Melissa (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Melissa (Ancient Greek: Μέλισσα) may refer to the following women:

• Melissa, a nymph who discovered and taught the use of honey,^[1] and from whom bees were believed to have received their name, μέλισσαι.^[2] Bees seem to have been the symbol of nymphs, whence they themselves are sometimes called Melissae, and are sometimes said to have been metamorphosed into bees.^[2][3] Hence also nymphs in the form of bees are said to have guided the colonists that went to Ephesus;^[4] and the nymphs who nursed the infant Zeus are called Melissae, or Meliae.^[5][6][7]
• Melissa, daughter of the Cretan king Melisseus, who, together with her sister Amalthea, fed Zeus with goats' milk.^[8] She may be the same as the above Melissa.
• Melissa, daughter of Epidamnus and mother of Dyrrhachius by Poseidon. Her father and son gave their name to the town in Illyria which was called Epidamnos and later on Dyrrhachium.^[9]

The name Melissae was transferred to priestesses in general, but more especially to those of Demeter,^[2][10] Persephone,^[11] and to the priestess of the Delphian Apollo.^[12] According to the scholiasts of Pindar and Euripides, priestesses received the name Melissae from the purity of the bee.^[13]