Nisus

, a son of Hyrtacus, born on mount Ida near Troy. He came to Italy with Æneas, and signalized himself by his valour against the Rutulians. He was united in the closest friendship with Euryalus, a young Trojan, and with him he entered, in the dead of night, the enemy’s camp. As they were returning victorious, after much bloodshed, they were perceived by the Rutulians, who attacked Euryalus. Nisus, in endeavouring to rescue his friend from the enemy’s darts, perished himself with him, and their heads were cut off and fixed on a spear, and carried in triumph to the camp. Their death was greatly lamented by all the Trojans, and their great friendship, like that of a Pylades and an Orestes, or of a These us and Pirithous, is become proverbial. Virgil , Æneid , bk. 9 , li. 176 , . ――A king of Dulichium, remarkable for his probity and virtue. Homer , Ody ey , bk. 18 .――A king of Megara, son of Mars, or more probably of Pandion. He inherited his father’s kingdom with his brothers, and received as his portion the country of Megaris. The peace of the brothers was interrupted by the hostilities of Minos, who wished to avenge the death of his son Androgeus, who had been murdered by the A then i ans. Megara was besieged, and Attica laid waste. The fate of Nisus depended totally upon a yellow lock, which, as long as it continued upon his head, according to the words of an oracle, promised him life, and succe to his affairs. His daughter Scylla (often called Niseia Virgo ) saw from the walls of Megara the royal besieger, and she became desperately enamoured of him. To obtain a more immediate interview with this object of her pa ion, she stole away the fatal hair from her father’s head as he was asleep; the town was immediately taken, but Minos disregarded the services of Scylla, and she threw herself into the sea. The gods changed her into a lark, and Nisus a umed the nature of the hawk at the very moment that he gave himself death, not to fall into the enemy’s hands. These two birds have continually been at variance with each other, and Scylla, by her apprehensions at the sight of her father, seems to suffer the punishment which her perfidy deserved. Apollo dor us , bk. 3 , ch. 15 .— Pausanias , bk. 1 , ch. 19 .— Strabo , bk. 9 .— Ovid , Metamorphoses , bk. 8 , li. 6 , . — Virgil , Georgics , bk. 1 , li. 404 , .