Limnaeus Explained

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

Greek Mythology

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

• Limnaea (Λιμναία), an ancient town of Thessaly.^[9]
• Limnaea (Acarnania), a city in ancient Acarnania.^[10]

Names

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

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

Notes and References

1. [LSJ]
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. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0029%3Abook%3D5%3Acard%3D1 Ovid, Metamorphoses 5. 47
9. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0059:entry=Limnaea Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary, Limnaea
10. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0062:entry=limnaea-harpers Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898), Limnaea
11. SEG 38.619
12. [Polybius]