M/M: Chariton and Melanippus, Blessed Pair: Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae XIII.78

 Like the Athenian couple Harmodius and Aristogeiton, the couple Melanippus and Chariton are also seen as symbols of political freedom.

Chariton & Melanippus were blessed;

Pinnacle of holy love on earth.

Felix & Chariton & Melanippus erat,

mortalium genti auctores coelestis amoris.

εὐδαίμων Χαρίτων καὶ Μελάνιππος ἔφυ,

θείας ἁγητῆρες ἐφαμερίοις φιλότατος.

 

 --Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae XIII.78; Translated in to Latin by Iohannes Schweighaeuser (1805)

 Athenaeus was a scholar who lived in Naucratis (modern Egypt) during the reign of the Antonines. His fifteen volume work, the Deipnosophists, are invaluable for the amount of quotations they preserve of otherwise lost authors, including the poetry of Sappho.