Meilichius

(Μειλίχιος), i. e. the god that can be propitiated, or the gracious, is used as a surname of several divinities. 1. Of Zeus, as the protector of those who honoured him with propitiatory sacrifices. At Athens cakes were offered to him every year at the festival of the Diasia. (Thuc. 1.126; Xenoph. Anab. 7.7.4.) Altars were erected to Zeus Meilichius on the Cephissus (Paus. 1.37.3), at Sicyon (2.9.6), and at Argos (2.20.1; Plut. De cohib. Ir. 9). 2. Of Dionysus in the island of Naxos. (Athen. 3.78.) 3. Of Tyche or Fortune. (Orph. Hymn. 71. 2.) The plural θεοὶ μειλίχιοι is also applied to certain divinities whom mortals used to propitiate with sacrifices at night, that they might avert all evil, as e. g. at Myonia in the country of the Ozolian Locrians. (Paus. 10.38.4; comp. Orph. E. 30.) [L.S]