Information AboutMeliae |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT MELIAE | |
| dryads | |
| greek mythology | |
| nymphs | |
| greek legendary creatures | |
|
In Greek Mythology , the Meliae were Nymphs of the Ash Tree , whose name, ''meliai'' they shared. They appeared from the drops of blood spilled when Cronus castrated Uranus , according to Hesiod , ''Theogony'' 187. The most notable of the Meliae is Melia . Many species of '' Fraxinus '', the ash trees, exude a sugary substance, which the ancient Greeks called ''méli'', "honey". The species of ash in the mountains of Greece is ''Fraxinus ornus'', Manna-ash. The Meliae were nurses of the infant Zeus in the Cretan cave of Dicte , according to Callimachus , ''Hymn to Zeus''. They fed him honey. Of " Manna ", the ash-tree sugar, the standard 19th-century US Pharmacopeia ,''The Dispensatory of the United States of America'' (14th edition, Philadelphia, 1878) said: :"It is owing to the presence of true sugar and dextrin that manna is capable of fermenting...Manna, when long kept, acquires a deeper color, softens, and ultimately deliquesces into a liquid which on the addition of yeast, undergoes the vinous fermentation." Fermented honey preceded wine as an Entheogen in the Aegean World . REFERENCES
EXTERNAL LINK
|
|
|