According toPseudo-Plutarch'sTreatise on Rivers and Mountains,Lilaeus (Ancient Greek:Λίλαιος,Lílaios) was an Indian shepherd who angered the gods and was punished for it.^[1]

A shepherd inIndia named Lilaeus acknowledged only theMoon (the goddessSelene) among the gods, and only honoured her by performing her rituals and mysteries during the night. The other gods were angered over his actions and rejection of them, and sent two wild lions that tore him apart. Selene then transformed her adorer into a mountain, known as Mount Lilaeon (Ancient Greek:Λίλαιον,Lílaion), situated somewhere near theIndus river.^[2][3]

The author ofTreatise on Rivers and Mountains, now known not to have been the actualPlutarch,^[4] attributed this story to Clitophon theRhodian's first book ofIndian Relations, perhaps writing down a local Indian tale using the names of the Greek gods viainterpretatio graeca.^[2]

This work, probably dating to the second century AD, is today thought to be some sort ofparadoxography, or a parody of paradoxography, and was probably written in a humorous, non-serious tone.^[5]

• Ampelus
• Baucis and Philemon
• Callisto
• Syceus

• Grimal, Pierre (1987).The Dictionary of Classical Mythology. Wiley-Blackwell.ISBN 0-631-13209-0.
• Pseudo-Plutarch (1878). Brady Kiesling (ed.).Names of Rivers and Mountains, in Plutarch, The Moralia. Translated by William Watson Goodwin.
• Roscher, Wilhelm Heinrich (1894).Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie [Detailed dictionary of Greek and Roman mythology] (in German). Vol. LAAS–MYTON. Leipzig: Teubner-Verlag.

• Selene
• Metamorphoses into terrain in Greek mythology
• Indian characters in Greek mythology
• Fictional shepherds

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles containing Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text
• CS1: long volume value
• CS1 German-language sources (de)