188 Menippe is a main belt asteroid. The object has a bright surface and rocky composition. It was discovered by C. H. F. Peters on June 18, 1878, in Clinton, New York. The asteroid was named named after Menippe, one of the daughters of Orion in Greek mythology.
This asteroid is orbiting the Sun at a distance of with a moderate eccentricity of 0.178 and an orbital period of 4.59 years. The orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 11.7ð to the plane of the ecliptic. Based on infrared measurements, it has a diameter of approximately . The spectrum matches a stony S-type asteroid.
Photometric observations during 2010 showed a synodic rotation period of 11.98 ñ 0.02 hours and a brightness variation of 0.28 ñ 0.02 in magnitude. Because the rotation period is close to twelve hours, observations were needed at two widely separated observatories in order to build a light curve for the complete rotation.