According toHesiod, the Meliae (probably meaning all tree-nymphs) were born from the drops of blood that fell onGaia [Earth] whenCronus castratedUranus.[2] InHesiod'sWorks 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'sBronze Age.[3]
The Meliae were nurses of the infant Zeus in the CretanDikti mountains, according to the 3rd century BC poetCallimachus,Hymn to Zeus, where they fed him on the milk of the goatAmalthea and honey.[4]
Callimachus appears to make theTheban nymphMelia, who was, byApollo, the mother ofTenerus andIsmenus, one of the "earth-born" Meliae.[5] Elsewhere, however, this Melia is anOceanid, one of the many daughters ofOceanus andTethys.[6] The mythographerApollodorus wrote that centaur Pholus's parents wereSilenus and one of the Meliae,[7] thus differentiating him genealogically from the other centaurs.
^Caldwell, p. 38 n. 178–187: "The nymphs calledMeliai are properly "ash-tree" nymphs; the Greek word for ash-trees ismeliai also", and according to Larson, p. 29: "most commentators agree" that "the Meliai are ash-tree nymphs", although according to West, p. 221 n. 187Μελίας, inCallimachus,Hymn 4—To Delos79–85, andNonnus'Dionysiaca, and probably in Hesiod as well, the Meliae are simply "tree-nymphs, probably without distinction of the particular kind of tree".
^Hesiod,Works and Days140–155 (Evelyn-White): "Zeus the Father made a third generation of mortal men, a brazen race, sprung from ash-trees [meliai]", here interpretingmeliai as the common noun ash-trees, as didEustathius. HoweverProclus thought it meant ash-tree nymphs (see Evelyn-White'snote; Larson, p. 29), cf.Apollonius of Rhodes,Argonautica4.1641–1642, 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".
Burkert, Walter, 1985.Greek Religion (Cambridge: Harvard University Press).
Caldwell, Richard,Hesiod's Theogony, Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Company (June 1, 1987).ISBN978-0-941051-00-2.
Hesiod,Theogony, inThe 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.
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.
