Mopsus (;

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

: Μόψος, ''Mopsos'') was the name of one of two famous seers in

Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the Cosmogony, origin and Cosmology#Metaphysical co ...

; his rival being

Calchas Calchas (; grc, Κάλχας, ''Kalkhas'') is an Argive mantis, or "seer," dated to the Age of Legend, which is an aspect of Greek mythology. Calchas appears in the opening scenes of the ''Iliad'', which is believed to have been based on a war ...

. A historical or legendary ''Mopsos'' or ''Mukšuš'' may have been the founder of a house in power at widespread sites in the coastal plains of

Pamphylia Pamphylia (; grc, Παμφυλία, ''Pamphylía'') was a region in the south of Asia Minor, between Lycia and Cilicia, extending from the Mediterranean to Mount Taurus (all in modern-day Antalya province, Turkey). It was bounded on the north by ...

and

Cilicia Cilicia (); el, Κιλικία, ''Kilikía''; Middle Persian: ''klkyʾy'' (''Klikiyā''); Parthian: ''kylkyʾ'' (''Kilikiyā''); tr, Kilikya). is a geographical region in southern Anatolia in Turkey, extending inland from the northeastern coa ...

(in today's

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

) during the early

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

Mythological figures

Mopsus Mopsus (; Ancient Greek: Μόψος, ''Mopsos'') was the name of one of two famous seers in Greek mythology; his rival being Calchas. A historical or legendary ''Mopsos'' or ''Mukšuš'' may have been the founder of a house in power at widespread ...

, son of Manto either by

Rhacius In Greek mythology, Rhacius ( grc-gre, Ῥάκιος) was the son of Lebes, and the leader of the first Greeks to settle in Caria, and became King of Caria. His court was located at Colophon in Ionia. With his wife Manto, daughter of the seer T ...

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

. *

, an

Argonaut The Argonauts (; Ancient Greek: ) were a band of heroes in Greek mythology, who in the years before the Trojan War (around 1300 BC) accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest to find the Golden Fleece. Their name comes from their ship, ''Argo'', n ...

and son of Ampyx by a

nymph A nymph ( grc, νύμφη, nýmphē, el, script=Latn, nímfi, label=Modern Greek; , ) in ancient Greek folklore is a minor female nature deity. Different from Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature, are ty ...

. * Mopsus, a

Thracian The Thracians (; grc, Θρᾷκες ''Thrāikes''; la, Thraci) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Eastern and Southeastern Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied t ...

commander who had lived long before the

Trojan War In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and has ...

. Along with Sipylus the

Scythia Scythia (Scythian: ; Old Persian: ; Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) or Scythica (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ), also known as Pontic Scythia, was a kingdom created by the Scythians during the 6th to 3rd centuries BC in the Pontic–Caspian steppe. Hi ...

n, this Mopsus had been driven into exile from

Thrace Thrace (; el, Θράκη, Thráki; bg, Тракия, Trakiya; tr, Trakya) or Thrake is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe, now split among Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, which is bounded by the Balkan Mountains to t ...

by its king

Lycurgus Lycurgus or Lykourgos () may refer to: People * Lycurgus (king of Sparta) (third century BC) * Lycurgus (lawgiver) (eighth century BC), creator of constitution of Sparta * Lycurgus of Athens (fourth century BC), one of the 'ten notable orators' ...

. Sometime later, he and Sipylus defeated the Libyan

Amazons In Greek mythology, the Amazons (Ancient Greek: Ἀμαζόνες ''Amazónes'', singular Ἀμαζών ''Amazōn'', via Latin ''Amāzon, -ŏnis'') are portrayed in a number of ancient epic poems and legends, such as the Labours of Hercules, ...

in a pitched battle, in which their queen

Myrine In Greek mythology, the name Myrina or Myrine ( grc, Μύρινα, Μυρίννη, Μυρίννα) may refer to the following individuals: * Myrina, a queen of the Amazons. According to Diodorus Siculus, she led a military expedition in Libya and ...

was slain, and the Thracians pursued the surviving Amazons all the way to Libya.

Historical person

The Christian chronicler

Eusebius of Caesarea Eusebius of Caesarea (; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος ; 260/265 – 30 May 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilus (from the grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος τοῦ Παμφίλου), was a Greek historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christia ...

was as convinced of Mopsus' historicity as his pagan predecessors and contemporaries: in his parallel chronologies he entered under the year corresponding to 1184/83 ''Mopsus reigned in Cilicia''. In the early 16th century, German chronicler

Johannes Aventinus Johann Georg Turmair (or Thurmayr) (4 July 1477 – 9 January 1534), known by the pen name Johannes Aventinus (Latin for "John of Abensberg") or Aventin, was a Bavarian Renaissance humanist historian and philologist. He authored the 152 ...

placed him in the reign of Ingaevone, in ca. 22nd century BC, along the

Sava River The Sava (; , ; sr-cyr, Сава, hu, Száva) is a river in Central and Southeast Europe, a right-bank and the longest tributary of the Danube. It flows through Slovenia, Croatia and along its border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and finally t ...

, where, allegedly, he defeated Myrine. Names similar to ''Mopsos'', whether Greek or Anatolian, are also attested in Near Eastern languages. Since the discovery of a bilingual

Hieroglyphic Luwian Hieroglyphic Luwian (''luwili'') is a variant of the Luwian language, recorded in official and royal seals and a small number of monumental inscriptions. It is written in a hieroglyphic script known as Anatolian hieroglyphs. A decipherment was pr ...

- Phoenician inscription in

Karatepe Karatepe ( Turkish, 'Black Hill'; Hittite: ''Azatiwataya'') is a late Hittite fortress and open-air museum in Osmaniye Province in southern Turkey lying at a distance of about 23 km from the district center of Kadirli. It is sited in the ...

(in

) in 1946–7, it has been conjectured that Mopsos was a historical person. The inscription is dated to c. 700 BC, and the person speaking in it, ’-z-t-w-d (Phoenician) / Azatiwada (Luwian), professes to be king of the d-n-n-y-m / Hiyawa, and describes his dynasty as "the house of M-p-š / Muksa". Apparently, he is a descendant of Mopsus. The relationship between the earlier form Muksa, preserved in Luwian transmission, and the later form M-p-š / Mopsos, preserved in Phoenician transmission, is indicative of the evolution of Greek labiovelars and can hardly be explained otherwise. The Phoenician name of the people recalls one of the

Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...

ic names of the Greeks, ''

Danaoi The Achaeans (; grc, Ἀχαιοί ''Akhaioí,'' "the Achaeans" or "of Achaea") is one of the names in Homer which is used to refer to the Greeks collectively. The term "Achaean" is believed to be related to the Hittite term Ahhiyawa and th ...

'' with the ''-m'' plural, whereas the Luwian name ''Hiyawa'' probably goes back to Hittite ''Ahhiyā(wa)'', which is, according to most interpretations, the " Achaean", or

Mycenaean Greek Mycenaean Greek is the most ancient attested form of the Greek language, on the Greek mainland and Crete in Mycenaean Greece (16th to 12th centuries BC), before the hypothesised Dorian invasion, often cited as the ''terminus ad quem'' for the ...

, settlement in

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

. Ancient Greek authors ascribe a central role to Mopsus in the colonization of

. A 13th-century date for the historical Mopsus may be confirmed by a Hittite tablet from

Boğazkale Boğazkale ("Gorge Fortress") is a district of Çorum Province in the Black Sea region of Turkey, located from the city of Çorum. Formerly known as Boğazköy ("Gorge Village"), Boghaz Keui or Boghazköy, this small town (basically one street of ...

which mentions a person called ''Mukšuš'' in connection with Madduwattaš of

Arzawa Arzawa was a region and a political entity (a " kingdom" or a federation of local powers) in Western Anatolia in the second half of the 2nd millennium BC (roughly from the late 15th century BC until the beginning of the 12th century BC). The core ...

and

Attarsiya Attarsiya was a 15th–14th century BCE military leader of Ahhiya. In the Hittite archives of circa 1400 BCE, he is described as a "man of Ahhiya", a country identified with the Achaeans and Mycenaean Greece.. The campaigns of Attarsiya, as w ...

of Ahhiyā. This text is dated to the reign of Arnuwandaš III. Therefore, some scholars associate Mopsus' activities along the coast of Asia Minor and the

Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is eq ...

with the

Sea Peoples The Sea Peoples are a hypothesized seafaring confederation that attacked ancient Egypt and other regions in the East Mediterranean prior to and during the Late Bronze Age collapse (1200–900 BCE).. Quote: "First coined in 1881 by the Fren ...

' attacking

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

in the beginning of the 12th century BC, one of those peoples being the ''

Denyen The Denyen (Egyptian: ''dꜣjnjnjw'') is purported to be one of the groups constituting the Sea Peoples. Origin They are mentioned in the Amarna letters from the 14th century BC as possibly being related to the "Land of the Danuna" near Ugarit. ...

''—comparable to the ''d-n-n-y-m'' of the Karatepe inscription. The Sea People identification is, however, questioned by other scholars. The name of the king erecting the Karatepe inscription, Azatiwada, is probably related to the toponym ''Aspendos'', the name of a city in

founded by the

Argives Argos (; el, Άργος ; grc, label=Ancient Greek, Ancient and Katharevousa, Ἄργος ) is a city in Argolis, Peloponnese (region), Peloponnese, Greece and is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inh ...

according to

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could see ...

(14.4.2). The name of the city is written (Estwediius) on coins of the 5th century BC. Presumably, it was an earlier Azatiwada, the ancestor of our king, that gave his name to the city. The name does not appear to be Greek of origin (= Luwian "Lover of the Sun God a(n)da?, or "Sun-god (Tiwad) love (him)", according to a more recent interpretation). The ethnicity of Mopsus himself is not clear: The fragmentary Lydian historiographer

Xanthus Xanthus (; grc, Ξάνθος, ''Xanthos'', "yellow, blond") or Xanthos may refer to: In Greek mythology * Xanthos (King of Thebes), the son of Ptolemy, killed by Andropompus or Melanthus *Xanthus (mythology), several figures, including gods, men, ...

made him a Lydian campaigning in Phoenicia.Xanthus, ''FGrH'' 765 F 17. If the transmission of

Nicolaus of Damascus Nicolaus of Damascus (Greek language, Greek: , ''Nikolāos Damaskēnos''; Latin: ''Nicolaus Damascenus'') was a Greek historian and philosopher who lived during the Augustus, Augustan age of the Roman Empire. His name is derived from that of his b ...

, who quotes him, is believable, Xanthus wrote the name with ''-ks-'', like in the Hittite and Luwian texts. Given that Lydian also belongs to the Anatolian language family, it is possible that Xanthus relied on a local non-Greek tradition according to which Mukšuš was a Luwian. The name Mopsus or Mopsos is also mentioned in the more recently discovered

Çineköy inscription The Çineköy inscription is an ancient bilingual inscription, written in Hieroglyphic Luwian and Phoenician languages. The inscription is dated to the second half of the 8th century BC. It was uncovered in 1997 near the village of Çine, tha ...

. This is also a Hieroglyphic Luwian-Phoenician bilingual inscription, similar to the Karatepe inscription.

Notes

References

Charles Anthon Charles Anthon (November 19, 1797 – July 29, 1867) was an American classical scholar. Anthon was a professor at Columbia College and became headmaster of it's grammar and preparatory school. He produced classical works for schools, which conta ...

, ''A Classical Dictionary'' (1842). * R. D. Barnett, 1953. "Mopsos", in: ''Journal of Hellenic Studies'' 73 (1953), pp. 140–143. *

Walter Burkert Walter Burkert (; 2 February 1931 – 11 March 2015) was a German scholar of Greek mythology and cult. A professor of classics at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, he taught in the UK and the US. He has influenced generations of studen ...

, 1992. ''The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Early Archaic Greece'' (Cambridge:Harvard University Press). *

Robert Drews Robert Drews (born March 26, 1936) is an American historian who is Professor of Classical Studies Emeritus at Vanderbilt University. He received his B. A. from Northwestern College, his M. A. from University of Missouri and his Ph.D. from Johns ...

, 1994: ''The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catastrophe ca. 1200 B.C.'' (Princeton University Press). *

Margalit Finkelberg Margalit Finkelberg (née Karpyuk; born 1947) () is an Israeli historian and linguist. She is the professor emerita of Classics at Tel Aviv University. She became a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities in 2005 and served as pr ...

, 2005. ''Greeks and Pre-Greeks: Aegean Prehistory and Greek Heroic Tradition'' (Cambridge University Press). * Robin Lane Fox, 2008. ''Travelling Heroes: Greeks and Their Myths in the Epic Age of Homer'', pp. 206–26. * N. G. L. Hammond, 1975. "The End of Mycenaean Civilization and the Dark Age. (b) The Literary Tradition for the Migrations", in: ''The Cambridge Ancient History'', vol. II, part 2, ed. by J.E.S. Edwards, C.J. Gadd, N.G.L. Hammond and E. Sollberger, (Cambridge University Press), pp. 678–712. * Anna Margherita Jasink and Mauro Marino, forthcoming.
The West Anatolian origins of the Que kingdom dynasty
, in: ''Proceedings of the 6th International Congress of Hittitology, Roma 5-9 settembre 2005''. *

John Lemprière John Lemprière (c. 1765, Jersey – 1 February 1824, London) was an English classical scholar, lexicographer, theologian, teacher and headmaster. Life John Lemprière was the son of Charles Lemprière (died 1801), of Mont au Prêtre, Jersey. ...

, 1850. ''Lemprière's Classical Dictionary''. ("Mopsus," p. 422). (London. Bracken Books) Reprint 1994. paperback. * Ilya Yakubovich, 2010. ''Sociolinguistics of the Luvian Language''. Leiden: Brill. * Ilya Yakubovich, 2015. Phoenician and Luwian in Early Iron Age Cilicia, ''Anatolian Studies'' 65, pp. 35–53. * K. Lawson Younger, 1998. "The Phoenician Inscription of Azatiwada: An Integrated Reading", ''Journal of Semitic Studies'' 43, pp. 11–47.

External links

* {{Authority control Archaeological sources on Greek mythology Argonauts Characters in Greek mythology Characters in the Argonautica Denyen Greek mythology of Anatolia