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These three sisters, Elais, Oeno,
and Spermo—called the
WINEGROWERS—are the daughters of King Anius of
Delos, son of Apollo and
Rhoeo, daughter of Staphylus 1, son of
Ariadne, daughter of
Minos 2.
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Their father
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When Rhoeo lay with
Apollo, her father,
believing that she had been with a man, was
angered, and shut her up in a chest and cast it
into the sea. But the chest came ashore on the
island Delos where Rhoeo gave birth to Anius.
Anius, besides being king, held religious office
in Delos as he was priest of
Apollo. This god
instructed him in the art of divination, and also
most of Anius' children had remarkable powers.
His son Andros, who called the island Andros
after himself, was a seer. It is he who, as king of
Andros, was forced to give his sisters up to the
Achaeans.
When the Trojan War
was over, Lavinia 3 (daughter of Anius) embarked in
Delos with the exiled Trojans, having been given by
her father to Aeneas as a
prophetess and a wise woman. Lavinia 3 died of
illness at the time when
Aeneas was building a
city in Italy, and he called it Lavinium after her.
Even less lucky was Anius' son Thasius, who was
destroyed by his own dogs; for this reason there
are no dogs on Delos.
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Their gift
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To the WINEGROWERS (Elais, Oeno, and Spermo)
Dionysus 2 granted the
power of producing oil, wine, and corn from
anything they touched.
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Turn into doves
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There was rich profit in them, and because of it
Agamemnon, who at the
time was engaged in his campaign against
Troy, kidnapped them, and
keeping them by force, bade them feed the Achaean
army. The WINEGROWERS could in time escape and take
refuge in the islands of Euboea and Andros. But as
war was threatened unless they were surrendered,
the WINEGROWERS were given back. However, when they
were about to be chained, the WINEGROWERS cried to
Dionysus 2 for help,
and the god restored their freedom by turning them
into white doves.
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