Ash Tree Nymphs, also known as Meliae, were born from the blood of Uranus when he was castrated by his son, the Titan Cronus. The blood fell to the earth and impregnated Gaia (Earth), thus creating the Furies, the Giants, and the Meliae. The Meliae are nymphs that inhabit ash-trees.
The ash tree nymphs are thought to be the same as the honey-nymphs, Ida and Adrasteia, that were nurses to the god Zeus. Ida and Adrasteia were called Meliai. Ash trees exude a sugary substance that the Greeks called manna. Manna from ash trees and honey from bees were considered ambrosial foods or foods that had fallen from heaven.
The ash tree nymphs were wed by the men of the Silver Age, a time before the first woman, and it is from them that all mankind has descended. They are the mothers of the Age of Bronze, mankind's third generation. It is said that the sons were nursed from the honey of their mothers and that they would craft spears from their mothers' branches.
The Meliae were typically invoked as a group; however, there are a few myths that give them individual names such as Melia, Io, Philodice, Inachus, and Aegialeus.
As Cronus was the one to castrate his father, Uranus, it is only appropriate the the ash tree nymphs also played a part in the downfall of Cronus. They became an overly aggressive warring race which suffered the wrath of Zeus. The Meliae were destroyed in the flood of the Great Deluge.
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Greek mythology
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