Anius

(Ἄνιος), a son of Apollo by Creusa, or according to others by Rhoeo, the daughter of Staphylus, who when her pregnancy became known was exposed by her angry father in a chest on the waves of the sea. The chest landed in Delos, and when Rhoeo was delivered of a boy she consecrated him to the service of Apollo, who endowed him with prophetic powers. (Diod. 5.62; Conon, Narrat. 41.) Anius had by Dryope three daughters, Oeno, Spermo, and Elais, to whom Dionysus gave the power of producing at will any quantity of wine, corn, and oil,--whence they were called Oenotropae. When the Greeks on their expedition to Troy landed in Delos, Anius endeavoured to persuade them to stay with him for nine years, as it was decreed by fate that they should not take Troy until the tenth year, and he promised with the help of his three daughters to supply them with all they wanted during that period. (Pherecyd. apud Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 569; Ov. Met. 13.623, &c.; comp. Dictys Cret. 1.23.) After the fall of Troy, when Aeneas arrived in Delos, he was kindly received by Anius (Ov. l.c.; Verg. A. 3.80, with Servius), and a Greek tradition stated that Aeneas married a daughter of Anius, of the name of Lavinia, who was, like her father, endowed with prophetic powers, followed Aeneas to Italy, and died at Lavinium. (Dionys. A. R. 1.59; Aurel. Vict. De Orig. Gent. Rom. 9; comp. Hartung, Die Relig. d. Röm. i. p. 87.) Two other mythical personages, one a son of Aeneas by Lavinia, and the other a king of Etruria, from whom the river Anio derived its name, occur in Serv. ad Aen. 3.80, and Plut. Parallel. 40.

[L.S]