Medeon

ME´DEON(Μεδεών: Eth. Μεδεώνιος).

1. Or MEDION(Μεδίων : Katúna), a town in the interior of Acarnania, on the road from Stratus and Phytia (or Phoeteiae) to Limnaea on the Ambraciot gulf. It was one of the few towns in the interior of the country which maintained its independence against the Aetolians after the death of Alexander the Great. At length, in B.C. 231, the Aetolians laid siege to Medeon with a large force, and had reduced it to great distress, when they were attacked by a body of Illyrian mercenaries, who had been sent by sea by Demetrius, king of Macedonia, in order to relieve the place. The Aetolians were defeated, and obliged to retreat with the loss of their camp, arms, and baggage. Medeon is again mentioned in B.C. 191, as one of the Acarnanian towns, of which Antiochus, king of Syria, obtained possession in that year. (Thuc. 3.106; Plb. 2.2, 3; Liv. 36.11, 12; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. 3. p. 575.)


2. A town of Phocis, destroyed along with the other Phocian towns at the termination of the Sacred War, and never again restored. (Paus. 10.3.2.) Strabo places it on the Crissaean gulf, at the distance of 160 stadia from Boeotia (ix. pp. 410, 423); and Pausanias says that it was near Anticyra (10.36.6; comp. Steph. B. s. v.). Leake places it at Dhesfína. ( Northern Greece, vol. 2. p. 548.)


3. An ancient town of Boeotia, mentioned by Homer (Hom. Il. 2.501), is described by Strabo as a dependency of Haliartus, and situated near Onchestus, at the foot of Mt. Phoenicium, from which position it was afterwards called Phoenicis (ix. pp. 410, 423; comp. Steph. B. s. v.; Plin. Nat. 4.7. s. 12). It appears to have stood near the lake, in the bay on the north-western side of Mount Fagá, between the site of Haliartus and Kardhítza. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. 2. p. 215.)


4. A town of the Labeates, in Dalmatia in Illyricum. (Liv. 44.23, 32.)