Melus (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Melus or Melos (Ancient Greek: Μήλος, romanized: Mḗlos, lit. 'apple, sheep') can refer to one of these figures:

  • Melos, a childhood friend and kin of Adonis who took his life after the later's passing.[1]
  • Melos, the son of the Melos above and Pelia. After the deaths of his parents he went to Delos, founded the city of Melon and taught the locals how to shear sheep and make wool clothing.[1]
  • Melus, the son of the river-god Scamander, central in an alternative narrative of the myth of Aphrodite, Hera and Athena vying over the Apple of Discord. Melus was a handsome young man so all three goddesses fought over who would have him as her priest; Alexander (Paris) was tasked with solving the issue, and he decreed that Melus would serve Aphrodite. Ptolemaeus Chennus wrote that the story concerning the golden apple was inspired by this incident, in an example of rationalizing Greek myth also seen in the works of Palaephatus and Heraclitus.[2]
  1. ^ a b Servius, Commentary on Virgil's Eclogues 8.37
  2. ^ Ptolemaeus Chennus 6.17, as epitomized by Photios I Myriobiblon 190