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