Minyas (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Minyas (/ˈmɪniəs, ˈmɪnjəs/; Ancient Greek: Μινύας) was the founder of Orchomenus, Boeotia.^[1]

Family

As the ancestor of the Minyans, a number of Boeotian genealogies lead back to him, according to the classicist H.J. Rose. Accounts vary as to his own parentage: one source states that he was thought to be the son of Orchomenus and Hermippe, his real father being Poseidon;^[2] in another account he is called a son of Poseidon and Callirhoe^[3] or Tritogeneia, daughter of Aeolus^[4] or Euryanassa, daughter of Hyperphas^[5] or lastly, Chrysogone, daughter of Almus^[6]. Yet others variously give Minyas' father as Chryses (son of Poseidon and Chrysogeneia)^[7], Eteocles^[8], Aeolus^[1], Ares, Aleus, Thessalus (son of Poseidon)^[9],Sisyphus^[10] and Halmus (Almus).

Minyas was married to Euryale, Clytodora, or Phanosyra (daughter of Paeon). Of them, Clytodora bore him a daughter Clymene (also called Periclymene,^[11][12] mother of Iphiclus and Alcimede by Phylacus or Cephalus). Clytodora is also given as the mother by Minyas of Orchomenus, Presbon, Athamas,^[13] Diochthondas^[14] and Eteoclymene.^[15] Minyas' other children include Cyparissus, the founder of Anticyra,^[16] and three daughters known as the Minyades who were turned into bats.^[17][18][19] In some accounts, he was also said to be the father of Persephone who became the mother of Iasus, father of Amphion, father of Chloris, wife of Neleus^[20] and Phylomache, wife of Pelias. Also, Elara, the mother of the giant Tityus was also described sometimes as Minyas' daughter.^[21][22]

According to Apollonius Rhodius^[23] and Pausanias,^[24] he was the first king to have made a treasury, of which the ruins were still extant in Pausanias' times.

See also

• Minyans
• Boeotia
• Graïke
• Graia
• Persephone
• Chloris

Notes

References

• Fowler, R. L. (2000), Early Greek Mythography: Volume 1: Text and Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0198147404.
• Smith, William. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, v. 2, page 1092
• Thirlwall, Connop (1895). A History of Greece. Original from the University of Virginia: Longmans. p. 92.