A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

(Μέλισσα), the wife of Periander, tyrant of Corinth. She was the daughter of Procles, tyrant of Epidaurus, and Eristheneia; and, according to Diogenes Laertius (1.94), was called Lysis before her marriage, and received the name Melissa from Periander. She bore two sons, Cypselus and Lycophron, and her husband was passionately attached to her; but in a fit of jealousy, produced by the slanderous tales of some courtesans, he killed her in a barbarous manner. [PERIANDER.] From the story of the appearance of the shade of Melissa to the ambassadors sent by Periander to consult the oracle of the dead among the Thesprotians, and the mode in which Periander sought to appease her, we may gather that he sought to still his remorse by the rites of a dark and barbarous superstition: he took a horrible revenge on those who had instigated him to the murder of his wife. (Hdt. 3.50, 5.92; Athen. 13.589, f.; D. L. 1.94; Plut. Sept. Sap. Conv. p. 146.) Pausanias (2.28.8) mentions a monument in memory of Melissa, near Epidaurus.

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