Meliteus

Meliteus ( Greek  Μελιτεύς ) is the legendary founder of the city of Melitaia in Greek mythology .

Meliteus is a son of Zeus and the nymph Othreis , who abandoned her child in the wilderness for fear of Hera , Zeus' jealous wife. But the boy did not die; Zeus made sure that he was nourished by bees. When Phagros , son of Apollo, and his mother finally find him in the wilderness, they are amazed at how well nourished the boy is. Therefore, and because of an oracle of his father Apollon, according to which he should one day save a boy nourished by bees, Phagros takes the child and calls it Meliteus (from the Greek  μελι "honey").

Matured into a man, Meliteus founded the city of Melitaia in the Phthiotis region in southern Thessaly .

swell

• Antoninus Liberalis , Metamorphoses 13, after the Metamorphoses of Nicandros from Colophon

literature

• Leonhard Schmitz: Meliteus . In: William Smith (Ed.): Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology . tape 2 : Ea'rinus, Fla'vius – Nyx . Little, Brown and Company, Boston 1870, p. 1023 (English, Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).