Melanthius (Ancient Greek: Μελάνθιος), son of Dolius, is Odysseus' goatherd in Homer's Odyssey. Unlike the loyal swineherd Eumaeus and cowherd Philoetius — and unlike his own father and brothers — he sides with Penelope's suitors, taunts the disguised king, fetches them arms, and suffers a brutal mutilation after the wooers fall.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Melanthius (Odyssey)" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.Service to the suitors
Melanthius drives the best she-goats of the herd to feast the wooers and serves them at table, pouring wine or lighting fires at their order. Eurymachus is said to favour him above the other servants, and he is allowed to eat in the same hall.
On the road into town, by a fountain of the nymphs, he meets the disguised Odysseus with Eumaeus, kicks the stranger on the hip, and later tells the suitors he knows nothing of the beggar except that the swineherd brought him.
II.Capture and punishment
During the fight he tries to steal more weapons and armour for the suitors from the store-room. Eumaeus and Philoetius catch him, bind him, and string him up from the rafters at Odysseus' command.
After the suitors are dead he is taken to the courtyard: his nose and ears are cut off, his genitals torn out for the dogs, and his hands and feet chopped away — a humiliating punishment that marks his status as a traitor to the house. His twin sister Melantho is among the disloyal maids of the same household.