of Melos (fl. 458-415 B.C.), a poet and philosopher, who in ancient times obtained the surname of the Atheist. He is said to have been a scholar of Democritus, and to have exchanged the superstition of his early dithyrambs for an undisguised system of atheism. Having been defrauded by a man to whom he had intrusted one of his writings, he was provoked to deny the existence of a God on account of the violation of justice in permitting the villain to go unpunished. Despite the religious susceptibilities of antiquity, perhaps he might have succeeded in living peacefully had he only endangered the truths of natural religion; but he went farther, and boldly assailed the popular religion. At Athens, with Alcibiades and others, he ventured to ridicule the Eleusinian mysteries. For this offence he was tried, and was compelled to seek safety in flight; since a price was fixed upon his head to any one who should bring him dead or alive. He escaped, however, to Corinth, where he died in peace.