ac 211, where the Western Text adds after Patara καὶ Mipa, εἰ deinde Myram; some MSS Μύραν in Acta Pauli et Thecla, 40 (but ἐν Mvpos, al.); the form in Strabo p. 666 and Ptolemy v. 3, 6, is Μύρα, of doubtful gender and number: but Pliny Nat. Hist. xxxii. 2, 17, Ptolemy viii. 17, 23, use the plural form; Athe- neus il. 53, p. 59, C/G 4288, and Basil Zpist. 218, have ἐν Μύροις : the Byzantine lists frequently have gen. Mvpwr, probably never Mipas. Many late writers, Theophanes pp. 465, 483 (de Boor), Glykas p. 587, Basil Sel. pee S. Thecle, i. p. 272, Cedrenus pp. 511, 512, Zonaras iii. p. 589, use the plural form ; and Malalas varies, p. 365 τῇ Mupg, p. 448 τὰ Mupa. Constantine Porph. de Them. 1. p. 36 avoids the name, but says it is called from the sacred μύρα (suggesting thus the reason why the Christian writers preferred the neuter plural form) ; Stephanus mentions that both the feminine and the neuter forms were in use; but there is hardly any authority for Μύρα fem. sing. in any case except accus.; and even there it is inferior. The literary form therefore was certainly τὰ Μύρα, but there was evidently also a popular torm τὴν Μύραν (with which compare Λύστραν - Λύστροις Ac 14° 8 16!:?, Clupeam-Clupeis Wolfflin’s note on Cesar Bell. Afr. 3, 1), which has given rise to the modern Dembre. In the words where double declension exists, the tendency to acc. sing. fem. and plural in other cases is marked.
Myra was not one of the greatest cities of Lycia in the Greek period, but rose to importance under the Empire, and became the capital of Lycia under the Byzantine Empire and in the ecclesiastical organization. The reason for its growth lay in the development of navigation. In the older system of sailing by hugging the coast from point to point, Myra was merely one out of many coast towns, and had nothing to give it special import- ance. But as the bolder method became common of running direct between the Lycian and the Egyptian coasts, keeping off Cape Akamas, the western point of Cyprus, the two harbours that were found most convenient were Myra at the north end of the course and Alexandria at the south. There had been an immense development of trade between the East A‘gean coasts and Egypt under the Ptolemies (compare Paton-Hicks, Inscriptions of Cos, p. xxxiii): under the Roman rule Egyptian export trade was diverted towards Italy and Rome (which was to a considerable extent fed on Egyptian grain). As the prevailing wind in the eastern Mediterranean is westerly, the corn-ships for Rome could not make a direct voyage towards the west, but had to use the protection of the irregular coasts of Asia Minor and Crete and the local coast- winds. For that purpose they must either take the long circular course round the Syrian coast, or sail direct across to Lycia ; and the steadiness of the western winds tempted to the direct crossing.