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...

, Melaneus was a son of Apollo

Apollo

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

. He was the founder of Oechalia (Oikhalia), variously located in Thessaly

Thessaly

Thessaly is a traditional geographical region and an administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thessaly was known as Aeolia, and appears thus in Homer's Odyssey....

, Messenia

Messenia

Messenia is a regional unit in the southwestern part of the Peloponnese region, one of 13 regions into which Greece has been divided by the Kallikratis plan, implemented 1 January 2011...

 or 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...

.

Melaneus inherited Apollo's archery skills and was a noted archer, and married Stratonice

Stratonice (mythology)

Stratonice is the name of four women in Greek mythology.1. Stratonice, one of the fifty daughters of Thespius and Megamede. She bore Heracles a son, Atromus.2. Stratonice, the daughter of Pleuron and Xanthippe....

. He was the father of Eurytus

Eurytus

Eurytus, Erytus , or Eurytos is the name of eleven characters in Greek mythology, and of at least one historical figure.-King of Oechalia:...

, the famous archer whose reputation overshadowed his father, and of Ambracia

Ambracia (mythology)

Ambracia was an ancient Greek mythological princess, daughter of Menelaus, son of Apollo and Oechalia. The city of Ambracia in Epirus was named after her....

, 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...

 of Ambracia

Ambracia

Ambracia, occasionally Ampracia , was an ancient Corinthian colony, situated about 7 miles from the Ambracian Gulf in Greece, on a bend of the navigable river Arachthos , in the midst of a fertile wooded plain.-History:...

 in Epirus

Epirus

The name Epirus, from the Greek "Ήπειρος" meaning continent may refer to:-Geographical:* Epirus - a historical and geographical region of the southwestern Balkans, straddling modern Greece and Albania...

. Stratonice was later carried away by Apollo. Alternatively, Melaneus was the husband of Oechalia (merely the eponym of the kingdom he was assigned to by Perieres

Perieres

In Greek mythology, Perieres or Perieris, was a son of Aeolus and husband of Gorgophone. He was the father of Leucippus and Aphareus. He is often confused with Gorgophone's second husband, Oebalus . With Oebalus, Gorgophone was the mother of Tyndareus, Hippocoon and Icarius....

).

Amphimedon, a suitor

Suitors of Penelope

The suitors of Penelope, also known as the Proci, are one of the main subjects of Homer's Odyssey. Penelope's husband, Odysseus, king of Ithaca, goes off to fight in the 10-year Trojan war. While most survivors return relatively soon, it takes Odysseus another ten years to return home, and in this...

 in Homer

Homer

In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...

's Odyssey

Odyssey

The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature...

 is mentioned as being the son of Melaneus, although it may or may not be the same Melaneus mentioned here. In Antoninus Liberalis

Antoninus Liberalis

Antoninus Liberalis was an Ancient Greek grammarian who probably flourished between AD 100 and 300.His only surviving work is the Metamorphoses, , a collection of forty-one very briefly summarised tales about mythical metamorphoses effected by offended deities, unique in that they are...

' Metamorphoses, Autonous

Autonous

In Greek mythology, Autonous was the son of Melaneus, husband of Hippodamia, was father to Anthus, Erodius, Schoenous, Acanthus and Acanthis, and an owner of a large herd of horses. The land they lived in produced no crops, but only rushes and thistles, that's why all the children of Autonous were...

 is also called son of Melaneus. A centaur

Centaur

In Greek mythology, a centaur or hippocentaur is a member of a composite race of creatures, part human and part horse...

 named Melaneus is mentioned by Ovid

Ovid

Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...

 among many others who fought in the battle between the Lapiths and the Centaurs.