Melampus
(
Μελάμπους).
1.
The son of Amythaon (see
Aeolus) and of
Idomené; brother of Bias , the oldest Greek seer, and ancester of the family of
seers called Melampodidae. The brothers went with their uncle Neleus from Thessaly to Pylus
in Messenia, where they dwelt in the country. Melampus owed his gift of soothsaying to some
serpents, which he had saved from death and reared, and who in return cleansed his ears with
their tongues when he slept; on awaking he understood the voices of birds, and thus learned
what was secret. When Neleus would only give Bias his beautiful daughter Pero on condition
that he first brought him the oxen of Iphiclus of Phylacé in Thessaly, which were
guarded by a watchful dog, Melampus offered to bring the oxen for his brother, though he knew
beforehand that he would be imprisoned for a year. He was caught in the act of stealing them,
and kept in strict confinement. From the talk of the worms in the woodwork of the roof he
gathered that the house would soon fall to pieces. He thereupon demanded to be taken to
another prison; and this was scarcely done when the house broke down. When, on account of
this, Phylacus, father of Iphiclus, perceived his prophetic gifts, he promised him the oxen,
if, by his art, he would find out some way of curing his son's childlessness. Melampus
offered a bull to Zeus, cut it in pieces, and invited the birds to the meal. From these he
heard that a certain vulture, that had not come, knew how it could be effected. This vulture
was made to appear, and related that the defect in Iphiclus was the result of a sudden fright
at seeing a bloody knife, with which his father had been castrating some goats; he had dug
the knife into a tree, which had grown round about it; if he took some of the rust scraped
off it, for ten days, he would be cured. Melampus found the knife, cured Iphiclus, obtained
the oxen, and Bias received Pero for his wife.
Afterwards he went to Argos, because, according to Homer (
Od. xv. 225-240), Neleus had committed a serious offence against him
in his absence, for which he had taken revenge; while, according to the usual account,
he had been asked by king Proetus to heal his daughter, stricken with madness for acting
impiously towards Dionysus or Heré. He had stipulated that his reward should be a
third of the kingdom for himself, another for Bias ; besides which Iphianassa became his
wife, and Lysippé that of Bias , both being daughters of Proetus. A descendant of
his son Antiphates was Oïcles, who was a companion of Heracles in the expedition
against Troy, and was slain in battle by Laomedon; he again was ancestor of the seer and hero
Amphiaraüs. Descendants of his other son Mantius were Cleitus, whom Eos, the goddess
of dawn, carried off on account of his beauty, and Polypheides, whom, after the death of
Amphiaraüs, Apollo made the best of seers. The son of Polypheides was the seer
Theoclymenus, who, flying from Argos on account of committing a murder, met Telemachus at
Pylus, was led by him to Ithaca, and announced to Penelopé the presence in Ithaca
of Odysseus and to the suitors their approaching death. The seer
Polyidus (q.v.) was also said to be a great-grandson of Melampus. At
Argos Melampus was held to be the first priest of Dionysus, and originator of mysterious
customs at festivals and at ceremonies of expiation.
2.
The author of two short works in Greek on divination, who lived in the third century B.C.
at Alexandria. Edition by Franz
(Altenburg, 1780).