Oenotropae Explained

In Greek mythology, the Oenotropae (Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Οἰνοτρόπαι, "the women who change (into) wine") or Oenotrophae (Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Οἰνοτρόφαι, the "Winegrowers") were the three daughters of Anius and Dryope.[1] [2]

Names

The Oenotropae included: Spermo ("seed"), who produced grain; Oeno or Oino ("wine"), who produced wine; and Elais (Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Ἐλαΐς, "olive tree"), who produced olive oil.[3]

Mythology

According to the Bibliotheca, their great-grandfather was Dionysus, and he gave them the power to change water into wine, grass into wheat, and berries into olives. For this reason no one around them ever had to starve.[4] According to other sources, however, the daughters were devotees of Dionysus, and the god rewarded them with the extraordinary ability to produce oil, grain, and wine from the ground or merely by touch.

When the Greek fleet set out to make war in Troy, it was the Oenotropae who stocked their ships, and Agamemnon was so impressed with this that he abducted them in order to feed the Greek army. The daughters escaped, but their brother betrayed them again to the Greeks. As they were about to be bound, however, Dionysus saved them by turning them into white doves.[5] [6]

See also

References

Notes and References

  1. Tripp, Edward. The Meridian Handbook of Classical Mythology. Meridian, 1970, p. 52.
  2. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0104:entry=anius-bio-1 A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, Anius
  3. [Tzetzes]
  4. [Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Pseudo-Apollodorus]
  5. [Ovid]
  6. [Maurus Servius Honoratus|Servius]