Comaetho

In Greek mythology, Comaetho (Κομαιθώ) is a name that may refer to:

• The daughter of Pterelaos and princess of the Taphians. The Taphians were at war with Thebes, led by Amphitryon, whom Comaetho fell in love with. The Taphians remained invincible until Comaetho out of love for Amphitryon cut off her father's golden hair, the possession of which rendered him immortal. Having defeated the enemy, Amphitryon put Comaetho to death in retribution for her deed and handed over the kingdom of the Taphians to Cephalus.^[1][2] The story is parallel to that of Scylla (princess); compare also Pisidice and Leucophrye.

• A beautiful girl of Patrae who served as priestess in the temple of Artemis Triclaria and was in love with Melanippus. They were not allowed to marry each other, so they met secretly in the temple and had sex together. The outraged goddess sent famine and plague upon the city; to propitiate her, the inhabitants had to sacrifice both Comaetho and Melanippus to her. Since then, a young man and a young girl were sacrificed to the goddess each year until, in accordance with the instructions of the Delphian oracle, a strange king (Eurypylus, son of Euaemon) introduced the worship of a new deity (Dionysus, whose image he brought from Troy) in Patrae, thus both putting an end to the sacrifices and curing himself of madness which had been sent upon him when he had first looked at the god's image.^[3]

• A nymph of a spring who incessantly mingles her waters with those of the river god Cydnus, who in one passage of Nonnus' Dionysiaca is said to be her father,^[4] and in another her consort.^[5]

• Daughter of Tydeus and sister of Diomedes, mother of Cyanippus by Aegialeus.^[6]

References

1. ^ Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 2. 4. 7
2. ^ Tzetzes on Lycophron, 934
3. ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece, 7. 19. 1-9
4. ^ Dionysiaca 2. 143-144
5. ^ Dionysiaca 40. 141-143
6. ^ Tryphiodorus, The Taking of Ilios, 159