Maron (mythology)

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In Greek mythology, Maron (/ˈmærɒn, ˈmærən/) or Maro (/ˈmær/; Ancient Greek: Μάρων, gen. Μάρωνος) was the hero of sweet wine. He was an experienced man in the cultivation of the vine.[1]

Family

Maron was the son of Euanthes[2][3] (some also call him a son of Oenopion,[4] Silenus, and a pupil of Silenus),[5] and grandson of Dionysus and Ariadne. As the son of Bacchus[6] and the Cretan princess, Maron was brother to Thoas, Staphylos and Eunous.[7]

Mythology

Maron was mentioned among the companions of Dionysus.[8] The city Maroneia in Thrace was named after its founder Maron; there he was venerated in a sanctuary. The god Osiris (Dionysus) left Maron, who was now old, in that land to supervise the culture of the plants which he introduced to the a city.[9] "Maron who haunts the vines at Ismaros and, by planting and pruning them, makes them produce sweet wine, especially when farmers see Maron handsome and splendid, exhaling a breath sweet and smelling of wine."[2]

Maron was also a priest of

Ismarus and the only one spared by the hero Odysseus when he pillaged the city.[10] In Odyssey (9.200) before making Polyphemus drunk and fall asleep, Odysseus narrates:[11]

..With me I had a goat-skin of the dark, sweet wine, which Maro, son of Euanthes, had given me, the priest of Apollo, the god who used to watch over

. And he gave me splendid gifts: of well-wrought gold he gave me seven talents, and he gave me a mixing-bowl all of silver; and besides these, wine, wherewith he filled twelve jars in all, wine sweet and unmixed, a drink divine.

Notes

  1. ^ Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca historica 1.81.2
  2. ^ a b Philostratus the Athenian, Heroicus 680
  3. ^ Eustathius on Homer, Odyssey 1623.44 as cited in Hesiod, Ehoiai fr. 86
  4. ^ Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 7.4.8
  5. ^ Nonnus. Dionysiaca. xiv. 99
  6. ^ Euripides, Cyclops 141 ff.
  7. ^ Theophilus of Antioch, To Autolycus 7
  8. ^ Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 1.60, p.33
  9. ^ Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca historica 1.20.1
  10. ^ Apollodorus, Epitome 7.2
  11. Perseus Project, translation by Samuel Butler

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainSmith, William, ed. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)