Source-groundedThe Odyssey
All entities

Character · Individual

Melantho

Published entity metadata

Read-only identity and editorial metadata.

Canonical name
Melantho
Disambiguator
None
Kind
Character
Scope
Individual
Editorial note
No editorial note published.

Aliases

1

daughter to Dolius

Descriptive reference · Direct

Location presence

Phase 6 currently covers 24 processed books.

0

No presence observations in the processed scope.

Claims

4
·Direct

Pretty Melantho mocks Ulysses contemptuously; though raised by Penelope with toys and care, she disregards her mistress’s grief and conducts an affair with Eurymachus.

See evidence text
“pretty Melantho began to gibe at him contemptuously. She was daughter to Dolius, but had been brought up by Penel ope, who used to give her toys to play with, and looked after her when she was a child; but in spite of all this she showed no consideration for the sorrows of her mistress, and used to misconduct herself with Eurymachus, with whom she was in love”
·Reported

Melantho calls Ulysses mad, shameless, and babbling, suggests wine may have affected him, and threatens that a stronger man will beat him bloody from the house.

See evidence text
“Poor wretch,’ said she, ‘are you gone clean out of your mind? Go and sleep in some smithy, or place of public gossips, instead of chattering here. Are you not ashamed of opening your mouth before your betters—so many of them too? Has the wine been getting into your head, or do you always babble in this way? You seem to have lost your wits because you beat the tramp Irus; take care that a better man than he does not come and cudgel you about the head till he pack you bleeding out of the house”
·Reported

Melantho rails at the stranger, accuses him of spying on the women, and threatens to drive him out with a firebrand.

See evidence text
“Melantho began to rail at Ulysses a second time and said, ‘Stranger, do you mean to plague us by hanging about the house all night and spying upon the women? Be off, you wretch, outside, and eat your supper there, or you shall be driven out with a firebrand.”
·Reported

Ulysses warns Melantho that she may lose the pride and rank in which she wantons over her fellows.

See evidence text
“woman, beware lest you too come to lose that pride and place in which you now wanton above your fellows;”

Additional evidence

Evidence records not already represented by a claim.

2
·Direct
“pretty Melantho began to gibe at him contemptuously”
·Direct
“Melantho began to rail at Ulysses”

Passage preview

Book 18 · Passage 31

The maids looked at one another and laughed, while pretty Melantho began to gibe at him contemptuously. She was daughter to Dolius, but had been brought up by Penel ope, who used to give her toys to play with, and looked after her when she was a child; but in spite of all this she showed no consideration for the sorrows of her mistress, and used to misconduct herself with Eurymachus, with whom she was in love.