Melantho Explained

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

• Melantho, also called Melanthea, a Phthian princess as the daughter of King Deucalion^[1] 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]

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: (Vol. 1), (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. . 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. . 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.

Notes and References

1. [Tzetzes]
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]
4. [Hecataeus of Miletus|Hecateus]
5. Gantz, p. 167.
6. [Stephanus of Byzantium]
7. [Ovid]
8. [Tzetzes]
9. Scholia on Euripides, Orestes 1094
10. [Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]
11. Augustine, City of God 18.8
12. Scholia on Euripides, Orestes 932; on Phoenician Women 1116
13. [Homer]