MELAS
MELAS (
Μέλας), the name of several rivers, so called from the dark colour of their water.
1.
A small river of Arcadia or Achaia, described by Dionysius as flowing from Mount Erymanthus. (Dionys. Per. 416; Callim.
in Jov. 23.) Strabo (
viii. p.386) confounds it with the Peirus or Pierus in Achaia; but the reading is probably corrupt. [
ACHAIA p. 14a.]
2.
A river of Boeotia. [BOEOTIA, p. 413a.]
3.
A river of Malis, which in the time of Herodotus flowed into the Maliac gulf, at the distance of 5 stadia from Trachis.
It is now called the
Mavra-Néria, and falls into the Spercheius, after uniting its waters with the
Gurgo (Dyras), which also used to flow in ancient times into the Maliac gulf. (
Hdt. 7.198;
Strab. ix. p.428;
Liv. 36.22; Leake,
Northern Greece, vol. ii. p. 26.)
4.
A river of Phthiotis in Thessaly, and a tributary of the Apidanus. (
Lucan 6.374; Vib. Sequ.
de Flum. s. v. Apidanos; Leake,
Northern Greece, vol. iv. p. 515.)
5.
A river of Thrace, now called
Saldatti or
Scheher-Su, falling into a deep bay of the sane name (
Μέλας κόλπος), which is bounded on the east by the shore of the Thracian Chersonesus.
The modern name of the bay is the gulf of
Saros. (
Hdt. 6.41,
7.58,
198;
Strab. vii. p.331;
Liv. 33.40; Ptolem. 3.11. § § 1, 2; Mela, 2.2;
Plin. Nat. 4.11. s. 18.)
