of Herodotus to eliminate from the mythes the idea of special aid from the gods, in his remarks upon Melampus. He desig* nates Melampus "as a clever man, who had acquired for himself the art of prophecy;" and had procured through Kadmus much information about the religious rites and customs of Egypt, many of which he introduced into Greece[1] especially the name, the sacrifices, and the phallic processions of Dionysus: he adds, "that Melampus himself did not accurately comprehend or bring out the whole doctrine, but wise men who came after him made the necessary additions."[2] Though the name of Melampus is here maintained, the character described[3] is something in the vein of Pythagoras totally different from the great seer and leech of the old epic mythes the founder of the gifted family of the Amythaonids, and the grandfather of Amphiaraus.[4] But that which is most of all at variance with the genuine legendary spirit, is the opinion expressed by Herodotus (and delivered with some emphasis as his own), that Melampus " was a clever man, who had acquired for himself prophetic powers." Such a supposition would have appeared inadmissible to Homer or Hesiod, or indeed to Solon, in the preceding century, in whose view even inferior
arts come from the gods, while Zeus or Apollo bestows the power
- ↑ Herod, ii. 49. (
Greek characters)
- ↑ Herod, ii. 49. (Greek characters)
- ↑ Compare Herod. iv. 95 : ii. 81. (Greek characters)
- ↑ Homer, Odyss. xi. 290 ; xv. 225. Apollodor. i. 9, 11-12. Hesiod, Eoiai, Pragm. 55, ed. D{{subst:u}}ntzer (p. 43)
(Greek characters)
also Frag. 34 (p. 38), and Frag. 65 (p. 45) ; Schol. Apoll. Rhod. i. 118. Herodotus notices the celebrated mythical narrative of Melampus healing the deranged Argive women (ix. 34); according to the original legend, the daughters of Proetus. In the Hesiodic Eoiai (Fr. 16, Diintz.; Ape Hod. ii. 2) the distemper of the Proetid females was ascribed to their having repudiated the rites and worship of Dionysus (Akusilaus, indeed, assigned a different cause), which shows that the old fable recognized a connection between Melampus and these rites
