two branches, which between them encircled the walls; and the walls themselves were constructed to a height of about 3 to 6 feet of stone, the rest being of unbaked brick. These are the walls of which the remains are still extant. There are towers about every 80 ft.; and the gates are so arranged that the passage inwards usually runs from right to left, and so an attacking force would have to expose its right or shieldless side. Within the walls the most conspicuous landmark is the theatre, which, unlike the majority of Greek theatres, consists entirely of an artificial mound standing up from the level plain. Only about a quarter of its original height remains. Its scena is of rather irregular shape, and borders one of the narrow ends of the agora. Close to it are the foundations of several temples, one of them sacred to the hero Podaros. The agora is of unsymmetrical form; its sides are bordered by porticoes, interrupted by streets, like the primitive agora of Elis as described by Pausanias, and unlike the regular agoras of Ionic type. Most of these porticoes were of Roman period—the finest of them were erected, as we learn from inscriptions, by a lady named Epigone: one, which faced south, had a double colonnade, and was called the Βαίτη: close to it was a large exedra. The foundations of a square market-hall of earlier date were found beneath this. On the opposite side of the agora was an extensive Bouleuterion or senate-house. Traces remain of paved roads both within the agora and leading out of it; but the whole site is now a deserted and feverish swamp. The site is interesting for comparison with Megalopolis; the nature of its plan seems to imply that its main features must survive from the earlier “synoecism” a century before the time of Epaminondas.
See Strabo viii. 337; Pausanias viii. 8; Thucyd. iv. 134, v.; Xenophon, Hellenica, iv.-vii.; Diodorus xv. 85-87; Polybius ii. 57 sqq., vi. 43; D. Worenka, Mantineia (1905); B. V. Head, Historia numorum (Oxford, 1887), pp. 376–377; G. Fougères in Bulletin de correspondance hellénique (1890), id. Mantinée et l’Arcadie orientale (Paris, 1898). Consult also Tegea; Arcadia.
Five battles are recorded to have been fought near Mantineia; 418, 362 (see above), 295 (Demetrius Poliorcetes defeats Archidamus of Sparta), 242 (Aratus beats Agis of Sparta), 207 (Philopoemen beats Machanidas of Sparta). The battles of 362 and 207 are discussed at length by J. Kromayer, Antike Schlachtfelder in Griechenland (Berlin, 1903), 27–123, 281–314; Wiener Studien (1905), pp. 1–16. (E. Gr.)
MANTIS, an insect belonging to the order Orthoptera. Probably
no other insect has been the subject of so many and widespread
legends and superstitions as the common “praying
mantis,” Mantis religiosa, L. The ancient Greeks endowed
it with supernatural powers (μάντις, a diviner); the Turks and
Arabs hold that it prays constantly with its face turned
towards Mecca; the Provençals call it Prega-Diou (Prie-Dieu);
and numerous more or less similar names—preacher, saint,
nun, mendicant, soothsayer, &c.—are widely diffused throughout
southern Europe. In Nubia it is held in great esteem,
and the Hottentots, if not indeed worshipping the local species
(M. fausta), as one traveller has alleged, at least appear to
regard its alighting upon any person both as a token of saintliness
and an omen of good fortune.
Yet these are “not the saints but the tigers of the insect world.” The front pair of limbs are very peculiarly modified—the coxa being greatly elongated, while the strong third joint or femur bears on its curved underside a channel armed on each edge by strong movable spines. Into this groove the stout tibia is capable of closing like the blade of a penknife, its sharp, serrated edge being adapted to cut and hold. Thus armed, with head raised upon the much-elongated and semi-erect prothorax, and with the half-opened fore-limbs held outwards in the characteristic devotional attitude, it rests motionless upon the four posterior limbs waiting for prey, or occasionally stalks it with slow and silent movements, finally seizing it with its knife-blades and devouring it. Although apparently not daring to attack ants, these insects destroy great numbers of flies, grasshoppers and caterpillars, and the larger South-American species even attack small frogs, lizards and birds. They are very pugnacious, fencing with their sword-like limbs “like hussars with sabres,” the larger frequently devouring the smaller, and the females the males. The Chinese keep them in bamboo cages, and match them like fighting-cocks.
The common species fixes its somewhat nut-like egg capsules on the stems of plants in September. The young are hatched in early summer, and resemble the adults, but are without wings.
 |
| Praying Mantis (Mantis religiosa). |
The green coloration and shape of the typical mantis are procryptic, serving to conceal the insect alike from its enemies and prey. The passage from leaf to flower simulation is but a step which, without interfering with the protective value of the coloration so far as insectivorous foes are concerned, carries with it the additional advantage of attracting flower-feeding insects within reach of the raptorial limbs. This method of allurement has been perfected in certain tropical species of Mantidae by the development on the prothorax and raptorial limbs of laminate expansions so coloured on the under side as to resemble papilionaceous or other blossoms, to which the likeness is enhanced by a gentle swaying kept up by the insect in imitation of the effect of a lightly blowing breeze. As instances of this may be cited Idalum diabolicum, an African insect, and Gongylus gongyloides, which comes from India. Examples of another species (Empusa eugena) when standing upon the ground deceptively imitate in shape and hue a greenish white anemone tinted at the edges with rose; and Bates records what appears to be a true case of aggressive mimicry practised by a Brazilian species which exactly resembles the white ants it preys upon.
MANTIS-FLY, the name given to neuropterous insects of
the family Mantispidae, related to the ant-lions, lace-wing
flies, &c., and named from their superficial resemblance to
a Mantis owing to the length of the prothorax and the shape
and prehensorial nature of the anterior legs. The larva, at
first campodeiform, makes its way into the egg-case of a spider
or the nest of a wasp to feed upon the eggs or young. Subsequently
it changes into a fat grub with short legs. When
full grown it spins a silken cocoon in which the transformation
into the pupa is effected. The latter escapes from its double
case before moulting into the mature insect.
MANTLE, a long flowing cloak without sleeves, worn by either sex. Particularly applied to the long robe worn over the armour by the men-at-arms of the middle ages, the name is still given to the robes of state of kings, peers, and the members of an order of knights. Thus the “electoral mantle” was a robe of office worn by the imperial electors, and the Teutonic knights were known as the orde alborum mantellorum from their white mantles. As an article of women’s dress a mantle now means a loose cloak or cape, of any length, and made of silk, velvet, or other rich material. The word is derived from the Latin mantellum or mantelum, a cloak, and is probably the same as, or another form of, mantelium or mantele, a table-napkin or table-cloth, from manus, hand, and tela, a cloth. A late Latin mantum, from which several Romance languages have taken words (cf. Ital. manto, and Fr. mante), must, as the New English Dictionary points out, be a “back-formation,” and this will explain the diminutive form of the Spanish mantilla. From the old French mantel came the English
