Melia (Oceanid)

In Greek mythology, Melia is the name of one (or two) of the Oceanid daughters of Oceanus and Tethys.

The late 6th–early 5th century BC Greek poet Pindar tells us that Melia, a daughter of Oceanus, was, by Apollo, the mother of the seer Tenerus.^[1] The 2nd century AD Greek geographer Pausanias, provides a more complete account.^[2] According to Pausanias, Melia was abducted, and Melia's father Oceanus, ordered his son Caanthus to find her. Caanthus found her at Thebes being held by Apollo. Unable to get Melia away from Apollo, Caanthus set fire to Apollo's sanctuary, and Apollo shot and killed him. In addition to Tenerus, to whom Apollo gave the "art of divination", Melia had another son by Apollo, Ismenus, after whom the river was named. However, the 3rd century BC poet Callimachus, appears to make this Melia, rather than be a daughter of Oceanus, one of the "earth-born" Meliae, the ash tree nymphs, who, according to Hesiod, were the daughters of Gaia [Earth] and Uranus's blood, which dripped on Gaia, when Uranus was castrated by Cronus.^[3]

According to the mythographer Apollodorus, another Melia, also an Oceanid, (or possibly the same as the above Melia) was the wife of her brother Inachus, the son of Oceanus and Tethys, and the god of the Inacos River, by whom Melia had two sons, Phoroneus, and Aegialeus.^[4] However, according to the Latin mythographer Hyginus, Inachus fathered Phoroneus by an Oceanid nymph named Argia. This Melia was also said to have been the mother, by Inachus, of Mycene, the wife of Arestor, and eponym of Mycenae.^[5]

Notes

1. Pindar, Paean 9 fr. 52k 38–46; Larson, pp. 40–41, 142.
2. Pausanias, 9.10.5, 6, 9.26.1; Larson, p. 142.
3. Callimachus, Hymn 4—To Delos 79–85; Hesiod, Theogony 187; Larson, p. 142.
4. Apollodorus, 2.1.1; Larson, p. 149; Hard, p. 276.
5. Scholiast on the Odyssey 2.120 (West, pp. 160, 161 8*); compare with Pausanias, 2.16.4, which, citing the Great Ehoiai, says that Mycene was the daughter of Inachus and the wife of Arestor, without naming the mother.

References

• Apollodorus, Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Callimachus, Callimachus and Lycophron with an English translation by A. W. Mair ; Aratus, with an English translation by G. R. Mair, London: W. Heinemann, New York: G. P. Putnam 1921. Internet Archive
• Hard, Robin, The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004, ISBN 978-0-415-18636-0.
• Hesiod, Theogony, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Larson, Jennifer, "Greek Nymphs : Myth, Cult, Lore", Oxford University Press (US). June 2001. ISBN 978-0-19-512294-7
• Pausanias, Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Pindar, Olympian Odes. Pythian Odes. Edited and translated by William H. Race. Loeb Classical Library No. 56. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997. ISBN 978-0-674-99564-2. Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Pindar, Nemean Odes. Isthmian Odes. Fragments, Edited and translated by William H. Race. Loeb Classical Library No. 485. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997. ISBN 978-0-674-99534-5. Online version at Harvard University Press.
• West, M. L., Greek Epic Fragments: From the Seventh to the Fifth Centuries BC. Edited and translated by Martin L. West. Loeb Classical Library No. 497. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003. Online version at Harvard University Press.