MÆANDER, in Ancient Geography, a celebrated river of Asia Minor, rising near Celene. It flows through Caria and Ionia into the Ægean sea between Miletus and Priene, after it has been increased by the waters of the Mariyas, Lycus Eudon, Lethaeus, &c. It is celebrated among the poets for its windings, which amount to not less than 600, and from which all obliques have received the name of mæanders. It forms in its course, according to the observation of some travellers, the Greek letters Ζ, Ξ, & ω; and from its windings Dædalus is said to have had the first idea of his famous labyrinth.