Chapter Middle Ages to Milesian Fables of M by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Mildew has nothing to do with either mills or dew. It is the Gaelic mehl-thoew (injurious or destructive blight).

Milesian Fables The romances of Antonius Diogenes, described by Photius, but no longer extant. They were greedily read by the luxurious Sybarites, and appear to have been of a very coarse amatory character. They were complied by Aristides, and translated into Latin by Sisenna, about the time of the civil wars of Marius and Sylla.
   The tales of Parthenius Nicenus were borrowed from them. The name is from the Milesians, a Greek colony, the first to catch from the Persians their rage for fiction. Parthenius taught Virgil Greek.