Mopsus (Argonaut)
In Greek mythology, Mopsus (/ˈmɒpsəs/; Ancient Greek: Μόψος, Mopsos), was the Lapith son of Ampyx and a nymph (sometimes named as Chloris[1] and sometimes named Aregonis[2]), born at Titaressa in Thessaly, was also a seer and augur. In Thessaly the place name Mopsion recalled his own.[3] The earliest evidence of him is inscribed on the strap of a soldier's shield, found at Olympia and dated c.600–575 BC.[4]
Mythology
[edit]This Mopsus was one of two seers among the Argonauts,[5] and was said to understand the language of birds, having learned augury from Apollo. He had competed at the funeral-games for Jason's father[6] and was among the Lapiths who fought the Centaurs. While fleeing across the Libyan desert from angry sisters of the slain Gorgon Medusa, Mopsus died from the bite of a viper that had grown from a drop of Medusa's blood. Medea was unable to save him, even by magical means. The Argonauts buried him with a monument by the sea, and a temple was later erected on the site.[7]
Ovid places him also at the hunt of the Calydonian Boar, although the hunt occurred after the Argonauts' return and Mopsus' supposed death.[8]
Notes
[edit]- ^ Hyginus, Fabulae 14; Tzetzes on Lycophron, 881, 980.
- ^ Argonautica Orphica 127 ff
- ^ Lane Fox 2008:212.
- ^ Lane Fox 2008:212.
- ^ The other was Idmon.
- ^ He was shown engaged in boxing on the 7th-century ivory Chest of Cypselus, in Pausanias' description (5.17.10).
- ^ Argonautica 1.65-68 & 1502-1536; also Ovid, Metamorphoses IV 618- 621; Hyginus, Fabulae 14.2, 14.5, 128 & 173; Tzetzes on Lycophron, 980.
- ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.316
References
[edit]- Hyginus, Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
- Orphic Argonautica, translated by Jason Colavito. © Copyright 2011. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
- Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses translated by Brookes More (1859-1942). Boston, Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Tzetzes, John, Lycophronis Alexandra. Vol. II: Scholia Continens, edited by Eduard Scheer, Berlin, Weidmann, 1881. Internet Archive.
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