Melissa, a
nymph who discovered and taught the use of honey,[1] and from whom bees were believed to have received their name, μέλισσαι.[2] Bees seem to have been the symbol of nymphs, whence they themselves are sometimes called Melissae, and are sometimes said to have been metamorphosed into bees.[2][3] Hence also nymphs in the form of bees are said to have guided the colonists that went to
Ephesus;[4] and the nymphs who nursed the infant Zeus are called Melissae, or
Meliae.[5][6][7]
Melissa, daughter of the
Cretan king
Melissus, who, together with her sister
Amalthea, fed Zeus with goats' milk.[8] She may be the same as the above Melissa.
The name
Melissae was transferred to priestesses in general, but more especially to those of
Demeter,[2][10]Persephone,[11] and to the priestess of the
DelphianApollo.[12] According to the scholiasts of
Pindar and
Euripides, priestesses received the name Melissae from the purity of the bee.[13]
Callimachus, Callimachus and Lycophron with an English translation by A. W. Mair ; Aratus, with an English translation by G. R. Mair, London: W. Heinemann, New York: G. P. Putnam 1921. Internet Archive
Lactantius, Divine Institutes translated by William Fletcher (1810-1900). From Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7. Edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886.
Online version at the Topos Text Project.
Stephanus of Byzantium, Stephani Byzantii Ethnicorum quae supersunt, edited by August Meineike (1790-1870), published 1849. A few entries from this important ancient handbook of place names have been translated by Brady Kiesling.
Online version at the Topos Text Project.
This article includes a list of Greek mythological figures with the same or similar names. If an
internal link for a specific Greek mythology article referred you to this page, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended Greek mythology article, if one exists.
Melissa, a
nymph who discovered and taught the use of honey,[1] and from whom bees were believed to have received their name, μέλισσαι.[2] Bees seem to have been the symbol of nymphs, whence they themselves are sometimes called Melissae, and are sometimes said to have been metamorphosed into bees.[2][3] Hence also nymphs in the form of bees are said to have guided the colonists that went to
Ephesus;[4] and the nymphs who nursed the infant Zeus are called Melissae, or
Meliae.[5][6][7]
Melissa, daughter of the
Cretan king
Melissus, who, together with her sister
Amalthea, fed Zeus with goats' milk.[8] She may be the same as the above Melissa.
The name
Melissae was transferred to priestesses in general, but more especially to those of
Demeter,[2][10]Persephone,[11] and to the priestess of the
DelphianApollo.[12] According to the scholiasts of
Pindar and
Euripides, priestesses received the name Melissae from the purity of the bee.[13]
Callimachus, Callimachus and Lycophron with an English translation by A. W. Mair ; Aratus, with an English translation by G. R. Mair, London: W. Heinemann, New York: G. P. Putnam 1921. Internet Archive
Lactantius, Divine Institutes translated by William Fletcher (1810-1900). From Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7. Edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886.
Online version at the Topos Text Project.
Stephanus of Byzantium, Stephani Byzantii Ethnicorum quae supersunt, edited by August Meineike (1790-1870), published 1849. A few entries from this important ancient handbook of place names have been translated by Brady Kiesling.
Online version at the Topos Text Project.
This article includes a list of Greek mythological figures with the same or similar names. If an
internal link for a specific Greek mythology article referred you to this page, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended Greek mythology article, if one exists.