Priest of Apollo (although related to Dionysus) at Ismarus (or Ismara), a city in Thrace. His father, depending on the source, was either Dionysus or Evanthes (which would make him a grandson of Dionysus and Ariadne) or Oenopion. He is considered the eponym of Maroneia, the Thracian region famous in Antiquity for its wine. Maron gave some of this wine to Odysseus when he and his companions attacked Ismarus on his voyage home to Ithaca from Troy. Although they sacked the city, they spared the priest and his family and in gratitude Maron presented Odysseus with gifts, including jars of the region’s famous strong sweet wine. It is said, moreover, that with this wine Odysseus was able to make the Cyclops Polyphemus drunk and thus escape with his surviving companions. A passage in Diodorus Siculus says that Maron came to Greece as an old man and settled in Thrace, where he taught the art of making wine. According to Nonnus, Maron was the son of Silenus and accompanied Dionysus on his expedition to India as his charioteer.
