Maro See Virgil

Marphisa, sister of Rogero

Marsilius, Spanish king, treacherous foe of Charlemagne

Marsyas, inventor of the flute, who challenged Apollo to musical competition, and, defeated, was flayed alive

Matsya, the Fish, first avatar of Vishnu

Meander, Grecian river

Mede, A, princess and sorceress who aided Jason

Medoro, a young Moor, who wins Angelica

Medusa, one of the Gorgons

Megaera, one of the Furies

Melampus, a Spartan dog, the first mortal endowed with prophetic powers

Melanthus, steersman for Bacchus

Meleager, one of the Argonauts (See Althaea)

Meliadus, King of Lionesse, near Cornwall

Melicertes, infant son of Ino. changed to Palaemon (See Ino,
Leucothea, and Palasmon)

Melissa, priestess at Merlin’s tomb

Melisseus, a Cretan king

Melpomene, one of the Muses

Memnon, the beautiful son of Tithonus and Eos (Aurora), and king of the Ethiopians, slain in Trojan War

Memphis, Egyptian city

Menelaus, son of King of Sparta, husband of Helen

Menoeceus, son of Creon, voluntary victim in war to gain success for his father

Mentor, son of Alcimus and a faithful friend of Ulysses

Mercury (See Hermes)

Merlin, enchanter

Merope, daughter of King of Chios, beloved by Orion

Mesmerism, likened to curative oracle of Aesculapius at Epidaurus

Metabus, father of Camilla

Metamorphoses, Ovid’s poetical legends of mythical transformations, a large source of our knowledge of classic mythology

Metanira, a mother, kind to Ceres seeking Proserpine

Metempsychosis, transmigration of souls—­rebirth of dying men and women in forms of animals or human beings

Metis, Prudence, a spouse of Jupiter

Mezentius, a brave but cruel soldier, opposing Aeneas in Italy

MIDAS

Midgard, the middle world of the Norsemen

Midgard serpent, a sea monster, child of Loki

Milky way, starred path across the sky, believed to be road to palace of the gods

Milo, a great athlete

MLON, father of Orlando

Milton, John, great English poet, whose History of England is here largely used

Mime, one of the chief dwarfs of ancient German mythology

Minerva (Athene), daughter of Jupiter, patroness of health, learning, and wisdom

Minos, King of Crete