MOLOCH

The name of the chief God of the Phoenicians, frequently mentioned in Scripture as the God of the Ammonites, and probably the same as the Saturn of the Syrians and Cart hag in i ans. Human sacrifices were offered at the shrine of this divinity; and it was chiefly in the valley of Tophet, to the east of Jerusalem, that this brutal idolatry was perpetrated. Solomon built a temple to Moloch upon the Mount of Olives, and Mana eh long after imitated his impiety by making his son pa through the fire kindled in honour of this horrid king. Milton has described the character of Moloch in the following well-known lines: — First Moloch, horrid king, besmear'd with blood Of human sacrifice and parents' tears; Though for the noise of drums and timbrels loud Their children's cries unheard, that pa ed through fire To his grim Idol. Him the Ammonite Worshipt in Rabba and her watery plain. In Argob and in Basan, to the stream Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with such Audacious neighbourhood, the wisest heart Of Solomon he led by fraud to build His temple right against the temple of God, On that opprobrious hill; and made his grove The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence And blaclc Gehenna call'd, the type of Hell. MOL O' S S U S. In Greek and Latin poetrj% a foot consisting of three long syllables, as;^«/gei'ra<, regnabant. It is said to derive its name eitlier from a favourite d;ince of the Molo i, a people of Epirus; or from Jupiter Molo us, in whose honour odes were composed in which this foot had a great share. MOLYBDENUM. {Gr. /MiXvShoi, lead.) This name was originally applied to the native sulphuret of molybdenum, which was considered to be an ore of lead; it was afterwards shown to be the ore of a peculiar metal, to which the name molybdenum was given. It is white, brittle, very infusible, and of a specific gravity about 8-6. It forms two oxides and an acid. The equivalent of the metal is about 48; and the molybdic acid consists of 1 atom of molybdenum and 3 of oxygen, and is represented by the equivalent 72. The compounds of this acid are called molybdates. The molybdate of lead has been found native. [s. 773]