Maeander
(
Μαίανδρος). A river in Asia Minor, proverbial for its
wanderings, rising in the south of Phrygia, close to the source of the Marsyas, flowing
between Lydia and Caria, of which it forms the boundary, and at last falling into the Icarian
Sea between Myus and Priené. Its chief tributaries are the Marsyas, Cludrus,
Lethaeus, and Gaeson on the right (northern) side; and the Obrimas, Lycus , Harpasus, and a
second Marsyas on the left (southern) side. In its course it was said to describe the Greek
letters
ε, ζ, ξ, ς, and
ω; and
from it Daedalus was imagined to have received the idea of his famous Labyrinth. (See Herod.
ii. 29;
Verg. Aen. v. 254; Lucan, v. 208; vi.
471; Ovid,
Met. viii. 105;
Mela, i. 17.) As a god,
Maeander is described as the father of the nymph Cyané, who was the mother of
Caunus. Hence the latter is called by Ovid,
Maeandrius iuvenis.