Mahomet c. 570–632 a.d.; Arab prophet; founder of Islam.
Majorca island of Spain, largest of the Balearic Islands.
making figs an obscene gesture, still used in Italy today.
Manto sorceress after whom Mantua is named.
Mantua commune in Lombardy, Northern Italy; birthplace of Virgil.
Mantuan from Mantua.
Maremma low, unhealthful, but fertile marshy land near the sea, especially in Italy.
Mars Roman Mythology. the god of war.
Medea Greek Mythology. a sorceress who helps Jason get the Golden Fleece and later, when deserted by him, kills their children and his new lover.
Medusa Greek Mythology. one of the three Gorgons, slain by Perseus, who turns mortal humans to stone if they look at her.
Megaera Greek and Roman Mythology. one of the three Furies.
Michael Bible. one of the archangels.
Michael Scot Irish scholar; dealt with the occult.
Michael Zanche father-in-law to Branca D'Oria; can be found in the sticky pitch of Canto XXII.
middle tierce seven thirty.
Mighty One Christ.
Minos Greek Mythology. a king of Crete, son of Zeus by Europa; after he dies he becomes one of the three judges of the dead in the lower world. In mythology, Minos is a compassionate judge. He refused to judge his wife Paesaphe when she had an affair with a bull, producing the Minotaur, because he had never been exposed to such violent passions. Dante ignores this and makes Minos into a stern and horribly bestial judge.
Minotaur Greek Mythology. a monster with the body of a man and the head of a bull (in some versions, with the body of a bull and the head of a man), confined by Minos in a labyrinth built by Daedalus, and annually fed seven youths and seven maidens from Athens, until killed by Theseus.
Mongibello Mount Edna, where Vulcan had his forge.
Muses the nine goddesses who preside over literature and the arts and sciences.
Narcissus' mirror Greek Myth. a beautiful youth who, after Echo's death, is made to pine away for love of his own reflection in a spring and changes into the narcissus.
Neptune Roman Mythology. the god of the sea; the same as the Greek Poseidon.
Nessus Centaur who tried to abduct Hercules' wife and was killed for doing so.
Ninus husband of Semiramis.
Opizzo da Esti cruel Ghibelline tyrant.
our first parent Adam.
