Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Meton 1.

by William Smith

METON（Μέτων), a citizen of Tarentum, who, when the decree was proposed for calling in the assistance of Pyrrhus, came into the assembly of the people, in the garb of a reveller, and accompanied by a flute-player, as if just come from a banquet. When the people laughed at him and called out to him to sing them a song, he answered, "You are right to encourage men to sing and make merry now while they can, for when Pyrrhus is arrived we shall have to lead a very different sort of life." By this artifice he produced a great effect upon the assembly; but the decree was nevertheless carried. (Plut. Pyrrh. 13; Dion Cass. Fr. Vat. 45, p. 169, ed. Mai; Dionys. xvii. 13, 14.) [E. H. B.]