Dionysus 2 gave the daughters of Anius their wonderful powers

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These three sisters, Elais, Oeno, and Spermo—called the WINEGROWERS—are the daughters of King Anius of Delos, son of Apollo and Rhoeo, daughter of Staphylus ₁, son of Ariadne, daughter of Minos ₂.

Their father

When Rhoeo lay with Apollo, her father, believing that she had been with a man, was angered, and shut her up in a chest and cast it into the sea. But the chest came ashore on the island Delos where Rhoeo gave birth to Anius.

Anius, besides being king, held religious office in Delos as he was priest of Apollo. This god instructed him in the art of divination, and also most of Anius' children had remarkable powers.

His son Andros, who called the island Andros after himself, was a seer. It is he who, as king of Andros, was forced to give his sisters up to the Achaeans.

When the Trojan War was over, Lavinia ₃ (daughter of Anius) embarked in Delos with the exiled Trojans, having been given by her father to Aeneas as a prophetess and a wise woman. Lavinia ₃ died of illness at the time when Aeneas was building a city in Italy, and he called it Lavinium after her.

Even less lucky was Anius' son Thasius, who was destroyed by his own dogs; for this reason there are no dogs on Delos.

Their gift

To the WINEGROWERS (Elais, Oeno, and Spermo) Dionysus ₂ granted the power of producing oil, wine, and corn from anything they touched.

Turn into doves

There was rich profit in them, and because of it Agamemnon, who at the time was engaged in his campaign against Troy, kidnapped them, and keeping them by force, bade them feed the Achaean army. The WINEGROWERS could in time escape and take refuge in the islands of Euboea and Andros. But as war was threatened unless they were surrendered, the WINEGROWERS were given back. However, when they were about to be chained, the WINEGROWERS cried to Dionysus ₂ for help, and the god restored their freedom by turning them into white doves.