Minyas is the name given to an otherwise unknown poet of the Archaic period of Greece, traditionally credited with composing an early Greek epic around the 6th century BCE. No reliable biographical information about this poet exists. The name is primarily that of a legendary hero, Minyas, the mythical ancestor of the Minyan people from the region of Boeotia.
The work attributed to him is the lost epic poem called the Minyas. This poem was part of the broader tradition of early Greek epic poetry that circulated alongside the Homeric works. It narrated myths connected to the Minyan heroes, including stories about the Argonauts and the descent of Theseus into the underworld. The poem does not survive intact and is known only through a few fragments and references in later ancient authors.
The attribution of this poem to a specific poet named Minyas is not found in early sources and is considered uncertain by modern scholars. The significance of the epic Minyas lies in its role as a repository of local Boeotian and Thessalian heroic myths. According to modern scholars, it helped preserve traditions not detailed in the Iliad or Odyssey. Later writers on mythology and geography used it as a source, indicating its importance in the ancient Greek epic tradition. While the heroic figure Minyas was important in myth, the historical existence of a poet by that name remains unattested.