MENELAUS
90
MEXESES
Eretria, and take refuge in the sanctuary of Amphiaraus at Oropus. Some golden vessels, the property of the temple, being lost while he was there, the 15a?otians compelled him to leave, when he fled to the court of Antigonus, where he soon died of grief, probably in the year U.C. 277, at the age of seventy-four. Another ac- count says that he went to Antigonus to solicit his in- terference in behalf of the freedom of his native city.
A s (I I'liUosopher and Teacher. — As a teacher, ilene- demus, in his intercourse with his disciples, was char- acterized by the absence of formality and restraint, al- though noted for the severity with which he rebuked all dissoluteness and intemperance, so that the fear of his censure seems to have acted as a check. He lived with his friend Asclepiades, between whom and himself there existed a close friendship. In the latter part of his life he seems to have lived in afHuence. Of the philosophy of Menedcnnis little is known, excepting that it closely resembled that of the JMegarian school, and that of Phasdo •of Elis. Indeed, he may be said to have continued Philo's philosophy. Its leading feature was the dogma of the oneness of the Good, which he carefully distinguished from the Useful. All distinctions between virtues he regarded as merely nominal. The Good and the True he looked upon as identical. In dialectics he rejected all merely negative propositions, maintaining that truth could be predicated only of tliose which were affirma- tive, and of these he admitted such alone as were iden- tical ])ropositions. He was a vehement and keen dis- putant, but none of his philosophical controversies or doctrines were committed to writing. Epicrates, in a passage quoted by Atlienanis (ii. p. o9), classes Mene- demus with Plato an<l Sp<ii:sip]nis ; but it appears from Diogenes Laertius that his opinion of Plato and Xenoc- rates was not very high. Stilpo he greatly admired. See Diogenes Laertius, ii, 125-144 ; Plutarch, De A diil. et A mid. Disc. p. 55 ; Strabo, ix, p. 393 ; Pitter, Gescliic/ile der Philosophie, bk. vii, c. 5. — Smith, Hid. of Greek and Roman Biog. and Mythol. s. v.
Menela'iis CSXtv'cXaoc, a common Greek name), a usur]]ini; lii^h-iiricsl wlio oljtaincd the office from Anti- ochus JCiiipliancs (U.C cir. 172) by a large bribe (2 Mace, iv, 23-25), and drove out Jason, who liad obtained it not long before by similar means. AVhen he neglected to pay the sum which he had promised, he was sum- moned to the king's presence, and by plundering the Temple gained the means of silencing the accusations which were brought against him. Uy a similar sacri- lege he secured himself against the consequences of an insurrection which his tyranny had excited, and also procured the death of Onias (ver. 27-34). He was af- terwards hard pressed by Jason, who, taking occasion from liis unpopularity, attemjited unsuccessfully to re- cover the high-priesthood (2 IMacc. v, 5-10). For a time he then disappears from the history (yet comp. ver. 23), but at last he met with a violent death at the hands of Antiochus Eupator (B.C. cir. 1G3), which seemed in a peculiar manner a providential punishment of his sacrilege (xiii, 3, 4).
According to Josephns (.1 7tt. xii, 5, 1) he was a younger brother of Jason and Onias, and, like Jason, changed his proper name, Oniati, for a (Jreek name. In 2 jNIacc, on the other hand, he is called a l)rothcr of Simon the Benjamite (2 Mace, iv, 23), whose treason led to the first attempt to plunder the Tem]tle. If this account be correct, the profanation of the sacred otHce was the more marked by the fact that it was transferred from the fam- ily of Aaron. — Smith.
Menes was the name of the first king of the first Egyjilian dynasty. He marks a great chronological epoch, being placed by dilTerent ehronologers as early as B.C. 3(;43, 3892, or even 5702. Stricter Egyptologists make his accession 15.C'. 2717. This name, which signi- fies t/ie coiduclor, has been found on inscriptions, liut no ot^niteniiiorary monuments of him are known. Menes is the most usual form of his name, but it is also written
Menas, ^fen^s, Meinis, Men, Min, and J/ein. It is sin- gularly in accordance with the Indian Menu, the Greek Minos, the Teutonic Mannits, and similar appellations of a primeval king; although the oldest Egyjitian lan- guage seems to have had nothing akin with the Aryan family, to which the others belong. Herodotus says that he built Memphis on the original bed of the Nile.which he turned from its former course, and erected therein a beautiful temple to Ilcphajstus or I'thah II (comp. Diod. i, 50, ed.Wcss. ad loc). Diodorus informs us that he introduced into Egypt the worship of the gods, the practice of sacrifices, and many luxuries. For this last innovation he was subsequently held in great dishonor, as Plutarch mentions a pillar at Thebes, in Egypt, on which was inscribed an imprecation against ]Mencs as an introducer of luxurj-. There is a legend preserved by Diodorus which narrates — in defiance of chronology-, unless Mendes is to be substituted for Menas— his being saved from death in Lake IVloeris by a crocodile, in grat- itude for which he inaugurated the worship of that ani- mal, and built a city in the neighborhood of the lake called the City of Crocodiles, and a pyramid to serve as his own tomb. During his reign there was a revolt of the Libyans. That ho made foreign conquests we learn from an extract from IManetho, preserved by Eusebius. By Marsham and others he is considered as identical with the Mizraiin of Scripture. According to some ac- counts he was killed by a hippopotamus. See Lepsius, Kdnifjshuch, Quellentaf, p. 5 ; Bcickh, Manetho, p. 38G ; Poole, Ilor. j-Egijpt. p. 219; Herodotus, ii, 4, 99; Diodo- rus, i, 43, 45, 89 (ed.Wcss. ad loc.) ; Plutarch, De Is. et