Melanthius
- A goatherd of Ulysses, Ov. H. 1, 95.—
- II A celebrated painter, Plin. 35, 7, 32, § 50; 35, 10, 36, § 76.
(Μελάνθιος), also called Melantheus, a son of Dolius, was a goat-herd of Odysscus, sided with the suitors of Penelope, and was cruelly killed by Odysseus. (Hom. Od. 17.212, &c., 21.176, 22.474, &c.) [L.S]
(Μελάνθιος), 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 conic 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 Κόλακες of Eupolis, the Εἰρήνη of Aristophanes, and the Φράτορες of Leucon (Athen. 8.343; schol. ad Arisloph. Pac. 804). He is again attacked by Aristophanes in the Ὄρνιθες, 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. 41c.). 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. 50e.).
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:
Τοιάδε χρὴ Χαρίτων δαμώματα καλλικόμων τὸν σοφὸν ποιητὴν ὑμνεῖν, οταν ἠοινὰ μὲν φωνῇ χελιδὼν ἑζομενη κελαδῇ, χορὸν δὲ μὴ ῎χῃ Μόρσιμος, μηδὶ Μελάνθιος, οὗ δὴ πικροτάτην ὄπα γηρύσαν-τος ἤκουσʼ, ἡνίκα τῶν τραγῳδῶν τὸν χόρον εἶχον ἁδελφός τεκαὶ αὐτὸς ἀμφώ Γόργονες ὀψοφάγοι, βατιδοσκάποι, ἅρπυιαι, γραοσόβαι, μιαροὶ, τραγομάσχαλοι, ἰχθυολῦμαι.
It has been much doubted whether the fifth line means that Melanthius and Morsimus were brothers, or whether we should understand the word ἁδελφός to refer to some brother of Melanthius, whose name is not mentioned. Tihe 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 confirmed by several other passages of the comic poets and other writers (Aristoph. Peace 999, Av. 152, and Schol.; Archippus, apud Athen. viii. p. 343; Athen. 1.6c.). He was celebrated for his wit, of whichseveral specimens are preserved (Plut. de Aud. Poet. p. 20c., de Aud. p. 41c., de Adul. et Amic. p. 50d., Conjug. Praec. p. 144b., Sympos. p. 631d., p. 633d.). Aristophanes has preserved the title and two lines, somewhat parodied, of one of his dramas, the Medea, for it is absurd to suppose the Medea of Euripides is meant (Pax, 999) ; and Plutarch has more than once (De cohib. Ira, p. 453f., de sera Num. Vindict. p. 551a.) quoted a line, in which Melanthius says that ὁ θυμὸς Τὰ δεινα πράττει τὰς φρένας μετοικίσας
Athenaeus informs us that Melanthius also wrote elegies (viii. p. 343d.), and Plutarch (Plut. 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 Athenaeus 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]
(Μελάνθιος, Μέλανθος), or Melanthus, 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. Nat. 35.10. s. 36. §§ 8, 10, adopting in the latter passage the reading of the Bamberg MS., which Brotier had previously suggested, Melanthio for Amphioni; Quinctil. 12.10.)
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. 35.7. 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 (Plut. Arat. 13); from whom also we learn the high esteem in which the pictures of Melanthius were held. (Ibid. 12; comp. Plin. Nat. 35.7. s. 32.) Melanthius wrote a work upon his art (περὶ ζωγραφικῆς), from which a passage is quoted by Diogenes (4.18), and which Pliny cites among the authorities for the 35th book of his Natural History. [P.S]
MELA´NTHIUS (Μελάνθιος), a small river on the north coast of Pontus, forming the boundary between Pontus Polemoniacus and Cappadocius, and flowing into the Euxine a little to the east of Cotyora. (Plin. Nat. 6.4; Arrian, Peripl. p. 17; Anonym. Peripl. p. 12; Tab. Peut., where it is called Melantus.) It is probably the same river as that now bearing the name of Melet Irmak. (Hamilton, Researches, 1. p. 267.)
[L.S](Μελάνθιος). (1) A goat-herd of Odysseus.
(2) An Athenian tragic poet attacked by Aristophanes (Pax, 796, and elsewhere).
(3) A Greek painter of the Sicyonian School, contemporary with Apelles (B.C. 332), with whom he studied under Pamphilus (Pliny , Pliny H. N. xxxv. 50).
- scorns Odysseus: Apollod. E.7.29; Paus. 10.25.1
- killed by Odysseus: Apollod. E.7.32
- Hdt. 5.97