Editing Melisseus

In [[Greek mythology]], '''Melisseus''' ([[Ancient Greek]]: Μελισσεύς means 'bee-man' or 'honey-man'{{cn|date=November 2024}}), the father of the [[nymph]]s [[Adrasteia]], [[Ida (nurse of Zeus)|Ida]], [[Melissa]], and Althaea who were nurses of the infant [[Zeus]] on [[Crete]]. His parentage differs from telling to telling, ranging from [[Gaia]] and [[Uranus (mythology)|Uranus]], to Karystos the [[eponym]] of [[Karystos]], and [[Socus]] and [[Combe (mythology)|Combe]].

== Mythology ==
Melisseus was the eldest and leader of the nine [[Kuretes]] of [[Crete]].{{citation needed|date=March 2021}} They were [[chthonic]] ''[[Daemon (mythology)|daimon]]es'' of [[Mount Ida (Crete)|Mount Ida]], who clashed their spears and shields to drown out the wails of infant Zeus, whom they received from the Great Goddess, [[Rhea (mythology)|Rhea]], his mother. The infant-god was hidden from his cannibal father and was raised in the  cave that was sacred to the Goddess (''Da'') celebrated by the Kuretes, whose name it bore and still bears.<ref>[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0022:text=Library:book=1:chapter=1&highlight=melisseus 1.1.6-7]</ref> The names of the two daughters of Melisseus, one called the "inevitable" (Adrasteia) and the other simply "goddess" ([[Ida (nurse of Zeus)|Ida]], ''de'') are names used for the Great Mother Rhea herself.

The ''Dionysiaca'' of [[Nonnus]], learned and accurate in spite of its late date, elaborates and gives all nine names of the Kuretes.<ref>[[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' 13.135 & 14.23</ref>

The infant god was fed on milk and honey, the milk of the goat-nymph [[Amaltheia]]. Melisseus is simply another form of '''Melissus''', also a Cretan "honey-man," remembered by later mythographers as a "king of Crete." Fermented honey, an [[entheogen]] that was the gift of the Goddess, preceded the knowledge of wine in Aegean culture. These honey-kings consorting with the Goddess will have combined their position of authority with a sacral role.{{cn|date=November 2024}}

When he came to maturity, Zeus rewarded his nymph nurses with the horn of Amaltheia, the [[cornucopia]] or horn of plenty that is always full of food and drink. [[Callimachus]]' ''Hymn to Zeus,'' full of witty and learned detail on the god's infancy, is at pains to show by [[etymology|etymologies]] that the mythic figures and geographical features obtained their names, and thus their very identities, through their participation in Zeus' early life. Other poets concur. A less Olympian-minded culture might have suggested that the horn was not actually Zeus' to give, and that it belonged already to the ancient and fertile Minoan-Mycenean nymphs of Crete.{{Cn|date=May 2024}}

In a mythic fragment that explains the connection of early Cretan culture with the island of [[Rhodes]] as deriving from Crete, [[Diodorus Siculus]]<ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]], ''[[Bibliotheca historica]]'' 5.60.2</ref> briefly relates that five of the Kuretes sailed from Crete to the Chersonnese (peninsula) opposite Rhodes, with a notable expedition, expelled the [[Caria]]ns who dwelt there, and settling down in the land divided it into five parts, each of them founding a city, which he named after himself. Triopas, one of the sons of [[Helios]] and [[Rhodos]] herself, who was a fugitive because of the murder of his brother Tenages, fled there and was purified of the murder by Melisseus.

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
*[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], ''The Library'' with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. ISBN 0-674-99135-4. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0022 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.] [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0021 Greek text available from the same website].
*Carl A.P. Ruck and Danny Staples, ''The World of Classical Myth''
*[[Diodorus Siculus]], ''The Library of History'' translated by [[Charles Henry Oldfather]]. Twelve volumes. [[Loeb Classical Library]]. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989. Vol. 3. Books 4.59–8. [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/home.html Online version at Bill Thayer's Web Site]
*Diodorus Siculus, ''Bibliotheca Historica. Vol 1-2''. Immanel Bekker. Ludwig Dindorf. Friedrich Vogel. in aedibus B. G. Teubneri. Leipzig. 1888–1890. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0540 Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library].
*[[Robert Graves|Graves, Robert]], ''The Greek Myths,'' (1955) 7.1.
*Graves, Robert, ''The Greek Myths: The Complete and Definitive Edition.'' Penguin Books Limited. 2017. {{ISBN|978-0-241-98338-6|024198338X}}
*[[Károly Kerényi|Kerényi, Carl]], ''The Gods of the Greeks'', Thames and Hudson, London, 1951.
*[[Nonnus|Nonnus of Panopolis]], ''Dionysiaca'' translated by William Henry Denham Rouse (1863-1950), from the Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1940.  [https://topostext.org/work/529 Online version at the Topos Text Project.]
*Nonnus of Panopolis, ''Dionysiaca. 3 Vols.'' W.H.D. Rouse. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1940–1942. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0485 Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library].

== External links ==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20040606160354/http://www.theoi.com/Ouranos/Kouretes.html Melisseus and the Kuretes]

[[Category:Kings of Crete]]
[[Category:Kings in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Mythological Cretans]]
[[Category:Daimons]]
[[Category:Chthonic beings]]