In Greek mythology, Minyas (Greek: Μινύας) was the founder of Orchomenus, Boetia[1]. As the ancestor of the Minyans, a number of Boeotian genealogies lead back to him, according to the classicist H.J. Rose. Accounts vary as to his own parentage: one source states that he was thought to be the son of Orchomenus and Hermippe, his real father being Poseidon[2]; in another account he is called son of Poseidon and Callirhoe[3]; yet others variously give his father as Chryses (son of Poseidon and Chrysogeneia, daughter of Almus)[4], Ares, Aleus or Eteoclus[5].
Minyas was married to either Euryanassa, Euryale, Tritogeneia (daughter of Aeolus), Clytodora, or Phanosyra (daughter of Paeon). Of them either Euryanassa or Clytodora bore him a daughter Clymene (also called Periclymene[6], mother of Iphiclus and Alcimede by Phylacus or Cephalus). Clytodora is also given as the mother by Minyas of Presbon and Eteoclymene, and Phanosyra of Orchomenus, Diochthondes, and Athamas.[2] Minyas' other children include Cyparissus, the founder of Anticyra[7], and three daughters known as the Minyades.[8][9][10]
According to Apollonius Rhodius[11] and Pausanias [12] he was the first king ever to have made a treasury, of which the ruins were still extant in Pausanias' times.