in Greek mythology, the son of the god Apollo and of Rhoeo, who was herself a descendant of the god Dionysus. Rhoeo, when pregnant, had been placed in a chest and cast into the sea by her father; floating to the island of Delos, the birthplace of Apollo, she gave birth to Anius, who became a seer and a priest of Apollo. Anius's three daughters, Oeno, Spermo, and Elais—that is, Wine, Grain Seed, and Oil—were granted by Dionysus the gift of bringing these three crops to fruition. In Ovid's Metamorphoses the Greek army tries to force Anius's daughters to come to Troy, whereupon Dionysus turns them into doves, the sacred birds of Delos. According to legend, they supplied the Greek expedition on its way to Troy, and in Virgil's Aeneid they supplied Aeneas in his flight from Troy to Italy.