MENDES
MENDES (
Μένοδης,
Hdt. 2.42,
46. 166;
Diod. 1.84;
Strab. xvii. p.802; Mela, 1.9 § 9;
Plin. Nat. 5.10. s. 12;
Ptol. 4.5.51;
Steph. B. sub voce: 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 (iii. 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. ii. p. 122.)
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