Bias

Son of Amythaon, and brother of the seer Melampus. He married Pero, daughter of Neleus, whom her father had refused to give to any one unless he brought him the oxen of Iphicles. These Melampus obtained by his courage and skill, and so won the princess for his brother.1

Through his brother also Bias is said to have gained a third of the kingdom of Argos, Melampus having insisted upon it in his behalf, as part of the condition on which alone he would cure the daughters of Proetus and the other Argive women of their madness.

According to Pausanias, the Biantidae continued to rule in Argos for four generations. Apollonius Rhodius mentions three sons of Bias among the Argonauts — Talaus, Areius, and Leodocus.2

According to the received reading in Diodorus,3 "Bias" was also the name of a son of Melampus by Iphianeira, daughter of Megapenthes; but it has been proposed to read "Abas," in accordance with Pausanias,4 Apollonius Rhodius,5 and Apollodorus.6

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References

Notes

  1. Scholiast on Theocritus' Idylls iii, 43; Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, i, 118; Pausanias. Description of Greece iv, 36; comp. Homer. Odyssey xii, 286 ff.; xv, 231.
  2. Herodotus. Histories ix, 34; Pindar. Nemean Odes ix, 30; Scholiast ad. loc.; Diodorus Siculus, iv, 68; Pausanias. Description of Greece ii, 6, 18; Apollonius Rhodius. Argonautica i, 118.
  3. iv, 68.
  4. Description of Greece i, 43;
  5. Argonautica i, 142.
  6. The Library i, 9.

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.