Melantho (Odyssey)

For other uses, see Melantho.

In Greek mythology, Melantho (/mɪˈlænθoʊ/; Ancient Greek: Μελανθώ, romanized: Melanthṓ) is one of the minor characters in the Odyssey.

Family

Melantho was the sister to Melanthios, a goatherd in Ithaca, and the daughter of Dolios.

Mythology

Melantho was among Penelope's favorite female slaves; she had "reared and looked after her as tenderly as her own child" and given "all the toys she could desire"^[1] growing up.

Despite this, Melantho was disloyal and ungrateful to Odysseus and his household. She was one of the slaves who slept with the suitors of Penelope; "she was in love with" Eurymachus and had become his "mistress".^[2] She reveals Penelope's deception in unweaving her loom every night to the suitors.^[3]

Described as having a "sharp tongue", upon Odysseus's arrival in his own home, disguised as a beggar, Melantho treated him harshly and rudely asked why he has not gone to sleep in the smithy, the location where chance visitors in Ithaca tended to go.^[4] She is rude to Odysseus again, urging him to leave, for which Odysseus and Penelope respond intensely to her.^[5]

After Odysseus and his men kill the suitors, it is not clear^[6] if Melantho is among the slave girls that are forced to clean the hall and are then hanged by Telemachus.^[7]