Comætho

Role: priestess of Artemis Triclaria · First appears: Book 7 · Chapter 19

Comætho was a priestess of Artemis Triclaria, described as “a most beautiful maiden.” After Melanippus won her love and sought her father’s permission to marry her, the two consummated their love in Artemis’s temple and made it their habitual bridal chamber.

Forthwith, Artemis’s wrath brought famine, sickness, and unusually high mortality upon the country. At Delphi, the oracle ordered that the most handsome maiden and lad be sacrificed to Artemis annually.

Relationship record

Life events

• Melanippus and Comætho consummated their love in Artemis’s temple, making it their bridal chamber.(Book 7 · Chapter 19 · 📍 temple of Artemis Triclaria)
  • With: Melanippus (lover of Comætho)
  • “Melanippus and Comætho satisfied their ardent love in the very temple of Artemis, and afterwards made the temple habitually their bridal-chamber.”
• Artemis’s wrath brought famine, illness, and unusually high mortality upon the country.(Book 7 · Chapter 19)
  • With: Artemis Melanippus (lover of Comætho)
  • “And forthwith the wrath of Artemis came on the people of the country, their land yielded no fruit, and unusual sicknesses came upon the people, and the mortality was much greater than usual.”
• The oracle ordered annual sacrifices of the most handsome maiden and lad to Artemis.(Book 7 · Chapter 19 · 📍 Delphi)
  • With: Artemis Melanippus (lover of Comætho)
  • “the oracle ordered them to sacrifice to Artemis annually the most handsome maiden and lad.”

Book 7 · Chapter 19

• courtship with Melanippus (lover of Comætho) “And as Melanippus won the maiden’s love as well, he asked her in marriage of her father.”
• with Artemis (Comætho was priestess of Artemis Triclaria.) “They have a tradition that once the priestess of the goddess was one Comætho, a most beautiful maiden”
• with Artemis (Comætho violated Artemis Triclaria's temple with Melanippus.) “for Melanippus and Comætho satisfied their ardent love in the very temple of Artemis”

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Extracted from the original text of Pausanias' Description of Greece. Made with Rho MD.