User:Paul August/Melia (consort of Apollo)

Melia (consort of Apollo)

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 * Fowler
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Apollodorus
2.1.1
 * Ocean and Tethys had a son Inachus, after whom a river in Argos is called Inachus.1 He and Melia [Μελίας], daughter of Ocean, had sons, Phoroneus, and Aegialeus. Aegialeus having died childless, the whole country was called Aegialia; and Phoroneus, reigning over the whole land afterwards named Peloponnese, begat Apis and Niobe by a nymph Teledice. Apis converted his power into a tyranny and named the Peloponnese after himself Apia; but being a stern tyrant he was conspired against and slain by Thelxion and Telchis. He left no child, and being deemed a god was called Sarapis.2 But Niobe had by Zeus （ and she was the first mortal woman with whom Zeus cohabited） a son Argus, and also, so says Acusilaus, a son Pelasgus, after whom the inhabitants of the Peloponnese were called Pelasgians. However, Hesiod says that Pelasgus was a son of the soil.


 * 1 As to Inachus and his descendants, see Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 177 （who follows Apollodorus）; Paus. 2.15.5; Scholiast on Eur. Or. 932; Scholiast on Hom. Il. i.22. According to Apion, the flight of the Israelites from Egypt took place during the reign of Inachus at Argos. See Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelii, x.10.10ff. On the subject of Phoroneus there was an ancient epic Phoronis, of which a few verses have survived. See Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, ed. G. Kinkel, pp. 209ff.

2.1.5
 * the daughters that had been borne to Danaus by Europe,

3.5.6
 * Zethus married Thebe, after whom the city of Thebes is named; and Amphion married Niobe, daughter of Tantalus,1 who bore seven sons, Sipylus, Eupinytus, Ismenus, Damasichthon, Agenor, Phaedimus, Tantalus, ...

Callimachus
Hymn 4&mdash;To Delos
 * 79–85
 * And the earth-born nymph Melia [Μελίη],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.

Herodotus
1.52
 * Such were the gifts which he sent to Delphi. To Amphiaraus, of whose courage and fate he had heard, he dedicated a shield made entirely of gold and a spear all of solid gold, point and shaft alike. Both of these were until my time at Thebes, in the Theban temple of Ismenian Apollo.

Hyginus
Fabulae
 * Theogony (Smith and Trzaskoma, p. 95)
 * [6] From Ocean and Tethys came the Oceanids: Hestyaea, Melite, Ianthe, Admete, Stilbo, Pasiphae, Polyxo, Eurynome, Euagoreis, Rhodope, Lyris, Clytia,, Clitemneste, Mentis, Menippe, Argia. From the same seed came also the Rivers: ... Ismenus, ...


 * 11 (Smith and Trzaskoma, p. 100)
 * The Children of Niobe
 * Thera, *Tantalus, Ismenus, ... these are the sons and daughters of Niobe, Amphion's wife.

Oxyrhynchus Papyri
X 1241.4.5–10 (Grenfell and Hunt, pp. 104 (Greek text), 109 (translation), 110 (commentary)).

Ovid
Metamorphoses
 * 6.221–224
 * There some of Amphion’s seven sons mounted their strong horses, sitting firm on their backs bright with Tyrian purple, and guided them with rich gold-mounted bridles. While one of these, Ismenus, who was his mother’s first-born son,

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 [Μελίας] 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 [Μελίαν], 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 [Μελίας], to wit, Tenerus and Ismenus [Ἰσμηνόν]. 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 [Μελίας];

Pherecydes of Athens
fr. 21 Fowler 2001, p. 289 (= FGrHist 3 F 21 = Schol. Ap. Rhod 3.1177-87f)
 * Fowler 2001, p. 289

fr. 126 Fowler 2001, p. 342 (= FGrHist 3 F 126 = Schol. Eur. Phoen. 159)
 * Fowler 2001, p. 342
 * Fowler 2013, p. 367

Pindar
Pythian
 * 11.1–6 (Race, pp. 380, 381)
 * Daughters of Cadmus, you, Semele, neighbor
 * of the Olympian goddesses, and you, Ino Leucothea,
 * who share the chambers of the Nereid sea nymphs,
 * go with the most nobly born mother of Heracles
 * and join Melia [Μελίαν]3 at the treasury of the golden tripods, [4]
 * the sanctuary which Loxias4 especially honored
 * and named the Ismenion,5 the true seat of seers. [6]
 * 3 Mother by Apollo of Tenerus and Ismenus (cf. Paus. 9.10).
 * 4 Cult name of Apollo in his prophetic guise.
 * 5 The temple of Apollo, named for his son Ismenus, famous for rendering oracles.
 * Rutherford p. 341
 * Pyth. 11. 4 the singer calls the daughters of Kadmos πὰρ Μελίαν χρυσέων ἐς ἄδυτον τριπόδων ('to Melia, to the inviolate treasury of golden tripods').6

fr. 29 (Race, pp. 232, 233)
 * Shall it be Ismenus [Ἰσμηνὸν], or Melia [Μελίαν] of the golden spindle,
 * or Cadmus, or the holy race of the Spartoi,
 * or Thebe of the dark-blue fillet,
 * or the all-daring strength of Heracles,
 * or the wondrous honor of Dionysus,
 * or the marriage of white-armed Harmonia
 * that we shall hymn?

fr. 52g 1–5 (Paean 7) (Race, pp. 278, 279; Rutherford, p. 339)
 * FOR THE THEBANS TO . . . FOR . ..
 * (I come to?) the giver of divine oracles
 * and to the word-fulfilling
 * sanctuary of the god47 . . . and to the splendid hall
 * of Oceanus’ daughter . . . Melia [Μελίας] [4]
 * for Apollo at least


 * 47 Apollo. Tenerus, his son by Melia, was the prophet both of Apollo Ptoïus in the plain that bears his name and of Apollo Ismenius in Thebes (cf. Pyth. 11.4–6 and Pae. 9.41–46).

fr. 52k 34–46 (Paean 9) (Race, pp. 292–295; cf. Rutherford, pp. 191–192)
 * I have been ordained by some divine . ..
 * to compose, beside the immortal couch [λέχει] of Melia [Μελίαν], [35]
 * a noble song with the pipe
 * and by the skills of my mind in your honor.
 * I entreat you, Far-Shooting god,
 * as I dedicate to the Muses’ arts
 * your oracle66 . . . [40]
 * in which Melia [Μελία], daughter of Oceanus,
 * having shared your bed [λέχει], Pythian god,
 * bore mighty Tenerus, chosen prophet of oracles.
 * To him, unshorn father, you entrusted
 * the people of Cadmus and Zethus’ city67 [45]
 * because of his wise courage.


 * 66 At the Ismenion in Thebes (schol.).
 * 67 Thebes, whose walls were built by Amphion and Zethus (cf. Od. 11.262–264).

Scholia on Pindar
Scholiast on Pindar Pythian 11.5–6 (Drachmann, pp. 254–255).


 * 11.5 (Drachmann, p. 254)
 * 5. ἴτε σὺν Ἡρακλέος ἀριστογόνῳ: ...


 * 11.5 [cont.] (Drachmann, p. 255)
 * [1] σιν ό Πίνδαρος [Pindar] ... προσκαλέω [summons]
 * [2] ... Θήβησιν ἡρωίδας [Theban heroines] ...Ἰσμήνιον [Ismenion] ...
 * [3] Τενέρου [Tenerus]] ἱερόν [sacrifice (n.) / filled with (adj.)] εἰμί [sum] ... χρηστήριον. [an oracle/oracular] τριπόδων [tripods] ... θησαυρόν [store, treasure]
 * [4] ... Ἰσμήνιον [Ismenion]


 * Rutherford, p. 196 n. 22
 * For Tenerus' Theban connections see Dr iii. 255. 1 ff. ... ('He summons the heroines of Thebes to come to the Ismenion, in which is the sacred of Tenerus')


 * [5] ... ἡ [his/her?] δὲ [?] Μελία [Melia] Ἰσ-
 * [6] [Ἰσ]μηνυ ἀδελφὴ [Ismenus' sister] ὑπὸ [under the power of?] Ἀπόλλωνς [Apollo] φθαρεῖσα [ruined, raped?] χαἰ [his/her?] γεννήσασα [begat] Τε-
 * [7] [Τε]νέρον [Tenerus] ἀφ᾽ [without male heirs] οὗ [his/her? not?] ἐν [sum] Θηβαίς Τηνεριχὸν πεδίον [the Theban Teneric plain].


 * Larson, p. 304 n. 57
 * ...Schol. Pind. Pyth 11.5–6 (Melia is sister of Ismenos and mother of Teneros).


 * 11.6 (Drachmann, p. 255)
 * 6. πὰρ Μελίαν χρυσέων: Μελία Ὠχεανοῦ θυγάτηρ, (Melia Oceanus' daughter) ἕξ (from out of?) ἧς χαἰ (her?)

Apollo

Teneros

ὁ (his/her?)

μάντις (prophet),

ὅς (his/her?)

παρ᾽ (beside)

Ismenus

τᾥ

ποταμῷ (river)

ἐμαντεύετο (devine, prophesy).

χαἰ (his/her?)

αὐτόθι (on the spot)

μαντεῖον (oracle)

εστιν (sum),

ὅ (his/her?)

Ismenion

χαλεῖται (?),

ἔστι (sum)

δὲ (but)

χαἰ (his/her?)

πηγὴ (spring)

ὁμώνυμος (having the same name)

τῇ (as?)

ήρωιδι ("the heroine", per Larson, p. 305 n. 58)


 * Fontenrose, p. 319
 * The Pindaric Scholiast (see note 83) agrees that Ismenos was Melia's brother, not her son, as Pausanias has it.


 * Larson, p. 304 n. 57
 * ...Schol. Pind. Pyth 11.5–6 (Melia is sister of Ismenos and mother of Teneros).


 * Larson, p. 305
 * According to Schol. Pind. Pyth. 11.6, at the site of the Ismenion there is a spring with the name of "the heroine" Melia.

Strabo
9.2.34 [= Pindar frs. 51b & 51d (Race, pp. 246, 247)
 * The Teneric Plain is named after Tenerus. In myth he was the son of Apollo by Melia [Μελίας], and was a prophet of the oracle on the Ptoüs Mountain, which the same poet [i.e. Pindar] calls three-peaked:
 * "and once he took possession of the three-peaked hollow of Ptoüs."
 * And he calls Tenerus
 * "temple minister, prophet, called by the same name as the plains."
 * The Ptoüs lies above the Teneric Plain and Lake Copais near Acraephium. Both the oracle and the mountain belonged to the Thebans. And Acraephium itself also lies on a height. They say that this is called Arne by the poet, the same name as the Thessalian city.

Berman
p. 18
 * Most modern topographers have identified the three rivers that flow south to north in the area of Thebes as the Dirce, Strophia, and Ismenus ... There is little dougbt about the Ismenus since it is clearly associated with the Ismenion, which has almost surely been correctly identified as the large temple complex to the southeast of the Cadmeia, ...

p. 64
 * One other location with heroic connections in Thebes makes several prominent appearances in Pindar's poetry, ... This is the Ismenion, the well-known sanctuary of Apollo Ismenios that was located to the southeast of the Cadmeia. ...
 * According to tradition Melia is the mother of Ismenius and Tenerus, and the childbed of Melia was located in the Ismenion.37
 * 37 Rutherford 2001: 196; Schacter 1981 s.v. Apollo (Thebes), on Melia in particular, I: 78; see Pausanias 9.10.5-6.

p. 124
 * The long passage begins with a catalogue of particular Theban rivers and springs, then turns to Melia, a nymph who had a shrine in the Ismenion,2 ...
 * 2 See discussion of Melia in Chapter 2, on lyric Thebes; Pindar refers to Melia's bed, which was in the Ismenion, more than one (see Rutherford 2001: 196 and Schacter 1981 s.v. Apollo (Thebes); Schacter discusses Melia in particular in the section "The Cult Complex.").

Fontenrose
p. 317
 * By the source of the Ismenos, which Pausanias identifies with Ares' spring and the scene of the Kadmos-Drakon combat, there was a tomb of the hero Kaanthos, son of Ocean and brother of [cont.]

p. 318
 * ... Melia, whom Apollo carried off. Ocean sent Kaanthos ...


 * The first part of this story closely resembles the Kadmos legend, i.e., up to the point where the hero failes to recover his sister. ...


 * ... And Melia the Oceanid is another link that unites the Oceanid Europa to Agenor's daughter. Not only does she play the same part as the latter, but Agenor had a daughter Melia, who married Danos, whose wife's name is also given as Europa. Notice furthermore that Melia, Ocean's daughter, became Inachos' wife and bore Phroneus, husband of Europa;


 * ... Futhermore Melia was nymph of the spring that is Ismenos' source and which was identified by Pausanias with Ares' spring: for it was also called Melia.

p. 319
 * Another source for the story of Kaanthos has turned up in an Oxyrhynchus papyrus: the first brother murder, it is said, occurred at Thebes when Ismenos killed Klaaitos (which name appears to be a corruption of Kaanthus, itself perhaps a corrupt form); both were sons of Ocean who fought over their sister Melia. The Pindaric Scholiast (see note 83) agrees that Ismenos was Melia's brother, not her son, as Pausanias has it.

Fowler 2001
p. 42
 * Andron fr. 7 [= FGrHist 10 F 7]

p. 342
 * Pherecydes fr. 126

Fowler 2013
p. 13
 * §1.3.2 CHILDREN OF OKEANOS ...
 * ... Europe and Thraike, daughters of Okeanos by Parthenope, and Asia and Libye, daughters by Pomphyolge (Andron fr. 7)

p. 367
 * Of the girls [given by Pherecydes] (Chione, Klytia, Melia, †Hore, Damasippe, Pelopa) Melia recalls the Okeanid who bore Ismenos and Teneros to Apollo ...

p. 511
 * XENOM. FR. 1
 * Kallimachos (frr. 67-75) effectively provides a precis of Xenomedes' local history of Keos. ... the arrival of Kares and Leleges, worshippers of Zeus Alalaxios (Zeus the Warcry), in whose time the island was named after Keos son of Apollo and Melie (60-3);
 * Kallimachos (frr. 67-75) effectively provides a precis of Xenomedes' local history of Keos. ... the arrival of Kares and Leleges, worshippers of Zeus Alalaxios (Zeus the Warcry), in whose time the island was named after Keos son of Apollo and Melie (60-3);

p. 512
 * It is not clear in Kallimachos' text whether Keos, son of Apollo and Melie (the nymph's name is fairly generic; she could be autochthonous, or Cretan as in Kallim. Hymn 1.47), is one of the Leleges, but ...

Gantz
p. 208
 * We also saw before that a second daughter of this same Belos, one Damno, marries in Pherekydes Agenor, son of Posidon, who is almost certainly her uncle and, like Belos, a son of Poseidon and Lybia (3F2`1). This union of Damno and Agenor produces Phoinix, Isaie, and Melia; Pherekydes then marries off the two girls to Aigyptos and Danaos, their first cousins (and uncles), ...

Grimal
s.v. Melia, p. 281
 * Melia (Μελια)
 * 1. A daughter of Oceanus and a sister of Ismenus. After an affair with Apollo she gave birth to Ismenus and Tenarus. She was worshipped in the temple of Apollo Ismenius near Thebes and at Thebes there was a spring called after her
 * 2. There was another daughter of Oceanus called Melia. She married Inachus by whom she had three sons, Aegialeus, Phegeus and Phoroneus (Table 17).

Hard

 * p. 276
 * The first man of Argos, and perhaps the first man of all, was PHORONEUS, who was fathered by Inachos on an Okeanid nymph called Meila or Argia.1

Larson
BU online version

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BU pp. 39–40
 * The abduction of the nymph by a god and her relocation in a new home are popular mythic motifs because they establish links between mother city and colony, or they give a less-distinguished town a better pedigree by aligning it with a greater one. In these genealogies of the Greek families (as opposed to the Homeric ones we saw for the Trojans and their allies), the nymph usually has a divine partner, one of the major gods. Aigina was paired with Zeus, Kyrene with Apollo, and so on.86 [p. 285 n. 86 "Cf. Melia: Pind. Pyth. 11.4, fr. 52g.4, 52k.35, 43. Thronia: fr. 52b.1."] A fragment of the Boiotian poet Corinna tells of the daughters of Asopos, nine of whom were abducted by gods. Asopos is at first angry at this high-handed behavior, she writes, until [p. 40] a seer, apparently the local hero Akraiphen, explains to him the future of his family:

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).


 * For the Boiotians, then, the generation of heroes from whom they themselves were descended had been the result of unions between two categories of deities: first, the Olympian gods (or heroes of godlike stature, such as Orion) and second, the rivers and their female offspring. The first group provided a link to the other Greeks, who shared with the Boiotians Zeus, Apollo, Poseidon, and Hermes. The prestige of naming an Olympian god as one’s progenitor cannot be underestimated, as Theseus’ struggle to prove his divine paternity shows. Yet, in their own way, the humbler Asopos and his daughters, and Melia, are as important in the genealogies because they provide a crucial link to to the local landscape. Apollo is the god of the Ismenion, yet Pindar’s attention is mostly bestowed upon Melia, who makes this temple of Apollo unique. According to Vivante, Melia, Metope, Asopos, and the others “underlie the delicate and elusive relations which bind places to the sense of divinity emanating from them.”87 [p. 285 n. 87: "Vivante (1972) 47."]


 * Pindar disagrees with Homer that the nymphs are “daughters of aigis-bearing Zeus.” Instead, he gives them an older and thus more awe-inspiring history akin to that described in the Theogony. Kyrene’s grandmother Kreousa is a daughter of Gaia; thus she belongs to the first generation of created beings. The Theban nymph Melia is a daughter of Okeanos, as is Kamarina.

BU p. 142
 * Tradition held that Ismenos, eponym of the Theban river and hill, and his brother Teneros, the seer of Apollo Ptoös and eponym of the Teneric plain, were offspring of Apollo and the Okeanid Melia. The name Melia has an ancient association with nymphs in Boiotia, for Hesiod says that nymphs called Meliai were born along with the Erinyes and giants from the drops of blood shed on the earth when Kronos castrated his father. “Melia” is also the ash tree; Callimachus makes the Melia of Thebes not an Okeanid but an earthborn nymph who dwells in a tree.57 Because of her seat at the great shrine of Apollo at Thebes, Melia seems to have an older, more exalted position than the daughters of Asopos, more so than Thebe herself. The relationship between Apollo and Melia, as depicted by Pindar, has much about it of the sacred marriage. In the fragmentary ninth Paean, the couch or bed (lechos) of Melia is mentioned twice, in the contexts of intercourse with Apollo and of birthing the heroes. And in Pythian 11.1– 16, Melia acts as the hostess when local heroines are bidden to visit the shrine of Apollo Ismenios.


 * According to Pausanias, Melia’s brother, Kaanthos, was sent by their father, the river Okeanos, to look for her after she was abducted. Kaanthos attempted to set fire to the Ismenion and was shot by the god. His tomb was located by a spring near the Ismenion; his story is clearly a doublet of the better-known myth of Kadmos, who was sent to find his sister, Europe, after her abduction by Zeus. (It also reminds us of the stories of Asopos as the outraged father who attempts to regain his abducted daughters.) The spring by which Kaanthos’ tomb lay belonged perhaps to his sister, Melia; it is identified by Pausanias as the famous spring of Ares, once guarded by a great serpent. There is much disgreement in both ancient and modern sources about the springs and rivers of Thebes. The city had two roughly parallel rivers, the Ismenos and the Dirke, joined by a third smaller rivulet. The Ismenos was fed entirely by one spring, now known as Agianni. Dirke was

BU p. 304
 * 57. For Ismenos and Teneros, see Paus. 9.10.6, 9.26.1 (sons of Melia and Apollo); Pindar fr. 52k.41 (Teneros only); Schol. Pind. Pyth 11.5–6 (Melia is sister of Ismenos and mother of Teneros). See also Hsch. s.v. Πτῳΐδς; these nymphs presumably inhabited Mount Ptoion. Melia: Hes. Theog. 187; Callim. Hymn 4.79–85. Cf. Callim. Hymn 1.47 (Diktaian Meliai care for the infant Zeus); [cont.]

BU p. 305
 * ... Hes. Op. 145 (bronze race sprang from “meliai,” either nymphs or trees); Hes. Theog. 563 (the “Melian race” of mortal men); Callim. fr. 598 (Okeanid Melia and Meliai). An Okeanid Melia also plays a role as progenitor in the Argive saga: Apollod. Bibl. 2.1.1. On Melia, see Vivante (1972).
 * 58. Kaanthus: Paus 9.10.5-6. According to Schol. Pind. Pyth. 11.6, at the site of the Ismenion there is a spring with the name of "the heroine" Melia.

Rutherford
p. 161
 * the second triad [of Pindar fr. 52k Race] seems to describe the birth of the Theban prophet Tenerus, son of Apollo and Melia.

p. 189
 * A1 (Pa. IX) [= Pindar fr. 52k Race]
 * ... [lines 1–20]

p. 190
 * ... [lines 35–49]

p. 191
 * I have been ordained by some fateful (sign?) near the immortal bed of Melia to link noble verses ... in which Oceanus' daughter Melia, joined with you in your bed, god of Pytho, once (?) bore Tenerus, broad in force, distinguished interpreter of oracles. To him, father with unshorn hair, you entrusted [cont.]

p. 192
 * Cadmus' folk in the city of Zeathus on account of his temperate courage. For once the sea god who shakes the trident honoured him above all other men and directed [his chariot] towards the ground of Euripus.

p. 196
 * [the singer of Paean 9 states] his location, the child-bed of Melia, which must mean the Ismenion at Thebes;
 * The focus on the god and the oracle prepares the way for a narrative relating to the hero and seer Tenerus, who had connections with the Ismenion at Thebes and with Ptoion.22 His origins may have been in the so-called Teneric plain between Thebes and Mt. Phikion to the west.23 In versions of the myth known from later sources Apollo abducted Melia and slew her brother Caanthus when he [cont.]
 * 22 For Tenerus' Theban connections see Dr iii. 255. 1 ff. ... ('He summons the heroines of Thebes to come to the Ismenion, in which is the sacred of Tenerus'). For his Ptoian connections see on D7.
 * 23 Paus. 9.26. 1, Strabo 9. 2. 34, who cites Pin. fr. 51d for this connection (see below).

p. 197
 * came to rescue her. Apollo and Melia had two sons, Tenerus, the seer, and Ismenus, who gave his name to the Theban river.24 The surviving part of the narrative in A1 supplies only the beginning of a story: Melia bore Tenerus, and Apollo entrusted to him the city of Thebes.


 * 24 Paus. 9.10.5; for the full range of versions see Schachter (1967), 4.

p. 339
 * [Paean 7:] MARGINAL TITLE. For the Thebans to ... To the giver of divine oracles and the word-fulfilling shrine of the god ... and the bright court of Melia, the (rich-haired daughter) of Oceanus ...

p. 341
 * (3) ἀγλαάν τ᾿ ἐς αὐλάν | Ὠκεανοῖο̣[       ]υ Μελίας. This refers to the sanctuary of Melia, mother of Tenerus and Ismenus, who, as we know from A1. 35, gave birth where the Ismenion was later to be. So at Pyth. 11. 4 the singer calls the daughters of Kadmos πὰρ Μελίαν χρυσέων ἐς ἄδυτον τριπόδων ('to Melia, to the inviolate treasury of golden tripods').6 The name of the mother reminds of Hesiod's Meliai, the ash-nymphs (The. 187), and of his third generation of men, born 'from ash-trees' (Op. 145 ἐκ μελιᾶν), the generation before that of the heroes, who included thre Seven againbst Thebes.
 * After line 4 ... It is even possible that the reference was to Melia, whose name associates her with mountains.7
 * 7 As in Sim. PMG 519 fr. 35(b) 7 and (probably) fr. 37; see Rutherford (1990), 186 n. 63 (the papyrus reading ὀρ̣ε̣ιδρόμον is right, as at PMG 519 fr. 37, and ὀρ̣ε̣ιδρομο[ at PMG 519 fr. 35(b) 7 is probably wrong: see Dyck (1989), 3-4; also Fraenkel (1959), 13=(1964), i. 431). Melia (ash-tree) and mountains: see Hom. Il. 13. 178; Ar. Birds, 742.

Schachter
1967 "A Boeotian Cult Type"
 * p. 4
 * 1 Pausanias 9.10.f.: ...
 * 2 P.Oxy. 1241.4.5-10: ... the first murder of brothers occured at Thebes, where Ismenos and Klaaitos, sons of Okeanos, fought over their sister Melia (Klaaitos is either a mistake or variant for Kaanthos).
 * 3 Hyginus, fab. 94: Amphion, while assaulting Apollo's temple, is shot by the god. According to Pherekydes, FGrHist 3 F 126, one of the daughters of Amphion and Niabe was called Melia, and several rather late sources list Ismenos among the sons.26


 * The first part of the first version is an imitation of the story of Kadmos and Europa.27


 * p. 5
 * As for the supposed predecessor of Athena Pronaia, the logical candidate would be Melia, who is said to have given her name to a spring at the Ismenion.30 She was clearly an important component of the cult complex: according to Pindar, Pyth. 11.4 ff. (cf. Paians 9.34 ff. and 7), she dwelt in the very heart of the sanctuary, where the golden tripods were kept. But it is clear that Melia and Athena Ptonaia cannot be regarded be regarded as predecessor and successor, for two reasons. ...


 * p. 30
 * 30. Schol. Pindar, Pyth. 11.6; cf Kallimachos, Hymn 4.80. Perhaps this is the spring by which Kaanthos was buried, and which Pausanias 9.10.5 identifies as the fountain of Ares.

1981 "Cults of Boiotia"
 * p. 79
 * There are at least three versions, at least, of the cult legend:25
 * 1 Pausanias 9.10.f f. : ...
 * 2 P.Oxy. 1241.4.5-10: ...
 * 3 ... Pherekydes, 'FGrHist 3 F 126, ...


 * The story of Kaanthos' search for Melia is of course identical with that of Kadmos' search for Europa: see F. Vian, Les origines de Thèbes (Paris 1963) 139 and note 4; J' Fontenrose, Pythom ... pp. 317-320, esp. 318.


 * p. 80 n. 2
 * Is it possible that the original deity was a goddess, later known as Meia? Pindar repeatedly describes the Ismenion as her special abode. See below, p. 85 note 3.

2016
 * p. 267
 * At the Ismenion Apollo's consort was Melia, the ash tree: she is in the adyton where tripods are dedicated; she would have had a cult image and it may have been made of ash wood.