Melas
Μέλας
Melas (Μέλας).
1.
A small river of Cappadocia, which had its sources on Mount Argaeus (Ptol. 5.6.8), and flowed in a north-western direction past the town of Mazaca, frequently overflowing its banks and forming marshes. (Strab. xii. p.538, &c.) It emptied itself into the river Halys, opposite the town of Siva. Strabo (l.c.) erroneously describes the Melas as a tributary of the Euphrates, as has been shown by Hamilton in the Journal of the Geogr. Society, vol. viii. p. 149 (comp. his Researches, ii. p. 259, &c.). The river still bears a name answering to the ancient Melas, Kara-Su, that is, the Black River.
2.
A navigable river in Pamphylia, flooring in a southern direction from Mount Taurus towards the sea, into which it emptied itself 50 stadia to the east of Side. (Plin. Nat. 5.22; Strab. xiv. p.667; Paus. 8.28.2; Mela, 1.14; Zosim. 5.16, 6.3; Stadiasm. Mar. Magn. § § 193, 194.) Its modern name is Menavgat-Su. (Leake, Asia Minor, p. 196.)
3.
A small river in Pontus Polemoniacus, in the country of the Macrones. (Plin. Nat. 6.4.) [L.S]
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.