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Melia (mythology)

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{{Other uses|Melia (disambiguation){{!}}Melia}}{{Greek myth (nymph)}}In Greek mythology, Melia or Melie (Ancient Greek Μελία, Μελίη) was the name of several figures.Smith, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DM%3Aentry+group%3D17%3Aentry%3Dmelia-bio-1 s.v. Melia]. The name Melia comes from μελία, the ancient Greek word for ash-tree.LSJ [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dmeli%2Fa s.v. μελία]; Frazer's note 2 to Apollodorus, [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:2.5.4 2.5.4] In the plural, the Meliae were a class of nymphs associated with trees, particularly ash-trees. There were several other nymphs (or possible nymphs) named Melia, not necessarily associated with trees, these include:Joseph Fontenrose, p. 318, referring to these Melian nymphs, grandly speculates that "there appear to be one and the same original behind all these nymphs; the chaos demoness who was the first mother of all creatures."

  • Melia, a Theban cult figure, who was the mother of Tenerus and Ismenus, by Apollo. She was said to be a daughter of Oceanus.
  • Melia, mother of Phoroneus and Aegialeus, by her brother Inachus, the Argive river-god. She was also said to be a daughter of Oceanus.
  • Melia, an Oceanid and a Bithynian nymph, who was the mother, by Poseidon, of Amycus, king of the Bebryces.
  • Melia, the mother by Silenus of Dolion, the eponym of the Doliones. This is according to the third-century BC poet and grammarian Alexander Aetolus, as reported by the late first-century BC-early first-century AD geographer Strabo.Fowler 2013, [https://books.google.com/books?id=scd8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA219 p. 219]; Alexander Aetolus fr. 9 Powell = Strabo, [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0099.tlg001.perseus-eng1:12.4.8 12.4.8], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0099.tlg001.perseus-eng1:14.5.29 14.5.29]; cf. Apollodorus, [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:2.5.4 2.5.4] where an unnamed Melian nymph is the mother by Silenus of the centaur Pholus.
  • Melia, the mother by Apollo of Keos, the eponym of the island Keos, according to the third-century BC poet Callimachus.Fowler 2013, [https://books.google.com/books?id=scd8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA511 pp. 511, 512]; Callimachus, Aetia fr. 75.62 (Trypanis, Gelzer, and Whitman, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/callimachus-aetia/1973/pb_LCL421.61.xml pp, 60, 61]).

Two other personages named Melia, are known from scholia citing the fifth-century BC mythographer Pherecydes:

Notes

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References

  • Callimachus: Aetia, Iambi, Hecale and Other Fragments; Musaeus: Hero and Leander. Edited and translated by C. A. Trypanis, T. Gelzer, Cedric H. Whitman. Loeb Classical Library No. 421. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1973. {{ISBN|978-0-674-99463-8}}. [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL421/1973/volume.xml Online version at Harvard University Press].
  • Fontenrose, Joseph Eddy, Python: A Study of Delphic Myth and Its Origins, University of California Press, 1959. {{ISBN|9780520040915}}.
  • Fowler, R. L. (2000), Early Greek Mythography: Volume 1: Text and Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2000. {{ISBN|978-0198147404}}.
  • Fowler, R. L. (2013), Early Greek Mythography: Volume 2: Commentary, Oxford University Press, 2013. {{ISBN|978-0198147411}}.
  • Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: {{ISBN|978-0-8018-5360-9}} (Vol. 1), {{ISBN|978-0-8018-5362-3}} (Vol. 2).
  • Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1867). [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.04.0104 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library]
  • Strabo, Geography, translated by Horace Leonard Jones; Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. (1924). [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/home.html LacusCurtis], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0198%3Abook%3D6%3Achapter%3D1%3Asection%3D1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library, Books 6–14].

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