Minyas in the ancient sources

Ancient Sources / Figures / Minyas

6 passages from 3 ancient authors that tell of Minyas, in the original with English translation, author by author in the order the Greeks read them. Minyas was the founder of the city of Orchomenus in Greek mythology. He may have been the son of Orchomenus and Hermippe, although other sources name ... For the story in one place, read our article on Minyas.

Apollonius Rhodius (2)

Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 1.122–233The catalogue of the Argonauts, continuedHeracles leaves the Erymanthian boar at Mycenae and joins the expedition with Hylas. The catalogue goes on with Nauplius, Idmon, Castor and Polydeuces, Idas and Lynceus, Euphemus, Meleager, and Zetes and Calais, the winged sons of Boreas, and ends with Acastus and Argus. The poet adds that the whole company was called the Minyae.
Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 3.1026–1162Medea's charm and the lovers' partingMedea tells Jason how to use the charm: sacrifice to Hecate by night, anoint himself and his weapons, and throw a stone among the Earthborn men. They exchange promises to remember each other, Jason speaks of Iolcus and Ariadne, and Medea reproaches him before they part; she returns home in distress.

Ovid (2)

Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.1–52The daughters of MinyasThe Theban women celebrate Dionysus (Bacchus), but the daughters of Minyas refuse to join and stay at home working at their looms. To pass the time they tell tales, and Alcithoe, after considering several stories, chooses to tell of Pyramus and Thisbe.
Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.396–562The Minyades become bats; Athamas and InoThe daughters of Minyas, who have scorned Dionysus (Bacchus), find their looms turning to vines and ivy, and they are changed into bats. Hera (Juno), angry at the honour done to Semele's sister Ino, goes down to the Underworld and sends the Fury Tisiphone to the house of Athamas, who goes mad and kills his son Learchus. Ino leaps from a cliff with her other son Melicertes, and Aphrodite (Venus) asks Poseidon (Neptune) to make them sea-gods, and Ino's Theban companions are changed into rocks and birds.

Pausanias (2)

Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.36.1–8Orchomenus: Phlegyas, Minyas and his treasury, and HyettusPausanias continues the kings of Orchomenus: Chryse's son Phlegyas, whose warlike Phlegyans raided Delphi and were destroyed by the god, then Chryses and Minyas, who built the first treasury. He says Greek historians neglected the treasury of Minyas in favour of the Egyptian pyramids. He recounts the reign of Orchomenus, the arrival of the exile Hyettus from Argos and the marriage of Chloris, daughter of Amphion, to Neleus.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.38.1–10Orchomenus: the sanctuary of the Graces, the treasury of Minyas, Hesiod's bones and ActaeonPausanias describes the oldest sanctuary at Orchomenus, that of the Graces, with its sacred natural stones, and the circular treasury of Minyas. He gives the graves of Minyas and Hesiod, and how a crow showed the envoys where the bones of Hesiod lay at Naupactus. He tells how the Orchomenians bound a bronze spectre of Actaeon to a rock on the Delphic god's advice. He also describes the temple of Hercules, the river Melas and the Cephisian Lake, and the abandonment of Aspledon for lack of water.