Melantho

For the aquarium snails, see Lymnaea. For the ship built in 1812, see Melantho (1812 ship). For the ship shipwrecked in 1801, see List of shipwrecks of the Isles of Scilly (19th century).

In Greek mythology, Melantho (/mɪˈlænθoʊ/; Ancient Greek: Μελανθώ) may refer to the following women:

• Melantho, also called Melanthea, a Phthian princess as the daughter of King Deucalion^{[1][AI-generated source?]} and Pyrrha, daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora. She was the sister of Hellen, Protogenea and Amphictyon.^[2] Melanthea’s other possible siblings were Pandora, Thyia,^[3] Orestheus, Marathonios, Pronous^[4][5] and Candybus.^[6] Melantho was seduced by Poseidon the shape of a dolphin^[7] and by him, bore a son Delphus.^[8] In one account, Melantheia instead married King Hyamus of Hyampolis, son of Lycorus, and by him the mother of two daughters, Melanis^[9] and Celaeno^[10] of whom either might have been mother of Delphus by Apollo.
• Melantho, also called Melantomice,^[11] an Argive queen as the wife of King Criasus. She was the mother of Phorbas, Ereuthalion and Cleoboea.^[12]
• Melantho, the disloyal maid of Penelope.^[13]

Notes

1. Tzetzes ad Lycophron, 208 (Gk. text); Scholia on Euripides, Orestes 1094
2. Hesiod, Catalogue of Women fr. 5 Most, pp. 46, 47 [= fr. 4 Merkelbach-West, p. 5 = Scholia on Homer's Odyssey 10.2 (Dindorf, p. 444)].
3. Hesiod, Ehoiai fr. 2, 5 & 7; cf. M.L. West (1985) The Hesiodic Catalogue of Women. Oxford, pp. 50–2, who posits that a third daughter, Protogeneia, who was named at (e.g.) Pausanias, 5.1.3, was also present in the Catalogue.
4. Hecateus, fr. 1F13
5. Gantz, p. 167.
6. Stephanus of Byzantium, s.v. Κάνδυβα
7. Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.120
8. Tzetzes on Lycophron, 208
9. Scholia on Euripides, Orestes 1094
10. Pausanias, 10.6.3.
11. Augustine, City of God 18.8
12. Scholia on Euripides, Orestes 932; on Phoenician Women 1116
13. Homer, Odyssey 18.320

References

• Apollodorus, The Library with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. ISBN 0-674-99135-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
• Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: ISBN 978-0-8018-5360-9 (Vol. 1), ISBN 978-0-8018-5362-3 (Vol. 2).
• Hesiod, Catalogue of Women from Homeric Hymns, Epic Cycle, Homerica translated by Evelyn-White, H G. Loeb Classical Library Volume 57. London: William Heinemann, 1914. Online version at theio.com
• Homer, The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919. ISBN 978-0674995611. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
• Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. ISBN 0-674-99328-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
• Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses translated by Brookes More (1859-1942). Boston, Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses. Hugo Magnus. Gotha (Germany). Friedr. Andr. Perthes. 1892. Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Stephanus of Byzantium, Stephani Byzantii Ethnicorum quae supersunt, edited by August Meineike (1790-1870), published 1849. A few entries from this important ancient handbook of place names have been translated by Brady Kiesling. Online version at the Topos Text Project.