Maron (mythology)

Maron or Maro (Greek: Μάρων) in mythology was son of Evanthes (some also call him a son of Oenopion, Silenus or of Bacchus, and a pupil of Seilenus^[1], and grandson of Dionysus and Ariadne. He was also a priest of Apollo at Ismarus. He was the hero of sweet wine, and is mentioned among the companions of Dionysus. In Odyssey (9.200) before making Polyphemus drunk and fall asleep, Odysseus narrates^[2]:

“

..With me I had a goat-skin of the dark, sweet wine, which Maro, son of Euanthes, had given me, the priest of Apollo, the god who used to watch over Ismarus. And he had given it me because we had protected him with his child and wife out of reverence; for he dwelt in a wooded grove of Phoebus Apollo. And he gave me splendid gifts: of well-wrought gold he gave me seven talents, and he gave me a mixing-bowl all of silver; and besides these, wine, wherewith he filled twelve jars in all, wine sweet and unmixed, a drink divine.

”

The city Maroneia in Thrace was named after Maron; there he was venerated in a sanctuary.

References

1. ^ (Nonnus. Dionysiaca. xiv. 99 ; Euripides. Cyclops (play). 141, &c.)
2. ^ 9.193-230 Perseus Project, translation by Samuel Butler

• Eustathius. ad Hom. pp. 1615, 1623
• Philostratus. Her. ii. 8;
• Athenaeus. i. p. 33 ; Diodorus. i. 18.)

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870).