According to Robert Graves, Miletus' name tentatively suggests "red earth" miltos referring to the fact that Cretans had a complexion that was redder than that of the Greeks.[citation needed]
A different family of Miletus was given by
Nonnus, his father was
Asterius, son of Minos and
Androgenia while Caunus and Byblis became his siblings instead of his children.[8]
Comparative table of Miletus' family
Relation
Names
Sources
Sch. on Apollon.
Parthenius
Ovid
Apollodorus
Antoninus
Nonnus
Parents
Euxantius
✓
Apollo and Deione
✓
Apollo and Areia
✓
Apollo and Acacallis
✓
Asterius
✓
Consorts
Tragasia
✓
Cyane
✓
Eidothea
✓
Siblings
Caunus
✓
Byblis
✓
Children
Caunus
✓
✓
✓
Byblis
✓
✓
✓
Mythology
When Areia gave birth to her son she hid him in a bed of Smilax; Cleochus found the child there and named him Miletus after the plant.[4] In the tradition in which his mother was Acacallis, the daughter of Minos, fearing her father's wrath, exposed the child, but Apollo commanded the she-wolves to come down and nurse the child.[2]
He was loved by both Minos and
Sarpedon, but showed preference for the latter, and this became the reason why Sarpedon was expelled from Crete by his brother. Following the advice of Sarpedon, Miletus with an army also left Crete for
Samos, then moved to
Caria and became the mythical founder and
eponym of the city of
Miletus.[9] Myths further relate that the hero Miletus founded the city only after slaying
Asterius, son of
Anax; and that the region known as Miletus was originally called 'Anactoria'.[10]
Conon, Fifty Narrations, surviving as one-paragraph summaries in the Bibliotheca (Library) of Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople translated from the Greek by Brady Kiesling.
Online version at the Topos Text Project.