User:Paul August/Meliae

Meliae

Sources

Ancient

Hesiod

Theogony

182–187

Then the son from his ambush stretched forth his left hand and in his right took the great long sickle [180] with jagged teeth, and swiftly lopped off his own father's members and cast them away to fall behind him. And not vainly did they fall from his hand; for all the bloody drops that gushed forth Earth received, and as the seasons moved round [185] she bore the strong Erinyes and the great Giants with gleaming armour, holding long spears in their hands and the Nymphs whom they call Meliae² all over the boundless earth.

² Nymphs of the ash-trees （μέλιαι）, as Dryads are nymphs of the oak-trees. Cp. note onWorks and Days, l. 145.

561–564

So spake Zeus in anger, whose wisdom is everlasting; and from that time he was always mindful of the trick, and would not give the power of unwearying fire to the Melian¹ race of mortal men who live on the earth.

¹ A Scholiast explains: “Either because they （men） sprang from the Melian nymphs （cp. 1. 187）; or because, when they were born （?）, they cast themselves under the ash-trees （μέλιαι）, that is, the trees.” The reference may be to the origin of men from ash-trees: cp. Works and Days, 145 and note.

Works and Days

140–155

[140] But when earth had covered this generation also—they are called blessed spirits of the underworld by men, and, though they are of second order, yet honor attends them also—Zeus the Father made a third generation of mortal men, a brazen race, sprung from ash-trees¹ ; and it was in no way equal to the silver age, [145] but was terrible and strong. They loved the lamentable works of Ares and deeds of violence; they ate no bread, but were hard of heart like adamant, fearful men. Great was their strength and unconquerable the arms which grew from their shoulders on their strong limbs. [150] Their armor was of bronze, and their houses of bronze, and of bronze were their implements: there was no black iron. These were destroyed by their own hands and passed to the dank house of chill Hades, and left no name: terrible though they were, [155] black Death seized them, and they left the bright light of the sun.

¹ Eustathius refers to Hesiod as stating that men sprung “from oaks and stones and ashtrees.”Proclus believed that the Nymphs called Meliae （Theogony,187） are intended. Goettling would render: “A race terrible because of their （ashen） spears.”

Apollonius of Rhodes

Argonautica

4.1641–1642

He was of the stock of bronze, of the men sprung from ash-trees,

Callimachus

Hymn 1—To Zeus

42–45

When the nymph, carrying thee, O Father Zeus, toward Cnosus,ⁱ was leaving Thenaeⁱ—for Thenae was nigh to Cnosus—even then, O God, thy navel fell away: hence that plain the Cydonians^j call the Plain of the Navel.^k But thee, O Zeus, the companions of the Cyrbantes^l took to their arms, even [cont.]

46–50

the Dictaean Meliae,^a and Adrasteia^b laid thee [Zeus] to rest in a cradle of gold, and thou didst suck the rich teat of the she-goat Amaltheia,^c and thereto eat the sweet honey-comb. For suddenly on the hills of Ida, which men call Panacra,^d appeared the works of the Panacrian bee.

Hymn 4—To Delos

79–85

And the earth-born nymph Melia,^l [80] wheeled about thereat and ceased from the dance and her cheek paled as she panted for her coeval oak, when she saw the locks of Helicon tremble. Goddesses mine, ye Muses, say did the oaks come into being at the same time as the Nymphs? The nymphs rejoice when the rain makes the oaks to grow; and again the Nymphs weep when there are no longer leaves upon the oaks.

^l The Meliae or Ash-nymphs were of the same class as the Dryads or Hamadryads. The Melia referred to here was the sister of Ismenus.

Pausanias

9.10.5

Higher up than the Ismenian sanctuary you may see the fountain which they say is sacred to Ares, and they add that a dragon was posted by Ares as a sentry over the spring. By this fountain is the grave of Caanthus. They say that he was brother to Melia and son to Ocean, and that he was commissioned by his father to seek his sister, who had been carried away. Finding that Apollo had Melia, and being unable to get her from him, he dared to set fire to the precinct of Apollo that is now called the Ismenian sanctuary. The god, according to the Thebans, shot him.

9.10.6

Here then is the tomb of Caanthus. They say that Apollo had sons by Melia, to wit, Tenerus and Ismenus. To Tenerus Apollo gave the art of divination, and from Ismenus the river got its name. Not that the river was nameless before, if indeed it was called Ladon before Ismenus was born to Apollo.

9.26.1

So sacred this sanctuary has been from the beginning. On the right of the sanctuary is a plain named after Tenerus the seer, whom they hold to be a son of Apollo by Melia;

Nonnus

Dionysiaca

14.212

16.230

Modern

Caldwell

p. 38 n 178–187

The nymphs called Meliai are properly :ash-tree" nymphs; the Greek word for ash-tree is Meliai also. Why they are mentioned here, or born in this way, is unclear and may reflect a local aetiological myth.

Hard

p. 209

For Hesiod's account of the origin of the Meliai (strictly ash-tree nymphs, but probably meaning tree-nymphs in general here), see p. 33.

Larson

BU online version

BU p. 29

More puzzling is the passage in which Hesiod describes the creation of the Meliai immediately following Ouranos’ castration:

... (Hes. Theog. 183– 7)

All the bloody drops that gushed forth Gaia received, and as the year moved round she bore the strong Erinyes and the great Giants gleaming in their armor, with long spears in their hands, and the nymphs whom they call Meliai upon the boundless earth.

If (as most commentators agree) the Meliai are ash-tree nymphs, this passage is the first specific reference to tree nymphs in Greek literature. Unlike the Homeric nymphs, daughters of Zeus, these deities are earthborn and belong to the earliest generation of gods. We also hear of Meliai in Works and Days, where they again play a role in the primordial creation:

... (Hes. Op. 143– 45)

Father Zeus made a third race of mortal men, a bronze race from the meliai, in no way like the silver race but terrible and strong.

Here, the term meliai seems to refer to ash trees themselves, though Proclus thought it meant ash-tree nymphs. Hesiod may be mingling the myth of the metallic races with another myth, which traced human origins to the trees.⁷⁰

BU pp. 40–41

The same theme of heroes as the progeny of nymphs and gods appears in Pindar, who tells of the Okeanid consort of Apollo, Melia. She bore to Apollo the sons [p. 41] Teneros, a prophet, and Ismenios, who gave his name to the local river and to the temple itself, the Ismenion (4.3.1).

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: cf Hesiod Theogony 563, Works and Days 145.