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This dynasty traced back its descent to the god Μήν (J. H. S. xix. 80); it has a more genuine sound than that of the Heracleids above. The dynasty was

If Cotys be rightly connected with the Thracian goddess Cotytto, whose rites (Strabo, 470) were like those of the Phrygian Cybele, then the genealogy may represent the combination of the European (Cotys) and the Asiatic (Atys) elements (App. I. 4); but all this is most uncertain.

Μηίων. For ‘Maeonians’ cf. App. I. 8. Homer only knows this name (Il. ii. 864; x. 431, &c.); the earliest occurrence of ‘Lydian’ in a Greek author is in Xanthus, fr. 1. The identification of Maeonians with Lydians was not always accepted (Strabo, 572). Assuming its truth, however, it may be conjectured that the Lydians represent rather the European element in the people, the Maeonian the Asiatic. Radet (p. 59) thinks that the statement on the monuments of Assurbanipal (u. s.) means only that the Luddi were unknown by that name; he therefore connects ‘Lydian’ with the rise of Gyges; but this is very doubtful. ‘Maeonian’ survived as a tribal name (vii. 77), and as the name of a city (Plin. N. H. v. 111) and a district on the upper Hermus (Strabo, 576, 628), including the Κατακεκαυμένη.

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