Megaris

Megaris, a small mountainous region of Hellas, or Greece proper, lying between Attica and the Isthmus of Corinth. The people were excellent sailors, and founded several colonies, of which the most famous were Byzantium (667 B.C.), Chalcedon, and Megara (Hyblæa) in Sicily. They were generally regarded as guilty of deception and dissimulation, hence the phrase 'Megarian tears.' The capital was Megara, long an important commercial city, and famous for its white shell marble, and for a white kind of clay, of which pottery was made.—From Euclid (q.v.) the philosopher, who, as well as Theognis the poet, was born at Megara, the Megaric school took its name.