MELAMPUS

This article appears in Volume V18, Page 88 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: MEC-MIC

MELAMPUS , in Greek legend, a celebrated seer and physician, son of Amythaon and Eidomene, brother of Bias, mythical eponymous hero of the family of the Melampodidae. Two

young

serpents, whose life he had saved, licked his ears while he slept, and from that time he understood the language of birds. and beasts. In the art of divination he received instruction from Apollo himself. To gain the consent of

Neleus

NELEUS

, king of Pylos, to the

marriage

MARRIAGE

of his daughter Pero with Bias, Melampus
undertook to obtain possession of the oxen of the Thessalian prince Iphiclus. As Melampus had foretold, he was caught and imprisoned, but was released by Phylacus (the father of Iphiclus) on giving proof of his powers of divination, and was finally presented with the oxen as a reward for having restored the virility of the son. Melampus subsequently obtained a share in the kingdom of Argos in return for having cured the daughters of its king Proetus, who had been driven mad for offering resistance to the

worship

WORSHIP (i.e. " worth-ship," O. Eng. weor8scipe)

of Dionysus or for stealing the gold from the statue of Hera. At Aegosthena in Megara there was a sanctuary of Melampus, and an annual festival was held in his honour. According to Herodotus, he introduced the cult of Dionysus into Greece from Egypt, and his name (" black foot ") is probably " a symbolical expression of his character as a Bacchic propitiatory priest and seer " (

Preller

PRELLER, FRIEDRICH (1804–1878)
PRELLER, LUDWIG (1809–1861)

). According to the traditional explanation, he was so called from his foot having been tanned by exposure to the sun when a boy. In his character of physician, he was the reputed discoverer of the herb melampodium, a kind of

hellebore

HELLEBORE

. Melampus and Bias are symbolical representatives of cunning and force.
See Apollodorus i. 9, II, 12; H. 2, 2; Odyssey, xv. 225240; Diod. Sic. iv. 68; Herodotus ii. 49; ix. 34; Pausanias H. 18, 4; iv. 36, 3; scholiast on Theocritus iii. 43; Ovid, Metam. xv. 325; C. Eckermann, Melampus and win Geschlecht (1840).
Melampus is also the name of the author of a short extant treatise of little value on Divination by means of Palpitation (IIaX is v) and Birthmarks ('EXa_%w). It probably

dates

DATES

from the time of

Ptolemy

PTOLEMY (
CLAUDIUS
PTOLEMAEUS)

Philadelphus (3rd cent. B.C.). Edition by J. G. Franz in Scriptures physiognomiae veteres (178o).

End of Article: MELAMPUS

If you wish, you can link directly to this article.

<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/MEC_MIC/MELAMPUS.html">
MELAMPUS
</a>

(Previous)
MELACONITE

(Next)
MELANCHLAENI (from Gr. Etas, and Xtaiva, " Blac...

JCSM was founded in 1997 and exists to help the community and bring people into a life-changing and productive relationship with Jesus Christ. JCSM offers over 200,000 free web pages, including its weekly inspirational emails that were sent continuously for over a decade.

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA 92169
1-888-887-0417 or Email