Editing Thriae

{{Short description|Bee women / nymphs from Greek mythology}}
{{For|context|Bee (mythology)}}
[[File:Ritaglio Plaque bee-goddess.png|200px|thumb|Βee goddesses, perhaps one of the Thriae, found at [[Camiros]], [[Rhodes]], dated to 7th century BCE (British Museum)]]
The '''Thriae''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|θ|r|aɪ|.|iː}}; {{langx|grc|Θριαί|Thriaí}}) were [[nymph]]s, three virginal sisters, one of a number of such [[Triad (religious)|triads]] in [[Greek mythology]].<ref>[[Hesiod]]'s ''[[Theogony]]'' gives the [[Gorgon]], the [[Horae]], the [[Moirai]], and the [[Charites]]; later myth adds the [[Erinyes]], the [[Graiae]], the [[Siren (mythology)|Sirens]], the [[Hesperides]], and [[cult (religion)|Greek cult]] has given more: see the list in Scheinberg 1979:2.</ref> They were named ''[[Melaina]]'' ("The Black"), ''[[Kleodora]]'' ("Famed for her Gift"), and [[Daphnis (nymph)|''Daphnis'']] ("Laurel") or ''[[Corycia]]''.
{{Greek myth (nymph)}}

== Mythology ==
They were the three [[Naiad]]s ([[nymph]]s) of the sacred springs of the [[Corycian Cave]] of [[Mount Parnassus]] in [[Phocis]], and the patrons of [[bee]]s. The nymphs had women's heads and torsos and lower body and wings of a bee.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Rosen|first=Brenda|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mI0vKhZXJqwC&dq=thriae+&pg=PA168|title=The Mythical Creatures Bible: The Definitive Guide to Legendary Beings|date=2009|publisher=Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.|isbn=978-1-4027-6536-0|language=en}}</ref>

The nymph sisters were romantically linked to the gods [[Apollo]] and [[Poseidon]]; Corycia, the sister after whom the [[Corycian Cave]] was named, was the mother of [[Lycoreus]] with [[Apollo]],<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], ''Description of Greece'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+10.6.3&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160 10.6.3]</ref><ref>[[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''Fabulae'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#161 161]</ref> Kleodora was loved by [[Poseidon]], and was the mother by him (or Kleopompos) of Parnassos (who founded the city of Parnassus<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], ''Description of Greece'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160%3Abook%3D10%3Achapter%3D6%3Asection%3D1 10.6.1]</ref>) while Melaina was also loved by [[Apollo]], and bore him [[Delphus|Delphos]] (although another tradition names [[Thyia (naiad)|Thyia]] as the mother of Delphos).<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], ''Description of Greece'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160%3Abook%3D10%3Achapter%3D6%3Asection%3D4 10.6.4]</ref> Her name, meaning "the black," suggests that she presided over [[Underworld#Greek mythology|subterranean]] nymphs.

These three bee maidens with the power of [[divination]] and thus speaking truth are described in the ''[[Homeric Hymn]] to Hermes'', and the food of the gods is "identified as honey";<ref>[[Homeric Hymns]] [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0138%3Ahymn%3D4%3Acard%3D550 4.550-567]</ref> the bee maidens were originally associated with [[Apollo]], and are probably not correctly identified with the Thriae. Both the Thriae and the Bee Maidens are credited with assisting Apollo in developing his adult powers, but the divination that Apollo learned from the Thriae differs from that of the Bee Maidens. The type of divination taught by the Thriae to Apollo was that of mantic pebbles, the throwing of stones, rather than the type of divination associated with the Bee Maidens and Hermes: [[cleromancy]], the casting of lots.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Larson, Jennifer |year=1996 |title=The Corycian Nymphs and the Bee Maidens of the Homeric Hymn to Hermes |journal=Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies |pages=341–357 |url=https://grbs.library.duke.edu/article/viewFile/2961/5819}}</ref> 
Honey, according to a Greek myth, was discovered by a nymph called Melissa ("Bee"); and honey was offered to the Greek gods from [[Helladic period|Mycenean times]]. Bees were associated, too, with the [[Delphic oracle]] and the prophetess was sometimes called a bee.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Scheinberg, Susan |year=1979 |title=The Bee Maidens of the Homeric Hymn to Hermes |journal=Harvard Studies in Classical Philology |volume=83 |pages=1–28 |doi=10.2307/311093 |jstor=311093}}</ref>

== Notes ==
{{reflist}}

== References ==
* Evelyn-White, Hugh, ''The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White''. Homeric Hymns. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914.
* [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], ''Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes.'' Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+1.1.1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
* [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus, Gaius Julius]], [http://www.theoi.com/Text/HyginusFabulae1.html ''The Myths of Hyginus'']. Edited and translated by Mary A. Grant, Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1960.
* Scheinberg, Susan 1979. "The Bee Maidens of the Homeric Hymn to Hermes" Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 83 (1979), pp.1–28.
* Larson, Jennifer. “The Corycian Nymphs and the Bee Maidens of the Homeric Hymn to Hermes.”  Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, (1996): 341-357.

== External links ==
* [https://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/NymphaiThriai.html THRIAI on The Theoi Project]

{{Greek mythology (deities)}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Thriae| ]]
[[Category:Women of Apollo]]
[[Category:Women of Poseidon]]
[[Category:Classical oracles]]
[[Category:Mythological Greek seers]]
[[Category:Oracular goddesses]]
[[Category:Bees in religion]]