Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/1165

NELEUS. After the death of Cretheus, the two brothers quarrelled about the succession to the throne of lolcus. Nelens, who was expelled, went with Melampus and Bias to Pylos, which his uncle Aphareus gave to him (Apollod. i. 9. § 9 ; Diod. iv. 68). Neleus thus became king of Pylos, which town he found in existence when he arrived there ; but some state that he himself built Pylos, or at least that he erected the royal palace there (Pans. iv. 2. § 3, 36. § 1). It should be observed that several towns of the name of Pylos claimed the honour of being the cit}"- of Neleus or of his son Nestor, such as Pylos in Messenia, Pylos in Elis, and Pylos in Triphylia ; the hist of which is pro- bably the one mentioned by Homer in connection with Neleus and Nestor (Strab. viii. p. 337). Neleus was married to Chloris, who, according to Homer {Od. xi. 200, &c.), was a daughter of Am- pliion of Orchomenos, and according to others (Diod. l.c.) a Theban woman, and by her he be- came the father of Nestor, Chromius, Periclymenus, and Pero, though the total number of his sons was twelve {Od. xi. 285, //. xi. 692 ; Apollod. i. 9. § 9 ; Schol. ad ApoUon. Rhod. i. 156). When He- racles had killed Iphitus, he went to Neleus to be purified ; but Neleus, who was a friend of Eurytus, the father of Iphitus, refused to purify Pleracles (Diod. iv. 31). In order to take vengeance, Hera- cles afterwards marched against Pylos, and slevv the sons of Neleus, with the exception of Nestor (Horn. //. xi. 690), though some later writers state that Neleus also was killed (Apollod. ii. 6. § 2, 7- § 3 ; Hygin. Fab. 10). Neleus was thus reduced to a state of defencelessness, and Augeas, king of the Epeians, availed himself of the opportunity for harassing his kingdom ; among other things Augeas intercepted and kept for himself a team of four horses which Neleus had sent to the Olympian games (Hom. //. xi. 699, &c.). Neleus took ven- geance for this by carrying away the llocks of the Epeians {IL xi. 670, &c.), whereupon the latter invaded the territory of Pylos, and besieged Thry- oessa on the Alpheius. Athena informed Neleus of it, but he would not allow his son Nestor to venture out against the Epeians, and concealed his war steeds. But Nestor fought against them on foot, and was victorious (//. xi. 707, &c. ). Pau- sanias says (ii. 2. § 2) that Neleus died at Corinth, and that he, in conjunction with Nestor, restored the Olympian games. The descendants of Neleus, the Nelei'dae, were expelled from their kingdom by the Heracleidae, and migrated for the most part to Athens (Paus. ii. 18. § 7, iv. 3. § 3). It should be observed that Hyginus {Fab. 10, 14) calls the father of Neleus Hippocoon, and that he mentions him among the Argonauts. [L. S.] NELEUS (NTjAetis or Net'Aeos), the younger son of Codrus, disputed the right of his elder brother Medon to the crown on account of his lameness, and when the Delphic oracle declared in favour of Medon, he placed himself at the head of the colonists who migrated to Ionia, and himself founded Miletus. His son Aepytus headed the colonists who settled in Priene. Another son headed a body of settlers who reinforced the in- habitants of lasus, after they had lost a great number of their citizens in a war with the Carians. (Herod, ix. 97 ; Paus. vii. 2, § 1, who in the old edition calls him Neileus ; Polyb. xvi. 1 2 ; Suidas, s. V. 'lupla ; Strab. xiv. p. 633.) [C. P. M.] NELEUS, a native of Scepsis, the sou of Coris- NEMESIANUS. 1151 cus. He was a disciple of Aristotle and Theo- phrastus, the latter of whom bequeathed to hira his library, and appointed him one of his execu- tors. The history of the writings of Aristotle as connected with Neleus and his heirs, is fully dis- cussed elsewhere. [Vol. I. p. 323.J Of the per- sonal history of Neleus nothing further is known. (Strab. xiii. p. 608, b ; Diog. Laert. v. 52, 53, 55, 56 ; Athen. i. p. 3, a ; Plut. Sull. p. 468. b ; Fabric. Bibl. (iraec. vol. iii. p. 499.) [C. P. M.] NE'MEA (Ne;uea), a daughter of Asopus, from Avhom the district of Nemea between Cleonae and Phlius in Argolis was said to have received its name. (Paus. ii. 15. § 3, v. 22. § 5.) [L. S.] NEMEIUS (Nejueios), the Nemeian, a surname of Zeus, under which he had a sanctuary at Argos, with a bronze statue, the work of Lysippus, and where games were celebrated in his honour. (Paus. ii. 20. § 3, 24. §2.) [L. S.] NI']MERTES (NTj^epTTjs), that is, the Unerring, a daughter of Nereus and Doris. (Hom. //. xviii. 46 ; Hes. Theo(f. 262.) [L. S.] NEMESIA'NUS, M. AURE'LIUS OLY'M- PIUS, who, in all probability, was a native of Africa, since he is styled in MSS. Poeta Cartha- ginievsis, and is referred to as Aurelias Cartha-' yiniensis by liincmar archbishop of Rheims (a. d. 845), flourished at the court of the emperor Carus (a. d. 283), carried off the prize in all the poetical contests of the day (omnibus coronis [not coloniis~ illustratus emicuit), and was esteemed second to the youthful prince Numerianus alone, who Ho- noured him so far as permit him to dispute, and, of course, to yield to the palm of verse. Vopiscus, to whom we are indebted for these par- ticulars, informs us that he was the author of poems upon fishing, hunting, and aquatics (oXku- TiKct, Kui'7j76Ti/fa, vavTiKo., uuless we read i^evriKa), all of which have perished, with the exception of a fragment of the Cyneyctica, extending to 325 hexameter lines, which, in so far as neatness and purity of expression are concerned, in some degree justifies the admiration of his contemporaries. What has been preserved contains precepts for rearing horses and dogs, and for providing the apparatus of the huntsman, but is evidently merely an introduction to the main body of the work, which seems to have embraced a very wide field, and to have been intended to contain a com- plete account of all the beasts of chase, and of the various methods pursued for their capture or de- struction. Two short fragments, De Aucupio, which, with their history, v^ill be found in the Poetae Latini Minores of Wernsdorf (vol. i. p. 128), and like- wise a piece entitled Laudes Herculis, the work of some unknown writer, have been ascribed, on no good evidence, to Nemesianus (Wernsdorf, vol. i. p. 275) ; and he* is by some erroneously supposed to have been the author of four out of the eleven pastorals which bear the name of Calpurnius Sicuius [Calpurnius], and to have been sha- dowed forth in one of the others (the fourth) under the designation of Meliboeus. The inscriji- tion "Ad Nemesianum Carthaginiensem," prefixed to these eclogues, in many editions, rests upon the authority of no MSS., except such as are of recent date, and is now generally regarded as an inter- polation. The fragment of the Cynegetica was first pub- lished by the heirs of Aldus (8vo. Venet. 1534},