Mylitta (perhaps = nib"'?3, Genitrix, "who causes to bear"), a name which, according to Herodotus (i, 131), was given bj' the Assyrians to the goddess Aphro- dite as the generative principle in nature. " She was apparently worshipped among the Babylonians, who gradually spread her worship through Assyria and Per- sia. She was originally, like almost every other mytho- logical deity, a cosmic symbol, and represented the fe- male portion of the twofold principle through which all creation bursts into existence, and which alone, by its united active and passive powers, upholds it. My- litta is to a certain degree the representative of Earth, the mother, who conceives from the Sun Bel or Baal. Mylitta and Baal together are considered the type of the Beneficent. Procreation thus being the basis of Mylitta's office in nature, the act itself became a kind of worship to her, and was hallowed through and for her. Thus it came to pass that every Babylonian wom- an had once in her life to give herself up to a stranger, and thereby considered her person consecrated to the great goddess. The sacrifice itself seems, especially in the early stage of its introduction among the divine rites of the primitive Babylonians, to have had much less of the repulsiveness which, in the e\'es of highly- cultivated nations, must be attached to it; and it was only in later days that it gave rise to the proverbial Babylonian lewdness. Herodotus's account of this sub- ject must, like almost all his other stories, be received with great caution" (Chambers). In Babylonia this goddess was called Bcllix or Bilit, i. e. "the Ladj-." She is commonly represented as the wife of Bel Nimrod (Belus), and the mother of his son Nin, though she is also called the wife of her son Nin. She united the characteristics of the classical divinities Juno, Venus, and Diana. Mylitta had temples at Nineveh, Ur, Erech, Nipur, and Babylon. The Baaltis of the Phoenicians was the same in name and character. The young women of Byblus, like those of Babylon, sacrificed in her service their virginity, and gave the price they re- ceived to the temple of the goddess. The Derceto of Ascalon, the Ashera of the Hebrews, and the Ishtnr of the Babylonians were kindred divinities. See Yollmer, Mythol. Wijrterhuch, s. v. Anais. See Ashtoketii.
Mylius, Ernst Friedrich, a German theologian, was born at Liihe June 10, 1710. He was educated by his uncle Mushard, afterwards at the gymnasium at Bremen, and at the university at Helmstiidt, and fin- ished his education in 1734 at Jena. He was appointed in 1738 minister at the "Johannes Kirche" at Yerden,
with which position the conrectorship of the school was combined. He accepted in 1742 a call as minister of St. Peter's Church at Hamburg, where he died, Dec. 15, 1774. His most important works are, Entiourf heil- samer Unterweisungen oder Dispositiones der Ecangelien (Hamburg, 1745-74, 8vo) : — Friedenspredigt (ibid. 1750, 4to) : — Der Riif Gottes an die Siinder aus dem Feuer ; eiiie Buszpredigt (ibid. 1750, 4to) : — Auszvg der Haxipt- sdtze und Eintheilungen aus den Entioiirfen heilsamer Unterweisungen Jur (lie Jahre 1745-59 (ibid. 1759, 8vo). See Doring, Gelehrte Theol. Deutschlands, s. v.
Mylius, Georg (1), a noted German Lutheran di- vine, was born at Augsburg in 1548 ; studied at the uni- versities of Strasburg, Marburg, and Tubingen, and in 1571 became pastor at Augsburg, and later was made superintendent and rector of the evangelical college. In 1584 his opposition to the Gregorian calendar made him very unpopular, and he was finally driven from the place. He went to Ulm, where he was kindly received ; but he remained there only a short time, accepting in 1585 a call to Wittenberg University as professor of theology. When the PhUippists gained supremacy at that high school Mylius removed to Jena, soon, how- ever, to turn back to Wittenberg, where he died, INIay 28, 1603. Mylius was an industrious student, and pre- pared numerous exegetical works. See Adam, Vitce Theol. Germ. (1620).
Mylius, Georg (2), a German Lutheran divine, flourished in the first half of the 17th century as pastor in Brandenburg, near Konigsberg, East Prussia. He died in 1640. Mylius is noted as a German hj-mnolo- gist. He was a true follower of the poetical school whose head was Dach (q. v.). IMylius is the author of the well-known German funeral dirge, " Herr, ich deuk, an jene Zeit," etc.
Mylne, Robert, an English architect, was born in 1734 at Edinburgh. His father was of the same pro- fession. While he was studying at Rome he gained the chief architectural prize at the Academy of St. Luke. Of that academy, and of the academies of Florence and Bologna, he was chosen a member. Blackfriars' Bridge, which was begun in 1760, and completed in ten years, is his great work. He finally became surveyor of St. Paul's Cathedral, London. He died May 5, 1811.
Mynchery is the Saxon name for a nunnery, nuns being called mynche. See Mynicens,
Myn'dus (MiV/Joc), a town on the coast of Caria, between Miletus and Halicarnassus, the convenient po- sition of which in regard to trade was probably the rea- son why we find in 1 jNIacc. xv, 23 that it was the resi- dence of a Jewish population. Its ships were well known in very early times (Herod, v, 33), and its har- bor is specially mentioned by Strabo (xiv, 658). It was originally a Dorian colony of Trcezene, and was protect- ed by strong walls (Pausan. ii, 30, 8), so that it success- fully resisted Alexander the Great (Arrian, ^ ^ea-. i, 21). Its wine was famous as an aid to digestion (Athen. i, 32). Diogenes Laertius (vi, 2, 57) records a hon mot of Diogenes, the cynic, of which it is the theme. Seeing its huge gates, while the city itself was but small, he exclaimed, " Men of Myndus, shut the gates, lest the city walk out of them !" The name still lingers in the modern Mentesche, though the remains of the city are probably at Gumishlu, where admiral Beaufort found an ancient pier and other ruins (Smith, Diet, of Class. Geog. s. v.).