In Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

, Anius was a king of Delos

Delos

The island of Delos , isolated in the centre of the roughly circular ring of islands called the Cyclades, near Mykonos, is one of the most important mythological, historical and archaeological sites in Greece...

 and priest of Apollo

Apollo

Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...

. He was the son of Apollo

Apollo

Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...

 and Rhoeo

Rhoeo

In Greek mythology, Rhoeo was a daughter of Staphylus and Chrysothemis, sister to Parthenos and Molpadia or Hemithea. Parthenius relates that she once experienced a great jealosy of her sister Hemithea when Staphylus arranged for the latter to spend a night with Lyrcus, his guest, whom both...

, daughter of Staphylus

Staphylus

Staphylus is almost always associated with grapes or wine. In Greek mythology, he was:# The son of wine-god Dionysus and Ariadne. His brothers include Oenopion , Thoas, Peparethus, Phanus and Euanthes . Both Staphylus and Phanus are counted among the Argonauts...

 and Chrysothemis

Chrysothemis

Chrysothemis or Khrysothemis , is a name ascribed to several characters in Greek mythology.Most prominently among these, Chrysothemis was a daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra...

.

Anius was born either on the island of Delos, which was sacred to his father Apollo, or on Euboea

Euboea

Euboea is the second largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete. The narrow Euripus Strait separates it from Boeotia in mainland Greece. In general outline it is a long and narrow, seahorse-shaped island; it is about long, and varies in breadth from to...

, after the box in which his mother had been placed by Staphylus when he had discovered her pregnancy was washed ashore there. Rhoeo then, placing the baby on Apollo's altar, challenged the god to care for it, if it was his. Rhoeo then married Zarex

Zarex

Zarex is the name of a hero of Ancient Greek mythology, son of Carystus or Carycus, grandson of Chiron. He is credited with having learned the music of Apollo, and having founded the town of Zarex in Laconia; he also had a heroon at EleusisPausanias, Description of Greece, 1. 38. 4 =...

, who thus became the legal father of Anius. Apollo cared for the child Anius for a time, teaching him the arts of divination and prophecy. Anius later became his priest.

Anius had three daughters: Oeno, Spermo, and Elais, known as the Oenotropae

Oenotropae

In Greek mythology, the Oenotropae wine") or Oenotrophae were the three daughters of Anius. Collectively, they were also known as the Winegrowers....

; and three sons, Andros, Mykonos, and Thasos (their mother was Dorippe, a Thracia

Thracia

Thracia is a Web-Based computer game created and developed by an exclusively Romanian team, part of Infotrend Consulting, and launched in 2009. At the time, it was the first endeavor of its kind. All browser games were text based, made up mostly of static content...

n woman ransomed by Anius for the price of a horse from the pirates who had kidnapped her). Dionysus

Dionysus

Dionysus was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology. His name in Linear B tablets shows he was worshipped from c. 1500—1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks: other traces of Dionysian-type cult have been found in ancient Minoan Crete...

 gave the three daughters the power to change whatever they wanted into wine

Wine

Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...

, wheat

Wheat

Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...

, and oil. When the Greeks landed on Delos while on their way to Troy

Troy

Troy was a city, both factual and legendary, located in northwest Anatolia in what is now Turkey, southeast of the Dardanelles and beside Mount Ida...

, Anius prophesized that the Trojan War

Trojan War

In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology and was narrated in many works of Greek literature, including the Iliad...

 would not be won until the tenth year, and insisted that they stay with him for nine years, promising that his daughters would supply them with aliments during that period. When Agamemnon

Agamemnon

In Greek mythology, Agamemnon was the son of King Atreus and Queen Aerope of Mycenae, the brother of Menelaus, the husband of Clytemnestra, and the father of Electra and Orestes. Mythical legends make him the king of Mycenae or Argos, thought to be different names for the same area...

 heard this, he wanted to take the Oenotropae with him by force, to provide his army with food and wine. They prayed to Dionysus, who changed them into doves.

Of Anius's three sons, Andros and Mykonos became eponym

Eponym

An eponym is the name of a person or thing, whether real or fictitious, after which a particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named...

s of the islands of Andros

Andros

Andros, or Andro is the northernmost island of the Greek Cyclades archipelago, approximately south east of Euboea, and about north of Tinos. It is nearly long, and its greatest breadth is . Its surface is for the most part mountainous, with many fruitful and well-watered valleys. The area is...

 and Mykonos

Mykonos

Mykonos is a Greek island, part of the Cyclades, lying between Tinos, Syros, Paros and Naxos. The island spans an area of and rises to an elevation of at its highest point. There are 9,320 inhabitants most of whom live in the largest town, Mykonos, which lies on the west coast. The town is also...

 respectively. As for Thasos, he was devoured by dogs, and since then it was prohibited to keep dogs on Delos.

Later, Anius, an old friend of Anchises

Anchises

In Greek mythology, Anchises was the son of Capys and Themiste . His major claim to fame in Greek mythology is that he was a mortal lover of the goddess Aphrodite . One version is that Aphrodite pretended to be a Phrygian princess and seduced him for nearly two weeks of lovemaking...

, gave aid to him, his son Aeneas

Aeneas

Aeneas , in Greco-Roman mythology, was a Trojan hero, the son of the prince Anchises and the goddess Aphrodite. His father was the second cousin of King Priam of Troy, making Aeneas Priam's second cousin, once removed. The journey of Aeneas from Troy , which led to the founding a hamlet south of...

, and his retinue when they were fleeing from Troy

Troy

Troy was a city, both factual and legendary, located in northwest Anatolia in what is now Turkey, southeast of the Dardanelles and beside Mount Ida...

 and en route to the future site of Rome. According to a rare version of the myth, Aeneas married Anius's daughter Lavinia (or Launa), who, like her father, had prophetic abilities and bore Aeneas a son, who was also named Anius.