Melissa
2. From the nymphs the name Melissae was transferred to priestesses in general, but more especially to those of Demeter (Schol. (ad Pind. l.c.; Callim. Hymn. in Apoll. 110; Hesych. s. v. Μελισσαι), Persephone (Schol. (ad Theocrit. 15.94), and to the priestess of the Delphian Apollo. (Pind. P. 4.106; Schol. ad Eurip. Hippol. 72.) According to the scholiasts of Pindar and Euripides, priestesses received the name Melissae from the purity of the bee. Comp. a story about the origin of bees in Serv. ad Aen. 1.434.
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.