Lelante

Not to be confused with Lelantos.

In Greek mythology, Lelante (Ancient Greek: Ληλάντη, romanized: Lēlántē) is a minor figure, a queen of the Molossians, who was transformed into a bird by the will of Zeus, the god of justice, in order to escape a fiery death.

Lelante
In-universe information
Gender	Female
Title	Queen
Significant other	Munichus
Children	Alcander, Megaletor, Philaeus (sons) Hyperippe (daughter)
Birthplace	Molossia

Family

She was the wife of the Molossian king Munichus and the mother by him of three sons, Philaeus, Alcander and Megaletor, and of a daughter Hyperippe.

Mythology

The entire family was seen as just and righteous and therefore especially favored by the gods. One day raiders attacked them in the fields; the family ran off to their house and began to throw various objects at them in self-defense, whereupon the offenders set the house ablaze. The god of justice, Zeus would not let the just family suffer such a cruel and undeserving death, so he changed them all six of them into various birds; Lelante became a green woodpecker.

See also

• Artemiche
• Erodius
• Hippodamia

Bibliography

• Antoninus Liberalis, The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis translated by Francis Celoria (Routledge 1992). Online version at the Topos Text Project.
• Celoria, Francis (1992). The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis: A Translation with a Commentary. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-06896-7.
• Ovid, Metamorphoses, Volume II: Books 9-15. Translated by Frank Justus Miller. Revised by G. P. Goold. Loeb Classical Library 43. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1916.