who evinced a knowledge and intelligence rarely found in those times, persuaded

Melesigenes to close his school, and accompany him on his travels. He promised

not only to pay his expenses, but to furnish him with a further stipend,

urging, that, “While he was yet young, it was fitting that he should see

with his own eyes the countries and cities which might hereafter be the

subjects of his discourses.” Melesigenes consented, and set out with his

patron, “examining all the curiosities of the countries they visited, and

informing himself of everything by interrogating those whom he met.” We

may also suppose, that he wrote memoirs of all that he deemed worthy of

preservation. Having set sail from Tyrrhenia and Iberia, they reached Ithaca.

Here Melesigenes, who had already suffered in his eyes, became much worse; and

Mentes, who was about to leave for Leucadia, left him to the medical

superintendence of a friend of his, named Mentor, the son of Alcinor. Under his

hospitable and intelligent host, Melesigenes rapidly became acquainted with the

legends respecting Ulysses, which afterwards formed the subject of the Odyssey.

The inhabitants of Ithaca assert, that it was here that Melesigenes became

blind, but the Colophonians make their city the seat of that misfortune. He

then returned to Smyrna, where he applied himself to the study of poetry.


But poverty soon drove him to Cumae. Having passed over the Hermaean plain, he

arrived at Neon Teichos, the New Wall, a colony of Cumae. Here his misfortunes

and poetical talent gained him the friendship of one Tychias, an armourer.

“And up to my time,” continues the author, “the inhabitants

showed the place where he used to sit when giving a recitation of his verses;

and they greatly honoured the spot. Here also a poplar grew, which they said

had sprung up ever since Melesigenes arrived.”


But poverty still drove him on, and he went by way of Larissa, as being the