Ανιυς
A son of Apollo who was reigning at Delos during the time of the Trojan War. His mother was Rhoeo ('the pomegranate'), and through her father Staphylus ('the bunch of grapes') she was a descendant of Dionysus. When Staphylus had seen that his daughter was in an advanced state of pregnancy, he could not believe that Apollo was responsible for her condition but blamed some common mortal, and he put the girl in a chest and set it adrift on the sea. It came to rest on the shore of Euboea but as soon as the child was born, Apollo caused mother and child to be transported to the sacred island of Delos which he gave the child the power to rule. At the same time he granted him the gift of prophecy.
By Dorippa Anius had three daughters who had been granted by Dionysus, their ancestor, the power to make oil, corn and wine spring from the earth. There is a story that their father offered their services to the Greeks on the eve of the Trojan War, for as a prophet he knew that the war would last for ten years. Initially the Greeks refused to seek the help of the three sisters; then, as the war dragged on for longer than they had expected, Agamemnon sent Odysseus and Menelaus to look for them in Delos and entrust them with the task of supplying the army. They came readily, but then grew weary and decamped. When the Greeks pursued them they begged Dionysus to give them his protection and he changed them to doves. This is the reason why doves could not be killed in Delos.
The Anius legend does not appear in the Homeric poems, but is to be found only in the Cyclical Poems and was developed in the Hellenistic period. For information about Anius, father of Lavinia, see Lavinia.
{E2 DICTIONARY OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY}
Table of Sources:
- Cypria, Hom. Oxf. Class. Text V, p. 124
- Apollod. Epit. 3, 10
- Virgil, Aen. 3, 80 with Serv. ad loc.
- Ovid, Met. 13, 632ff.
- Tzetzes on Lyc. Alex. 570; 58L
- schol. on Hom. Od. 6, 164
- Diod. Sic. 5, 62
- Dion. Hal. 1, 59