fcfe M E M 
MEM'EL, a town of Fruffian Lithuania, fituated on 
the bay called Curifch-Haff .It was built in the year 1279, 
and fortified in 1312 ; and in the year 1328 it was given 
up by the governor of Livonia to the great naafier of the 
Teutonic Order, fettled in Pruffia. This town on one fide 
has the Baltic, and on the other the Curifch-Haff; befides 
thefe, it is alfo watered by the river Dange. The harbour 
is deep, and has a very good entrance ; and, within thefe 
few years, has.been improved with two moles, which are 
carried above fifty rods into the Haff\ or Bay, and were 
railed at the expenfe of 11,000 dollars. Memel lies under 
the guns of the fort, and is well inhabited; it confifts of 
above four hundred houfes. Befides the German town- 
church, here are a Lithuanian and a Calvinift church. 
The burghers, who are divided into thofe of Alt/iadt, or 
the Old Town, and Fredericlftadt , are employed in com¬ 
merce, brewing, foap-boiling, agriculture, billing, &c. 
Great quantities of flax, linfeed, thread, and hemp, are 
annually exported from this town. In 1752, feventy blips 
arrived in this port, and fixty-nine failed from hence to 
other ports. Memel is fortified with three whole and two 
half baftions, and other works, all in the modern way. 
It was formerly one of the Hanfe Towns. A royal ma¬ 
gazine, a falt-faftory, and a pofl-houfe of a confidefable 
revenue, are eftablifhed in this town. The citadel confifts 
of four baftions, which are pretty regular, with ravelines 
and half-moons : the buildings and apartments in this 
citadel were much improved by the eleftor Frederic- 
William, and king Frederic I. The moft remarkable 
things in it are the two arfenals, the fuperb houle of the 
commandant, the garrifon-cliurch, and the powder-ma- 
gazyrie. In 1323, 1379, 14.57, 154-0, and 1678, this town 
fufterecl greatly by fire. In 1757 and in Dec. 1813, it was 
taken by the Ruffians. It is feventy-two miles north- 
north-eaft of Kdniglherg. Lat. 55. 50. N. Ion. 21. 25. E. 
MEM'EL, a river. See Niemen. 
MEM'ELS, a town of Germany, in the county of Hen- 
n.eberg: five mires north-weft of Meinungen. 
MEM'END. See Meimend, p. 30. 
MEM'ENE, a town of the ifland of Ceylon, near the 
eaft coaft : eighty-fix miles eaft-fouth-eaft of Candy. 
MEMEN'TO, f. [Latin.] A memorial; notice ; a hint 
to awaken the memory.—Our mafter, for his learning and 
piety, is not only a precedent to his own fubjects, but to 
foreign princes ; yet lie is but a mail, and feafonable me¬ 
mento's may be ufeful. Bacon .—Is not the frequent fpec- 
tacle of other people’s deaths a memento fufficient to make 
you think of your own ? L' EJlrange. 
MEMINIS'CA, a lake of Canada. Lat. 52. 20. N. Ion. 
S8. 50. W. 
MEMLE'BEN, a town of Saxony, in Thuringia: three 
miles eaft of Wiehe. 
MEM'MINGEN, a town of Bavaria, on the Iller. This 
town was imperial, till, in the } r ear 1805, it was given 
among the indemnities to the king of Bavaria. The in¬ 
habitants are chiefly Lutherans, and its principal church 
of St. Martin’s belongs entirely to thofe of that commu¬ 
nion ; but th.e church of our Lady is pofiefied by them in 
common with the Roman Catholics, by virtue of an agree¬ 
ment made in the year 1569. 
It is uncertain whether Memmingen anciently belonged 
to the Guelphs of Aitorf or not; it is certain, however, 
that Guelph VI. frequently refided at this place. So 
early as the days of the emperor Frederic I. it was a free 
imperial town ; and on the failure of the Guelph-Aitorf 
family, fecured itfelf fo effeftuaily in its imperial freedom, 
that king Rudolph acknowledged and confirmed it therein 
by a charter, bearing date 1286. The emperors Charles IV. 
and Wencefi.us alfo engaged to maintain it in its imme¬ 
diate dependency on the empire. With Swiflerland, Italy, 
and other countries adjacent, it carries on a good trade in 
fait, home-fpun linen, hops, grain, and other goods. In 
the year 164.7, after a vigorous fiege of nine weeks by the 
Imperialifts and Bavarians, k furrendered, as incapable of 
farther refiftance. It is twenty-two miles fouth-fouth-eaft 
MEM 
of Ulm, and thirty-three weft-fouth-weft of Augfburg. 
Lat. 48. 3. N. Ion. 10.7. E. 
MEM'NON, in fabulous hiftory, a king of Ethiopia, 
fon ot Tithonus and Aurora. He came with a body of 
10,000 men to affift his uncle Priam, during the Trojan 
war. Fie behaved with great courage ; and killed Anti- 
lochus, Neftor’s fon. The aged father challenged the 
Ethiopian monarch; but Memnon refufediton account of 
the venerable age of Neftor, and accepted that of Achilles. 
He was killed in the combat, in the fight of the Grecian 
and Trojan armies. Aurora prayed Jupiter to grant her 
Ion fuch honours as might diftinguifh him from other mor¬ 
tals. The god confented; and immediately a numerous 
flight of birds iffued from the burning pile on which the 
body was laid, and, dividing themfelves into two feparate 
bodies, fought with fuch fury, that above half of them fell 
down in the fire as victims to appeafe the manes of Memnon. 
Thefe birds were called Mcmnonides; and it has been ob- 
ferved by fome of the ancients, that they never failed to 
return yearly to the tomb of Memnon in Troas, and re¬ 
peat the fame bloody engagement in honour of the hero 
from whom they received their name. The Ethiopians or 
Egyptians, over whom Memnon reigned, erefted a cele¬ 
brated ftatue to the honour of their monarch. This ftatue 
had the wonderful property of uttering a melodious found 
every day at fun-nfing, like that which is heard at the 
breaking of the firing of a harp when it is wound up. 
This was effe&eij by the rays of the fun when they fell 
upon it. At the fetting of the lun, and in the night, the 
found was lugubrious. This is fupported by the tefti- 
mony of the geographer Strabo, who confefles himfelf ig¬ 
norant whether it proceeded from the bafts of the ftatue, 
or the people that were then around it. This celebrated 
ftatue was difmantled by order of Cambyfes when lie con¬ 
quered Egypt; and its ruins ftill aftonifh modern travel¬ 
lers by their grandeur and beauty. See the article Egypt, 
vol. vi. p. 350. 
MEM'NON, a native of Rhodes, was a general in the 
fervice of the laft Perfian king Darius, whom he ferved, 
with great fidelity, againlt Alexander the Great. When 
that conqueror had landed in Alia, and was advancing up 
the country, Memnon advifed him not to hazard a battle, 
but to lay wafte the country before the invader. His 
counfel was rejected ; and the battle of the Granicus, in 
the year 334 B. C. followed, in which Memnon, at the 
head of the Greek mercenaries, difplayed the greateft va¬ 
lour. After the defeat, he obtained, by his valour, the 
moft honourable conditions ; and was almoft immediately 
after created the high admiral of Darius, and governor of 
the Lower Afia. He had now the important command of 
the city of Halicarnafius, when it was befieged by Alex¬ 
ander, and employed every effort in his power to lave it. 
The fiege was continued a long time ; and great numbers 
of the Macedonians loft their lives before the place. 
Memnon was generous as well as courageous ; for, when 
the fugitive Greek commanders, through hatred of Alex¬ 
ander, oppofed the demand from the Macedonians of per- 
miftlon to bury their dead, he would'not liften to their re- 
monftrances, alleging that it was unworthy of a Greek to 
refufe the rites of burial even to an enemy ; and, hearing 
one of his lofdiers abufing Alexander in grofs and vulgar 
terms, he ftruck him with his javelin, faying u I hired you 
to fight Alexander, not to revile him.” When he found 
the place no longer tenable, he threw a ftrong garrifon into 
the citadel, and with his troops, and the inhabitants with 
their effects, embarked for the ifland of Cos. Fie then ad- 
viled Darius to make apowerful diverfion into. Macedonia, 
as the only m .ns of frying himfelf from deftruction. 
Darius gave him full power to levy troops; and he ex¬ 
erted himfelf with fo much vigour, that he reduced feveral 
of the Cyclades, and the ifland of Chios and Lefbos, ex¬ 
cepting Mityiene, the capital of the latter. While carry¬ 
ing on a fiege againft that city he died, and thus freed 
Alexander from the only foe of whom he. flood in awe. 
Memnon had married Barline, a Perfian iady of high rank, 
who. 
