Limnaeus, Limnaios, Limnaea, Limnaee, Limnetes, or Limnagenes,[1] meaning in Greek "inhabiting or born in a lake or marsh".

Greek Mythology

edit

It is an ancient Greek surname of several divinities who were believed either to have sprung from a lake or had their temples near a lake. Instances are, Dionysus at Athens,[2] and Artemis at Sicyon, near Epidaurus,[3] on the frontiers between Laconia and Messenia,[4] near Calamae,[5] Patrae;[6] it is also used as a surname of nymphs[7] that dwell in lakes or marshes.

Limnaee was the Naiad-nymph of a lake in India and daughter of the river Ganges. She had a son named Athis.[8]

Cities/Towns

edit

Names

edit

Limnaeus or Limnaios is also used as a name:

  • Limnaeus, a general of Alexander the Great, in the battle of Malli (see Habreas)
  • Limnaios son of Harpalos, a land-owner; he was given estates in Chalcidice by king Lysimachus[11]
  • Limnaios and Lysanias helped Rhodes after 226 BC earthquake[12]
  • Limnaeus, an ambassador of Philip V of Macedon (see Cycliadas)
  • Saint Limnaeus, disciple of Saint Thalassius, an hermit in Syria (5th century). Theodoret records that Limnaeus had been living in this way for thirty-eight years.
  • Johannes Limnaeus (Johann Wirn) (1592–1663) German professor who wrote a work entitled "Jus publicum Imperii Romano-Germanici"
  • Georg Limnaeus (1554–1611) German professor of mathematics in Jena
  • Toula Limnaios, a Greek choreographer

Zoology

edit
  • Limnaeus is also a surname of species in zoology (i.e. Austrofundulus limnaeus, a fish, Gammarus limnaeus, an amphipod ).

References

edit
  1. ^ LSJ: limnaios Archived 2009-12-02 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ (Eustath. ad Horn. p. 871 ; Callim. Fragm. 280, Bentl.; Time. ii. 15 ; Aristoph. Ran. 216 ; Athen. x. p. 437, xi. p. 465)
  3. ^ (Paus. ii. 7. § 6, iii. 23. § 10)
  4. ^ (Paus. iii. 2. § 6, 7. § 4, iv. 4. § 2, 31. § 3, vii. 20. § 7, &c.; Strab. viii, p. 361 ; Tac. Ann. iv. 43)
  5. ^ (Paus. iv. 31. § 3), at Tegea (viii. 53. § 11, comp. iii. 14. § 2)
  6. ^ (vii. 20. § 7)
  7. ^ (Theocrit. v. 17)
  8. ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses 5. 47
  9. ^ Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary, Limnaea
  10. ^ Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898), Limnaea
  11. ^ SEG 38.619
  12. ^ Polybius 5.90.1