Meilichios

"Meilichios", the "Easy-to-be-entreated", the gracious, accessible one, was the euphemistic aspect of "Maimaktes, he who rages eager, panting and thirsting for blood."

[1] Explicitly inscribed votive reliefs show that Meilichios was figured in the form of a serpent, who might be invoked as a kind of Ploutos, bringer of wealth.

He had some of the avenging and fearful character of an Erynis, for Pausanias saw near the River Cephissus "an ancient altar of Zeus Meilichios; on it Theseus received purification from the descendants of Phytalos after he had slain among other robbers Sinis, who was related to himself".

Meilichios' sacrifice was a holocaust, which was wholly consumed in fire and not shared by the votaries, "a dread renunciation to a dreadful power" (Harrison, p. 16), in nocturnal rites performed in an atmosphere of "chilly gloom" (Harrison), that was rendered in Greek as stygiotes.

[5] Zeus Meilichios is also identified as Agathodaemon, or Agathos Daimon, meaning a 'noble spirit', which was a sort of a household god.