LELEX.
LENTIENSES.
Sabitod Greece before the Hellenes. They are
frequently mentioned along with the Pelasgians
as the most ancient inhabitants of Greece.
Some writers erroneously identify them with
the Pelasgians, but their character and habits
were essentially different: the Pelasgians were
a peaceful and agricultural people, whereas the
Leleges were a warlike and migratory race.
They appear to have first taken possession of
the coasts and the islands of Greece, and after¬
ward to have penetrated into the interior. Pi¬
racy was probably their chief occupation; and
they are represented as the ancestors of the
Teleboans and the Taphians. who sailed as far
as Phcenicia, and were notorious for their pira¬
cies. The coasts of Arcarnania and -(Etolia ap¬
pear to have been inhabited by Leleges at the
earliest times, and from thence they spread
over other parts of Greece. Thus we find them
in Phocis and Locris, in Bceotia, in Megaris, in
Laeonia, which is said to have been more an¬
ciently called Lelegia, in Elis, iu ikiboaa, in sev¬
eral of the islands of the iEgaaan Sea, and also
on the coasts of Asia Minor, • in Caria, Ionia,
and the south of Troas. The origin of the Lel¬
eges is uncertain. Many of the ancients con¬
nected them with the Carians, and according
to Herodotus (i, 171), the Leleges were the
same as the Carians; but whether there was
any real connection between these people can
not be determined. The name of the Leleges
was derived, according to the custom of the an¬
cients, from an ancestor Lelex, who is called
king either of Megaris or of Lacedaemon. Ac¬
cording to some traditions, this Lelex came
from Egypt, and was the son of Neptune (Posei-
dou) and Libya: but the Egyptian origin of the
people was evidently an invention of later times.
The Leleges must be regarded as a branch of
the great Indo-Germanic race, who became
gradually incorporated with the Hellenes, and
thus ceased to exist as an independent people.
Lelex. Vid. Leleges.
Lemannus or Lemanus Lacus (now Lake of
Geneva), a large lake formed by the River Rhod-
anus, was the boundary between the old Roman
province in Gaul and the land' of the Helvetii.
Its greatest length is fifty-five miles, and its
»eatest breadth six miles.
[Lemanus Portus, a harbor on the southern
ooast of Britain, directly south of Durovernum,
and supposed to correspond to the modern
Lymne.j
Lemnos (Arjpvog : Aypviog, fem. Qnpvidg: now
Stzlimcne, i. e, elg reh> Arjpvov), one of the larg¬
est islands in the ^Egaaan Sea, was situated
nearly midway between Mount Athos and the
Hellespont, and about twenty-two miles south¬
west of Imbros. Its area is about oue hundred
and forty-seven square miles. In the earliest
times it appears to have contained only one
town, which bore the same name as the island
(Horn, II, xiv, 299); but at a later period wc
read of two towns, Myrina (now Palco Castro)
on the west of the island, and Hephaastia or
Hephaestias (near Rapanidi) on the northwest,
with a harbor. Lemnos was sacred to Heph.es-
tus (Vulcan), who is said to have fallen here
when Zeus (Jupiter) hurled him down frcm
Olympus. Hence the workshop of the god is
•oinetirnes placed in tMs islamf. The legerd
428
appears to have arisen'from the v.'lcania natur*
of Lemnos, whieh possessed in antiquity a vol¬
cano called Mosychlus QHbovxXog). The island
still bears traces of having been subject to the
action af volcanic fire, though the volcano has
long since disappeared. The most ancient in¬
habitants of Lemnos, according to Homer, wer«
the Thracian Siniies; a name, however, which
probably only signifies robbers (Sivrieg, from
aivopai). When the Argonauts landed at Lem
nos, they are said to have found it inhabited
only by women, who had murdered all their
husbands, and had chosen as their queen Hyp¬
sipyle, the daughter of Thoas, the king of the
island. Vid. Hysipyle. Some of the Argo¬
nauts settled here, and became by the Lemnian
women the fathers of the Minye, the later in¬
habitants of the island. The Minyaa are said
to have been driven out of the island by the
Pelasgians, who had been expelled from Attica.
These Pelasgians are further said to have car¬
ried away from Attica some Athenian women;
but, as the children of these women despised
their half-brothers, born of Pelasgian women,
the Pelasgians murdered both them and their
children. In consequence of this atrocity, and
of the former murder of the Lemnian husbands
by the wives, Lemnian Beeds became a proverb
in Greece for all atrocious acts. Lemnos was
afterward conquered by one of the generals of
Darius; but Miltiades delivered it from, the Per¬
sians, and made it subject to Athens, in whose
power it remained for a long time. Pliny speaks
of a remarkable labyrinth at Lemnos, but no
traces of it have been discovered by modern
travellers. The principal production of the isl¬
and was a red earth called terra Lemnia or sigil-
lata, which was employed by the ancient physi¬
cians as a remedy for wounds and the bites of
serpents, aud which is still much valued by the
Turks and Greeks for its supposed medicinal
virtues.
LemoniA, one of the country tribes of Rome,
named after a village Lemonium, situated on
the Via Latina, before the Porta Capena.
Lemovices, a people in Gallia Aquitanica, be¬
tween the Bituriges and Arverni, whose chief
town was Augustoritum, subsequently called
Lemovices, the modern Limoges.
Lemovii, a people of Germany, mentioned
along with the Rugii, who inhabited the shores
of the Baltic in the modern Pomerania.
Lemures, the spectres or spirits of the dead.
Some writers describe Lemures as the common
name for all the spirits of the dead, and divide
them into two classes; the Lares, or the souls
of good men, and the Larve, or the souls of
wicked men. But the common idea was that
the Lemures and Larve were the same. They
were said to wander about at night as spectres,
and to torment aud frighten the living. In
order to propitiate them, the Romans celebra¬
ted the festival of the Lemuralia or Lemuria,
Vid. Bid. of Antiq, s. v.
Len-eus (Anvalog), a surname of BacohuB
(Dionysus), derived from Xiivug, the wiue-preM
or the vintage.
Lentia (now Linz), a town m Noricum, on
the Danube.
Lentiense%; a tribe of the Alemauni, whc
lived on the norther** shore of the Lacus Briar
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