A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

Smith, William

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. William Smith, LLD, ed. 1890

(Μινύαι), an ancient race of heroes at Orchomenos, Iolcos, and other places. Their ancestral hero, Minyas, is said to have migrated from Thessaly into the northern parts of Boeotia, and there to have established the powerful race of the Minvans, with the capital of Orchomenos. As the greater part of the Argonauts were descended from the Minyans, they are themselves called Minyae; and the descendants of the Argonauts founded a colony in Lemnos, which was called Minyae. Thence they proceeded to Elis Triphylia, and to the island of Thera. (Hdt. 1.146, 4.145; Pind. O. 14.4, Pyth. 4.69; Apollon. 1.229; Strab. ix. pp. 404, 414, viii. pp. 337, 347; Paus. 7.2.2, ix 36; comp. Müller, Orchom. u. die Minyer.)

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