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Greek Mythology >> Bestiary >> Legendary Tribes >> Melanochroti (Melanokhrotoi)

MELANOKHROTOI

Greek Name

Μελανοχρωτος
Μελανοχρωτοι

Transliteration

Melanokhrôtos
Melanokhrôtoi

Roman Name

Nigrus
Nigri

Translation

Black-Skin
Black-Skins

THE MELANOKHROTOI (Melanchroti) were a tribe of black-skinned men who lived in the lands south of Egypt and west of the Nile (i.e. modern-day Sudan). Their king had a single eye set in the middle of his forehead--much like the Kyklops (Cyclops) encountered by Odysseus.


PARENTS

Human tribe descended from EPAPHOS & GAIA (Hesiod Catalogues Frag 40A)


CLASSICAL LITERATURE QUOTES

Hesiod, Catalogues of Women Frag 40A (from the Oxyrhynchus Papyri 1358) (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or 7th B.C.) :
"The tribes of the boundless Melanokhrotoi (Melanochroti) (Black-Skins) and the Libyes (Libyans). Huge Gaia (the Earth) bare these to Epaphos . . . Aithiopes (Ethiopians) and Libyes (Libyans)."

Pliny the Elder, Natural History 6. 195 (trans. Rackham) (Roman encyclopedia C1st A.D.) :
"Then come regions [in Africa] that are purely imaginary : towards the west [of Ethiopian Meroe] are the Nigri (Blacks), whose king is said to have only one eye, in his forehead."


SOURCES

GREEK

ROMAN

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A complete bibliography of the translations quoted on this page.