Meliae

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Group of tree nymphs in Greek mythology

title: "Meliae" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["dryads", "fraxinus", "children-of-gaia", "nurses-of-zeus"] description: "Group of tree nymphs in Greek mythology" topic_path: "general/dryads" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meliae" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Group of tree nymphs in Greek mythology ::

In Greek mythology, the Meliae (also called Meliads) (; or ) were usually considered to be the nymphs of the ash tree, whose name they shared.

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. 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.

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 appears to make the Theban nymph Melia, who was, by Apollo, the mother of Tenerus and Ismenus, one of the "earth-born" Meliae. Elsewhere, however, this Melia is an Oceanid, one of the many daughters of Oceanus and Tethys. The mythographer Apollodorus wrote that centaur Pholus's parents were Silenus and one of the Meliae, thus differentiating him genealogically from the other centaurs.

Notes

References

Apollonius of Rhodes, Apollonius Rhodius: the Argonautica, translated by Robert Cooper Seaton, W. Heinemann, 1912. Internet Archive.
Burkert, Walter, 1985. Greek Religion (Cambridge: Harvard University Press).
Caldwell, Richard, Hesiod's Theogony, Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Company (June 1, 1987). .
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.
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.
Hard, Robin, The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004, .
Larson, Jennifer, "Greek Nymphs : Myth, Cult, Lore", Oxford University Press (US). June 2001.
Most, G. W., Hesiod: Theogony, Works and Days, Testimonia, Loeb Classical Library, No. 57, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2006 . Online version at Harvard University Press.
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.
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.
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.
West, M. L. (1966), Hesiod: Theogony, Oxford University Press. .

References

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'' [https://archive.org/stream/callimachuslycop00calluoft#page/90/mode/2up 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".
[[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg001.perseus-eng1:173-206 182–187]; West, p. 221 n. 187 '''Μελίας'''; Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA209 p. 209].
[[Hesiod]], ''[[Works and Days]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg002.perseus-eng1:140-173 140–155 (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 of Thessalonica. Eustathius]]. However [[Proclus]] thought it meant ash-tree nymphs (see Evelyn-White's [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg002.perseus-eng1:140-173 note]; Larson, p. 29), cf. [[Apollonius of Rhodes]], ''[[Argonautica]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/argonautica00apoluoft#page/406/mode/2up 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".
[[Callimachus]], ''Hymn 1—To Zeus'' [https://archive.org/stream/callimachuslycop00calluoft#page/40/mode/2up 42–50].
[[Callimachus]], ''Hymn 4—To Delos'' [https://archive.org/stream/callimachuslycop00calluoft#page/90/mode/2up 79–85]; [[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+187 187]; Larson, p. 142.
[[Pindar]], ''Paean 9'' fr. 52k 38–46; [[Pausanias (geographer)
[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus). Apollodorus]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:2.5.4 2.5.4]; Gantz, pp. 139, 392.

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