Amphilochus
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In Greek mythology, Amphilochus, or Amphílokhos, was the younger son of Amphiaraus and Eriphyle and the brother of Alcmaeon.
Eriphyle persuaded Amphiaraus to take part in the Seven Against Thebes raid, though he knew he would die. She had been persuaded by Polynices, who offered her the necklace of Harmonia, daughter of Aphrodite and Ares. Amphiaraus reluctantly agreed to join the battle and asked his sons, Alcmaeon and Amphilochus, to avenge his death. In the battle, Amphiaraus sought to flee from Poriclymenus, the son of Poseidon, who wanted to kill him, but Zeus threw his thunder and the earth opened to swallow Amphiaraus together with his chariot.
Alcmaeon killed his mother and exiled himself. Amphilochus became a prominent seer, and founded several oracles most importantly Mallow in Cilicia, and (with Mopsus), the oracle of Apollo at Colophon.
In a myth assigned to Euripides by Apollodorus, Amphilocus is the son of Manto and Amphiaraus. Along with his sister Tisiphone, his father entrusts him to king Creon of Corinth to be raised. After his father returns from him and recognizes him in a lost play, he goes on to found Amphilochian Argos.[1][2]
Amphilocus is named among the suitors of Helen in some accounts. [3] After the Trojan War, he may have been killed either by Apollo, or by Mopsus, whom he also killed in single combat. However, these myths may concern his nephew, also named Amphilocus.[4]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Apollodorus. Library. 3.7.26
- ^ Thucydides. History of the Pelopponesian War. 2.68
- ^ Gantz, Timothy. Early Greek Myth. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1993, p.566
- ^ Apollodorus. Library. 3.10.8
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1867).
