them with bees and honey; but I have little doubt that it was corrupted from the Semitic designation of the servants of Mylitta. The Melissæ are sometimes spoken of as nymphs, but are not to be identified with the Meliadæ, Dryads sprung from the ash. Yet Melia, daughter of Oceanus, who plunges into the Haliacmon, strongly resembles the Syrian goddess. Selene, the moon, was also known by the name Melissa. Καί τὰς Δήμητρος ξερείας, ὡς τῆς χθονίας θεᾶς μυστίδας, μελίσσας οί παλαιοί ἐκάλουν, αὐτήν τε τὴν Κόρην μελισσώδη, Σελήνην τε, οὐσαν γενέσεως προστατίδα μέλισσαν ἐκάλουν[1].
When we remember the double character of Mylitta, as a generative or all-mother, and as a moon-goddess, we are able to account for her name having passed into the Greek titles of priestesses of their corresponding goddesses Demeter and Selene.
The name Melissa was probably introduced into Gaul by the Phocian colony at Massilia, the modern Marseilles, and passed into the popular mythology of the Gallic Kelts as the title of nymphs, till it was finally appropriated by the Melusina of romance.
- ↑ Schol. Theocr. xv. 94. Porphyr. de Antro Nymph. c. 18.
