Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

Melantho, daughter of Dolius and sister of the goatherd Melanthius, was raised by Penelope with care but sided with the suitors—Eurymachus was her lover among them. Twice she mocks the disguised Odysseus: once when he offers to tend the braziers in the hall, calling him a shameless beggar who should sleep at the smithy; again when he waits in the megaron before the foot-washing, taunting him with threats of eviction. Odysseus and Telemachus answer her with hard prophecy. After the suitors die, Melantho is among the twelve disloyal serving-women Eurycleia names; Telemachus hangs them in a line. She embodies domestic betrayal parallel to her brother’s treachery with the arms and goats.