Melaneus

In Greek mythology, Melaneus was a son of Apollo. He was the founder of Oechalia (Oikhalia), variously located in Thessaly, Messenia or Euboea.

Melaneus inherited Apollo's archery skills and was a noted archer, and married Stratonice. He was the father of Eurytus, the famous archer whose reputation overshadowed his father, and of Ambracia, eponym of Ambracia in Epirus.^[1] Stratonice was later carried away by Apollo. Alternatively, Melaneus was the husband of Oechalia (merely the eponym of the kingdom he was assigned to by Perieres).^[2]

Amphimedon, a suitor in Homer's Odyssey is mentioned as being the son of Melaneus, although it may or may not be the same Melaneus mentioned here.^[3] In Antoninus Liberalis' Metamorphoses,^[4] Autonous is also called son of Melaneus. A centaur named Melaneus is mentioned by Ovid among many others who fought in the battle between the Lapiths and the Centaurs.^[5]

References

1. ^ Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses, 4
2. ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece, 4. 2. 2
3. ^ Homer. The Odyssey, 24. 103 in The Iliad & The Odyssey. Trans. Samuel Butler. pp. 720-1. ISBN 978-1-4351-1043-4
4. ^ Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses, 7
5. ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses, 12. 306

• March, J., Cassell's Dictionary Of Classical Mythology, London, 1999. ISBN 0-304-35161-X

External links

• Myth Index - Melaneus

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