In Greek mythology, the Meliae (also called Meliads) (; or ) were usually considered to be the of the Fraxinus, whose name they shared.[Caldwell, p. 38 n. 178–187: "The nymphs called Meliai are properly "ash-tree" nymphs; the Greek word for ash-trees is meliai also", and according to Larson, p. 29: "most commentators agree" that "the Meliai are ash-tree nymphs", although according to West, p. 221 n. 187 Μελίας, in Callimachus, Hymn 4—To Delos 79–85, and Nonnus' Dionysiaca, and probably in Hesiod as well, the Meliae are simply "tree-nymphs, probably without distinction of the particular kind of tree".]
Mythology
According to
Hesiod, the Meliae (probably meaning all tree-nymphs) were born from the drops of blood that fell on Gaia Earth when
Cronus castrated Uranus.
[Hesiod, Theogony 182–187; West, p. 221 n. 187 Μελίας; Hard, p. 209.] In
Hesiod's
Works and Days, the ash trees, perhaps meaning the Melian nymphs, are said to have been the progenitors of the generation of men belonging to Hesiod's Bronze Age.
[Hesiod, Works and Days 140–155 (Evelyn-White): "Zeus the Father made a third generation of mortal men, a brazen race, sprung from ash-trees meliai", here interpreting meliai as the common noun ash-trees, as did Eustathius. However Proclus thought it meant ash-tree nymphs (see Evelyn-White's note; Larson, p. 29), cf. Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 4.1641–1642, which makes it simply "ash-trees". According to Most, p. 19 n. 9, "It is unclear what exactly the relation is between the Melian nymphs, the ash trees with which they are closely associated, and human beings, who may have originated from one or the other of these".]
The Meliae were nurses of the infant Zeus in the Cretan Dikti mountains, according to the 3rd century BC poet Callimachus, Hymn to Zeus, where they fed him on the milk of the goat Amalthea and honey.[Callimachus, Hymn 1—To Zeus 42–50.]
Callimachus appears to make the Theban nymph Melia, who was, by Apollo, the mother of Tenerus and Ismenus, one of the "earth-born" Meliae.[Callimachus, Hymn 4—To Delos 79–85; Hesiod, Theogony 187; Larson, p. 142.] Elsewhere, however, this Melia is an Oceanid, one of the many daughters of Oceanus and Tethys.[Pindar, Paean 9 fr. 52k 38–46; Pausanias, 9.10.5, 6, 9.26.1; Larson, pp. 40–41, 142.] The mythographer Apollodorus wrote that centaur Pholus's parents were Silenus and one of the Meliae,[Apollodorus, 2.5.4; Gantz, pp. 139, 392.] thus differentiating him genealogically from the other centaurs.
See also
Notes
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Apollonius of Rhodes, Apollonius Rhodius: the Argonautica, translated by Robert Cooper Seaton, W. Heinemann, 1912. Internet Archive.
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Walter Burkert, 1985. Greek Religion (Cambridge: Harvard University Press).
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Caldwell, Richard, Hesiod's Theogony, Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Company (June 1, 1987). .
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Hesiod, Theogony, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, Massachusetts., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
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Hesiod; Works and Days, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, Massachusetts., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
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Hard, Robin, The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004, .
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Larson, Jennifer, "Greek Nymphs : Myth, Cult, Lore", Oxford University Press (US). June 2001.
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Most, G. W., Hesiod: Theogony, Works and Days, Testimonia, Loeb Classical Library, No. 57, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2006 . Online version at Harvard University Press.
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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, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
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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, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
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Pindar, Nemean Odes. Isthmian Odes. Fragments, Edited and translated by William H. Race. Loeb Classical Library No. 485. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1997. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
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West, M. L. (1966), Hesiod: Theogony, Oxford University Press. .
