6. A youth of Patrae, in Achaia, who was in love with Comaetho, a priestess of Artemis
Triclaria. As the parents on both sides would not consent to their marriage, Melanippus
profaned the temple of the goddess by his intercourse with Comaetho. The goddess punished the
two offenders with instantaneous death, and visited the whole country with plague and famine.
The oracle of Delphi revealed the cause of these calamities, and ordered the inhabitants to
sacrifice to Artemis every year the handsomest youth and the handsomest maiden. (