Mendes

• adj., of or belonging to the Egyptian maritime town Mendes.
• • • • • α Mendes: Asclepias, Suet. Aug. 94.—
        • β Mendesicus: ostium, Plin. 5, 10, 11, § 64.—
        • γ Mendesius: nomos, Plin. 5, 9, 9, § 49: unguentum, id. 13, 1, 2, § 17.

(Μένδης), an Egyptian divinity, worshipped in the town of Mendes. He is said to have resembled the Arcadian Pan. (Hdt. 2.46; Strab. xvii. pp. 802, 812.) [L.S]

MENDES (Μένοδης, Hdt. 2.42, 46. 166; Diod. 1.84; Strab. 17. p. 802; Mela, 1.9 § 9; Plin. Nat. 5.10. s. 12; Ptol. 4.5.51; Steph. B. s. v.: Eth. Μενδήσιος), the capital of the Mendesian nome in the Delta of Egypt. It was situated at the point where the Mendesian arm of the Nile (Μενδήσιον στόμα, Scylax, p. 43; Ptol. iv, 5.10; Mendesium ostium, Pliny, Mela, ll. cc.) flows into the lake of Tanis. Mendes was, under the Pharaonic kings, a considerable town ; the nome was the chief seat of the worship of Mendes or Pan, the all-producing-principle of life, and one of the eight greater deities of Aegypt, and represented under the form: of a goat. It was also one of the nomes assigned to that division of the native army which was called the Calasirii, and the city was celebrated for the manufacture of a perfume designated as the Mendesium unguentum. (Plin. Nat. 13.1. s. 2.) Mendes, however, declined early, and disappears in the first century A. D.; since both Ptolemy (l. c.) and Aristides (3. p. 160) mention Thmuis as the only town of note in the Mendesian nome. From its position at the junction of the river and the lake, it was probably encroached upon by their waters, after the canals fell into neglect under the Macedonian kings, and when they were repaired by Augustus (Sueton. Aug. 18, 63) Thmuis had attracted its trade and population. Ruins, however, supposed to be those of Mendes' have been found near the hamlet of Achmân-Tanah (Champollion, l'Egypte, vol. 2. p. 122.)

(Μένδης). A city of the Delta of Egypt, on the bank of one of the lesser arms of the Nile, named after it the Mendesian mouth (Μενδήσιον στόμα). Here was worshipped a deity of the Egyptians, called Mendes, and identified by Herodotus (ii. 42, 46) with the Arcadian Pan.

• identified with Pan: Hdt. 2.42, Hdt. 2.46
• Mendesian province: Hdt. 2.42, Hdt. 2.46
• inhabited by one of the Egyptian warrior tribes: Hdt. 2.166
• Mendesian mouth of the Nile: Hdt. 2.17