cruelly killed by Odysseus. (Hom. Od. xvii. 212, &c., xxi. 176, xxii. 474, &c.') [L. S.]
MELA'NTHIUS ((
Greek characters)), an Athenian
tragic poet, who seems to have been of some distinction in his day, but of whom little is now
known beyond the attacks made on him by the
comic poets. Eupolis, Aristophanes, Pherecrates,
Leucon, and Plato, satirized him unmercifully; and
it is remarkable that he was attacked in all the
three comedies which gained the first three places
in the dramatic contest of B.C. 419, namely, the
(Greek characters) of Eupolis, the (Greek characters) of Aristophanes,
and the (Greek characters) of Leucon (Athen. viii. p. 343;
Schol. 'ad Arisioph. Pac. 804). He is again
attacked by Aristophanes in the "Opvides, B.C.
414. In addition to these indications of his date,
we are informed of a remark made by him upon
the tragedies of Diogenes Oenomaus, who flourished
about B.C. 400 (Plut. de Aud. p. 41, c). The
story of his living at the court of Alexander of
Pherae, who began to reign b. c. 369, is not very
probable, considering the notoriety which he had
acquired fifty years earlier, and yet the allusion
made to his position and conduct there is quite in
keeping with all that we know of his character
(Plut. de Adul, et Amic. p. 50, e.).
The most important passage respecting Melanthius is that in the Peace of Aristophanes (796,
&c.), which we subjoin in the form in which
Welcker gives it :
(Greek characters)
It has been much doubted whether the fifth line
means that Melanthius and Morsimus were brothers,
or whether we should understand the word (Greek characters) to refer to some brother of Melanthius, whose
name is not mentioned. The two ancient scholiasts
held opposite opinions on the point (comp. Suid.
s. v.); while among modern scholars, the former
view is held by Ulrici, Meineke, Welcker, and
Kayser, and the latter by Elmsley, Böckh, Müller
and Clinton (comp. Elms, ad Eurip. Med. 96, with
Welcker, die Griech. Tragöd. p. 1029). The
character given of Melanthius in the above extract,
his worthlessness as a poet, his voracious gluttony,
his profligacy, and his personal offensiveness, is con-
firmed by several other passages of the comic poets
and other writers (Aristoph. Pax., 999, Av. 152, and
Schol.; Archippus, ap. Athen. viii. p. 343 ; Athen.
i. p. 6, c). He was celebrated for his wit, of
which several specimens are preserved (Plut. de Aud. Poët p. 20, c, de Aud. p. 41, c, de Adul. et Amic. p. 50, d., Conjug. Praec. p. 144, b., Sympos.
p. 631, d., p. 633, d.). Aristophanes has preserved
the title and two lines, somewhat parodied, of one
of his dramas, the Medea, for it is absurd to sup-
pose the Medea of Euripides is meant (Pax, 999) ;
and Plutarch has more than once (De cohib. Ira,
p. 453, f., de sera Num. Vindict. p. 551, a.) quoted
a line, in which Melanthius says that (Greek characters)
(Greek characters)
Athenaeus informs us that Melanthius also wrote elegies (viii. p. 343, d.), and Plutarch (Cim. 4) refers to the epigrammatic elegies of Melanthius on Cimon and Polygnotus, of which he quotes one distich. But if the Melanthius quoted by Plutarch lived and wrote in the time of Cimon, as he seems clearly to mean, he could not have been, as Athe- naeus supposed, the same person as the tragic poet. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. p. 310; Ulrici, Hellen. Dichtkunst., vol. ii. p. 572; Welcker, Die Griech. Trag. pp. 1030—1032 ; Kayser, Hist. Crit. Trag. Graec. pp. 59—65.)
[P. S.]
MELA'NTHIUS or MELANTHUS ((Greek characters), (Greek characters)), an eminent Greek painter of the
Sicyonian school, was contemporary with Apelles
(B.C. 332), with whom he studied under Pamphilus, and whom he was considered even to excel
in one respect, namely, in composition or grouping
(dispositio). Quinctilian praises his ratio, by which
perhaps he means the same thing. (Plin. xxxv.
10. s. 36. §§ 8, 10, adopting in the latter passage
the reading of the Bamberg MS., which Brotier
had previously suggested, Melanthio for Amphoni;
Quinctil. xii. 10.)
He was one of the best colourists of all the Greek
painters : Pliny mentions him as one of the four
great painters who made "immortal works" with
only four colours. (H. N. xxxv. 7. s. 32; comp.
Dict, of Ant. s. v. Colores.) The only one of his
pictures mentioned is the portrait of Aristratus,
tyrant of Sicyon, riding in a triumphal chariot,
which was painted by Melanthius and his pupils,
and some parts of which were said to have been
touched by the hand of Apelles ; and respecting
the fate of which a curious story is quoted from
Polemon by Plutarch (Arat. 13) ; from whom also
we learn the high esteem in which the pictures of
Melanthius were held. (Ibid. 12; comp. Plin.
H. N. xxxv. 7. s. 32.) Melanthius wrote a work
upon his art ((Greek characters)), from which a
passage is quoted by Diogenes (iv. 18), and which
Pliny cites among the authorities for the 35th book
of his Natural History.
[P. S.]
MELANTHO ((Greek characters)). 1. A daughter of
Dolius, and sister of Melanthius ; she was a slave
in the house of Odysseus ; and having sided, like
her brother, with the suitors, she was hanged by
Odysseus. (Hom. Od. xviii. 321; Paus. x. 25.
§ 1.)
2. A daughter of Deucalion, became the mother of Delphus, by Poseidon, who deceived her in the form of a dolphin. (Tzetz. ad Lyc. 208; Ov. Met. vi. 120.)
[L. S.]
MELANTHUS ((Greek characters)). 1. One of the
Tyrrhenian pirates, who wanted to carry off young
Bacchus, but were metamorphosed into dolphins.
(Ov. Met. iii. 671, &c.)
2. One of the sons of Laocoon. (Serv. ad Aen. ii. 211.) In Lycophron (767) the name occurs as a surname of Poseidon.
[L. S.]
MELANTHUS or MELA'NTHIUS ((Greek characters), (Greek characters)), one of the Neleidae, and king of
Messenia, whence he was driven out by the Heraeleidae on their conquest of the Peloponnesus,
and, following the instructions of the Delphic
oracle, took refuge in Attica, In a war between
the Athenians and Boeotians, Xanthus, the Boeotian king, challenged Thymoetes, king of Athens
and the last of the Theseidae, to single combat.
Thymoetes declined the challenge on the ground of
age and infirmity. So ran the story, which strove
