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

(Μελία), a nymph, a daughter of Oceanus, became by Inachus the mother of Phoroneus and Aegialeus or Pegeus. (Apollod. 2.1.1; Schol. ad Eurip. Orest. 920.) By Seilenus she became the mother of the centaur, Pholus (Apollod. 2.5.4), and by Poseidon of Amycus. (Apollon. 2.4; Serv. ad Aen. 5.373.) She was carried off by Apollo, and became by him the mother of Ismenius (some call her own brother Ismenus, Schol. ad Pind. Pyth. 11.5; Tzetz. ad Lyc. 1211), and of the seer Tenerus. She was worshipped in the Apollinian sanctuary, the Ismenium, near Thebes. (Paus. 9.10.5, 26.1; Strab. p. 413. )

In the plural form Μελιαι or Μειάδες is the name of the nymphs, who, along with the Gigantes and Erinnyes, sprang from the drops of blood that fell from Uranus, and which were received by Gaea. (Hes. Th. 187.) The nymphs that nursed Zeus are likewise called Meliae. (Callim. Hymn. in Joy. 47; Eustath. ad Horn. p. 1963.)

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