Meliboea
Encyclopedia
In Greek mythology
, Meliboea was a name attributed to the following individuals:
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
, Meliboea was a name attributed to the following individuals:
- The wife of MagnesMagnes (mythology)In Greek mythology, Magnes was a name attributed to two men.*Magnes, son of Zeus and Thyia, daughter of Deucalion, or of Aeolus and Enarete, or of Argus and Perimele, eponym and first king of Magnesia, and brother of Makednos...
, who named the town of Meliboea in ThessalyThessalyThessaly is a traditional geographical region and an administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thessaly was known as Aeolia, and appears thus in Homer's Odyssey....
after her. The town of Meliboea became a kingdom in eastern Thessalia (north MagnesiaMagnesia PrefectureMagnesia Prefecture was one of the prefectures of Greece. Its capital was Volos. It was established in 1899 from the Larissa Prefecture. The prefecture was disbanded on 1 January 2011 by the Kallikratis programme, and split into the peripheral units of Magnesia and the Sporades.The toponym is...
). Nowadays, Meliboea (Melivia) is a municipality of Larissa prefectureLarissa PrefectureLarissa is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Thessaly. Its capital is the city of Larissa. -Geography:...
. The exact place of ancient Melivia is not known. - The only Niobid spared when ArtemisArtemisArtemis was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities. Her Roman equivalent is Diana. Some scholars believe that the name and indeed the goddess herself was originally pre-Greek. Homer refers to her as Artemis Agrotera, Potnia Theron: "Artemis of the wildland, Mistress of Animals"...
and Apollo killed them. She was so horrified at the sight of her siblings' death that she stayed greenishly pale for the rest of her life, and for that reason she was dubbed ChlorisChloristhumb|250px|right| "As she talks, her lips breathe spring roses:I was Chloris, who am now called Flora." [[Ovid]]There are many stories in Greek mythology about figures named Chloris...
("the pale one"). - The daughter of OceanusOceanusOceanus ; , Ōkeanós) was a pseudo-geographical feature in classical antiquity, believed by the ancient Greeks and Romans to be the world-ocean, an enormous river encircling the world....
and possible mother of Lycaon with PelasgusPelasgusIn Greek mythology, Pelasgus was the eponymous ancestor of the Pelasgians, the mythical inhabitants of Greece who established the worship of the Dodonaean Zeus, Hephaestus, the Cabeiri, and other divinities. In the different parts of the country once occupied by Pelasgians, there existed...
. She was also loved by the river god Orontes, who stopped his waters out of love for her, flooding the land. - A maiden of EphesusEphesusEphesus was an ancient Greek city, and later a major Roman city, on the west coast of Asia Minor, near present-day Selçuk, Izmir Province, Turkey. It was one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League during the Classical Greek era...
. She loved a young man named Alexis, but her parents betrothed her to another man, and Alexis had to leave the city. On her wedding day Meliboea tried to kill herself by jumping off the roof, but landed unhurt. She then escaped to the seashore and found a boat, the ropes of which untied on their own. In this boat, she was carried straight to the place where Alexis was dining with his friends. The reunited lovers, as they had promised before, dedicated two temples to AphroditeAphroditeAphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation.Her Roman equivalent is the goddess .Historically, her cult in Greece was imported from, or influenced by, the cult of Astarte in Phoenicia....
, surnamed Epidaetia "The One That Brings To The Banquet" and Automate "The Spontaneous". - Mother of Phellus, according to HesiodHesiodHesiod was a Greek oral poet generally thought by scholars to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. His is the first European poetry in which the poet regards himself as a topic, an individual with a distinctive role to play. Ancient authors credited him and...
. Both mother and son are otherwise unknown. - Meliboea is also an alternate name for PeriboeaPeriboeaIn Greek mythology, nine people shared the name Periboea .#Periboea was the daughter of either King Cychreus of Salamis or of Alcathous, her mother in the latter case being either Pyrgo or Evaechme, daughter of Megareus. She married Telamon and became and mother of Ajax...
or Eriboea, mother of Ajax the Great, who was also said to have been married to TheseusTheseusFor other uses, see Theseus Theseus was the mythical founder-king of Athens, son of Aethra, and fathered by Aegeus and Poseidon, both of whom Aethra had slept with in one night. Theseus was a founder-hero, like Perseus, Cadmus, or Heracles, all of whom battled and overcame foes that were...
.
Kings of Meliboea
Famous kings of Meliboea were:- King PoeasPoeasIn Greek mythology, Poeas, or Poias was one of the Argonauts and a friend of Heracles.*As an Argonaut, Poeas is identified as the greatest archer of the group. When facing the giant Talos, some accounts say Medea drugged the bronze giant and Poeas shot an arrow to poison him in his heel.*More...
(ArgonautArgonautArgonaut may refer to:* Argonaut , a kind of octopus in the genus Argonauta* Jason and the Argonauts, sailors in Greek mythology* Argonauts of Saint Nicholas, a military order in Naples...
), a friend of HerculesHerculesHercules is the Roman name for Greek demigod Heracles, son of Zeus , and the mortal Alcmene...
. - King PhiloctetesPhiloctetesPhiloctetes or Philocthetes according to Greek mythology, the son of King Poeas of Meliboea in Thessaly. He was a Greek hero, famed as an archer, and was a participant in the Trojan War. He was the subject of at least two plays by Sophocles, one of which is named after him, and one each by both...
, son of Poeas, was a famous archer, and a participant in the Trojan WarTrojan WarIn Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology and was narrated in many works of Greek literature, including the Iliad...
.