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

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

  1. ↑ Hyginus, Fabulae 14.2
  2. ↑ Argonautica Orphica, 127 ff
  3. ↑ Lane Fox 2008:212.
  4. ↑ Lane Fox 2008:212.
  5. ↑ The other was Idmon.
  6. ↑ He was shown engaged in boxing on the 7th-century ivory Chest of Cypselus, in Pausanias' description (v.17.10).
  7. ↑ Argonautica I, 65-68 and 1502-1536); also Ovid, Metamorphoses IV 618- 621; ' Hyginus, Fabulae 14, 128, 172.?; John Tzetzes, Ad Lycophron, 980.
  8. ↑ Ovid, Metamorphoses, VIII.316.

References


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