Amphilochus

A son of Amphiaraus and Eriphyle, and brother of Alcmaeon.1 When his father went against Thebes, Amphilochus was, according to Pausanias,2 yet an infant, although ten years afterwards he is mentioned as one of the Epigoni, and according to some traditions assisted his brother in the murder of his mother.

He is also mentioned among the suitors of Helen, and as having taken part in the Trojan war. On the return from this expedition he together with Mopsus, who was like himself a seer, founded the town of Mallos in Cilicia. Hence he proceeded to his native place, Argos. But as he was not satisfied with the state of affairs there, he returned to Mallos. When Mopsus refused to allow him any share in the government of their common colony, the two seers fought a single combat in which both were killed. This combat was described by some as having arisen out of a dispute about their prophetic powers. Their tombs, which were placed in such a manner that the one could not be seen from the other, existed as late as the time of Strabo, near Mount Margasa, not far from Pyramus.3

According to other traditions,4 Amphilochus and Calchas, on their return from Troy, went on foot to the celebrated grove of the Clarian Apollo near Colophon. In some accounts he was said to have been killed by Apollo.5 According to Thucydides6 Amphilochus returned from Troy to Argos, but being dissatisfied there, he emigrated and founded Argos Amphilochium on the Ambracian gulf. Other accounts, however, ascribe the foundation of this town to Alcmaeon,7 or to Amphilochus the son of Alcmaeon.8

Being a son of the seer Amphiaraus, Amphilochus was likewise believed to be endowed with prophetic powers; and at Mallos in Cilicia there was an oracle of Amphilochus, which in the time of Pausanias9 was regarded as the most truthful of all.10 He was worshiped together with his father at Oropus; at Athens he had an altar, and at Sparta a heroum.11

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References

Notes

  1. Pseudo-Apollodorus. The Library iii, 7.2; Homer. Odyssey xv, 248.
  2. v, 17.4.
  3. Strabo. Geography xiv, 675; Lycophron, 439, with the Scholiast.
  4. Strabo. Geography xiv, 642.
  5. Hesiod ap. Strabo's Geography xiv, 676.
  6. ii, 68.
  7. Strabo. Geography vii, 326.
  8. Pseudo-Apollodorus. The Library iii, 7.7.
  9. Description of Greece i, 34.2.
  10. Dictionary of Antiquities, p. 673.
  11. Pausanias. Description of Greece i, 34.2; iii, 15.6.

Source

  • Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.

This article incorporates text from Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) by William Smith, which is in the public domain.