a philosopher of Samos, was the disciple of Parmenides and Heraclius; he flourished B.C. 444, and was the contemporary of Zeno of Velia, and Empedocles. He did not confine himself to the abstruse questions of philosophy, but took an active part in the political affairs of his country. We find him commanding the fleet of his native island against Pericles, B.C. 440, but he did not succeed in preventing the island from falling into the hands of the Athenians. (Plut. Pericl. c. 26, 27.) Melissus supposed that the universe was infinite, unchangeable, and immovable. He denied the reality of motion, maintaining that it was merely a deception of the senses. Of the gods he maintained that we know nothing, and therefore cannot enter into a discussion respecting their power and attributes. (Diogenes Laërt. i. ix.) He was the author of a work, ὑπὸ τοῦ ἀτόμου, on Nature, of which Eusebius has preserved a fragment in his Preparatio Evangelica, xiv.; and another, De Animalibus, of which Fulgentius has inserted in his mythology what Melissus mentions respecting the swan. Fabricius, Biblioth. Graeca, i. p. 820.)