Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

, Melanthus () was a king of

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

and son of Andropompus and Henioche.

Mythology

Melanthus was among the descendants of Neleus (the Neleidae) expelled from Messenia, by the descendants of

Heracles Heracles ( ; ), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a Divinity, divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of ZeusApollodorus1.9.16/ref> and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptive descent through ...

, as part of the legendary "

Return of the Heracleidae The Return of the Heracleidae is an ancient Greek myth concerning the return of the descendants of the hero Heracles to the Peloponnese, Heracles's homeland, and their conquest of various realms in the region. In the myth, Heracles was assisted ...

", later associated with the supposed "

Dorian invasion The Dorian invasion (or Dorian migration) is an ancient Greek myth and discredited archaeological hypothesis describing the movement of the Dorian people into the Peloponnese region of Greece. According to the myth, the Dorians migrated from c ...

". Melanthus fled to

, along with other of the expelled Neleidae, Alcmaeon and the sons of Paeon. Melanthus later became a

king of Athens Before the Athenian democracy, the tyrants, and the Archons, the city-state of Athens was ruled by kings. Most of these are probably mythical or only semi-historical. The following lists contain the chronological order of the title King of Athens ...

, the successor of Thymoetes, succeeded by

Codrus Codrus (; ; Greek: , ''Kódros'') was the last of the semi-mythical Kings of Athens (r. ca 1089– 1068 BC). He was an ancient exemplar of patriotism and self-sacrifice. He was succeeded by his son Medon, who it is claimed ruled not as king bu ...

. Codrus was considered to be a forefather to the Greek philosopher

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

. According to

Diogenes Laertius Diogenes Laërtius ( ; , ; ) was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Little is definitively known about his life, but his surviving book ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'' is a principal source for the history of ancient Greek phi ...

who cited Thrasylus as his source, Codrus and Melanthus also trace their descent from Poseidon.Diogenes Laertius Plato 1 Melanthus was also a shipmate of Acoetes who attempted to kidnap

Dionysus In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ...

Notes

References

* Pausanias, ''Description of Greece''. W. H. S. Jones (translator).

Loeb Classical Library The Loeb Classical Library (LCL; named after James Loeb; , ) is a monographic series of books originally published by Heinemann and since 1934 by Harvard University Press. It has bilingual editions of ancient Greek and Latin literature, ...

. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. (1918). Vol. 1. Books I–II: .

External links

*
Reference on Greek Mythology Link
Kings in Greek mythology Ancient Greek monarchs Family of Plato {{greek-myth-royal-stub