d Melesigenes soon surpassed his schoolfellows in every
attainment, and, when older, rivalled his preceptor in wisdom. Phemius
died, leaving him sole heir to his property, and his mother soon followed.
Melesigenes carried on his adopted father's school with great success,
exciting the admiration not only of the inhabitants of Smyrna, but also of
the strangers whom the trade carried on there, especially in the
exportation of corn, attracted to that city. Among these visitors, one
Mentes, from Leucadia, the modern Santa Maura, who evinced a knowledge and
intelligence rarely found in those times, persuaded Melesigenes to close
his school, and accompany him on his travels. He promised not only to pay
his expenses, but to furnish him with a further stipend, urging, that,
"While he was yet young, it was fitting that he should see with his own
eyes the countries and cities which might hereafter be the subjects of his
discourses." Melesigenes consented, and set out with his patron,
"examining all the curiosities of the countries they visited, and
informing himself of everything by interrogating those whom he met." We
may also suppose, that he wrote memoirs of all that he deemed worthy of
preservation(2) Having set sail from Tyrrhenia and Iberia, they reached
Ithaca. Here Melesigenes, who had already suffered in his eyes, became
much worse, and Mentes, who was about to leave for Leucadia, left him to
the medical superintendence of a friend of his, named Mentor, the son of
Alcinor. Under his hospitable and intelligent host, Melesigenes rapidly
became acquainted with the legends respecting Ulysses, which afterwards
formed the subject of the Odyssey. The inhabitants of Ithaca assert, that
it was here that Melesigenes became blind, but the Colophomans make their
city the seat of that misfortune. He then returned to Smyrna, where he
applied himself to the study of poetry.(3)

But poverty soon drove him to Cumae. Having passed over the Hermaean
plain, he arrived at Neon Teichos, the New Wall, a colony of Cumae. Here
his misfortunes and poetical talent gained him the friendship of one
Tychias, an armourer. "And up to my time," continued the author, "the
inhabitants showed the place where he used to sit when giving a recitation
of his verses, and they greatly honoured the spot. Here also a poplar
grew, which they said had sprung up ever since Melesigenes arrived".(4)

But poverty still drove him on, and he went by way of Larissa, as bein