In Greek mythology, Minyas was the founder of Orchomenus or son of king Orchomenus, depending on the story. As the ancestor of the Minyans, a number of Boeotian genealogies (see Minyans) lead back to him, according to the classicist H.J. Rose.
His children include Clymene, mother of Phaethon, and three daughters known as the Minyades.
Minyas was also the title of an early Greek epic poem, probably dating to the 6th century B.C.E., which is now lost and whose author is unknown. The very few fragments that survive (available in Greek in Davies' and Bernabé's editions, and in Greek and English translation edited by M.L. West) seem to have nothing to do with Minyas or Orchomenus, however: they all concern the story of Theseus' and Peirithous' descent into the Underworld.
Orchomenos in Boeotia, with a Late Bronze Age palace decorated by colorful frescoes and an adjacent royal tomb dubbed the "Treasury of Minyas" by its excavator, the pioneering archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, was one of the richest and most important centers of the Mycenaean world.
Famous also for its well-preserved fortification walls of the late Classical period, Orchomenos was one of the very first towns to worship the graces, or Charites, for whom musical and poetic competitions were held at a festival called the Charitesia.
The site was occupied continuously from the Neolithic period to the time of Alexander the Great, but it was during the later 14th and 13th centuries BC that Orchomenos first became a settlement of major importance.
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