Meliboea

For the asteroid, see 137 Meliboea.

In Greek mythology, Meliboea (Ancient Greek: Μελίβοια) was a name attributed to the following individuals:

• The wife of Magnes, who named the town of Meliboea in Thessaly after her.^[1] The town of Meliboea became a kingdom in eastern Thessalia (north Magnesia). Nowadays, Meliboea (Melivia) is a municipality of Larissa prefecture. The exact place of ancient Melivia is not known.
• The only Niobid spared when Artemis 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 Chloris ("the pale one").^[2][3]
• The daughter of Oceanus and possible mother of Lycaon with Pelasgus.^[4][5] She was also loved by the river god Orontes, who stopped his waters out of love for her, flooding the land.^[6]
• A maiden of Ephesus. 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 Aphrodite, surnamed Epidaetia "The One That Brings To The Banquet" and Automate "The Spontaneous".^[7]
• Mother of Phellus, according to Hesiod.^[8] Both mother and son are otherwise unknown.
• Meliboea is also an alternate name for Periboea or Eriboea, mother of Ajax the Great, who was also said to have been married to Theseus.^[9]

Kings of Meliboea

Famous kings of Meliboea were:

• King Poeas (Argonaut), a friend of Hercules.
• King Philoctetes, son of Poeas, was a famous archer, and a participant in the Trojan War.

References

1. ^ Eustathius on Homer, p. 338
2. ^ Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 3. 5. 6
3. ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece, 2. 21. 9
4. ^ Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3. 8. § 1
5. ^ Tzetzes on Lycophron 481
6. ^ Oppian, Cynegetica, 2. 115 ff
7. ^ Servius on Aeneid, 1. 720
8. ^ Catalogue of Women, fragment 167 M-W = fr. 33 Evelyn-White
9. ^ Athenaeus, Banquet of the Learned, 4. p. 557a