Mopsus

'''Mopsus''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|m|ɒ|p|s|ə|s}}; 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 sites in the coastal plains of Pamphylia and Cilicia (in today's Turkey) during the Early Iron Age.

Mopsus was considered to be the son of Manto either by Rhacius or Apollo.<ref>Apollodorus, Mythological Library E VI.3-5; VI.19</ref> The earliest mention of Mopsus in ancient Greek sources is in Callinus of Ephesos<ref>Kallinus of Ephesos (Callinus F 8 West)</ref> and Hesiod.<ref>Hesiod, Melampodia fr. 278–279 (ed. Merkelbach & West).</ref>

== Other mythological figures == * Mopsus, an Argonaut and son of Ampyx by a nymph.<ref>''Argonautica'' I, pp. 65–68, 1502–1536); also Ovid, ''Metamorphoses'' IV, pp. 618–621; Hyginus, ''Fabulae'', pp. 14, 128, 172; Tzetzes, ''Ad Lycophronem'', pp. [https://topostext.org/work/860#881 881], [https://topostext.org/work/860#980 980].</ref> * Mopsus, a Thracian commander who had lived long before the Trojan War. Along with Sipylus the Scythian, this Mopsus had been driven into exile from Thrace by its king Lycurgus. Sometime later, he and Sipylus defeated the Amazons in a pitched battle, in which their queen Myrine was slain, and the Thracians pursued the surviving Amazons all the way to Libya. * Mopsus is also the name chosen by Virgil for the young singer who makes a song about the death of Daphnis in Eclogue 5. The name recurs in Eclogue 8 as the rival who is to marry Nysa, beloved of the singer Damon.

== Origin of the name == The name ''Mókʷsos'' is attested in Linear B tablets from Knossos and Pylos, while a figure named {{lang|hit|ᵐMu-uk-šú-uš}}, possibly connected with Ahhiya(wa), appears in the so-called Indictment of Madduwatta, dated to the late 15th or early 14th century BC.<ref>{{harvnb|Kopanias|2018|p=75}}</ref> The name ''Mopsos'' is probably of Greek origin rather than Anatolian, since its expected form in Hittite or Luwian would have been ''Mukussa'' or ''Mukussu''.<ref>{{harvnb|Oettinger|2008|p=64}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{harvnb|Yakubovich|2015|p=37}}</ref>

While Greek sources consistently describe Mopsus as a Greek figure, the name ''Muksos'' was also in use in Early Iron Age Anatolia, as evidenced by its inscription on one of the wooden beams of Tumulus MM at Gordion (c. 740 BC).<ref>{{harvnb|Kopanias|2018|p=75, n. 75}}</ref> Additionally, the Lydian historiographer Xanthus portrayed Mopsus as a Lydian engaged in military campaigns in Phoenicia.<ref>Xanthus (apud Nikolaos of Damascus, FGrHist 90 F16).</ref>

==Historical person== Since the discovery of a bilingual Hieroglyphic Luwian-Phoenician inscription in Karatepe (in Cilicia) in 1946–1947, it has been conjectured that Mopsos was a historical person.<ref>{{harvnb|Barnett|1953}}; {{harvnb|Barnett|1975}}; {{harvnb|Hammond|1975|pp=679–680}}; {{harvnb|Burkert|1992|pp=52}}; {{harvnb|Finkelberg|2005|pp=140–159}}; {{harvnb|Jasink|Marino|2007}}. For an overview of historical sources mentioning the name Mopsus, see {{harvnb|Kopanias|2018|pp=75–77}}</ref> The inscription is dated to c. 700 BC, and the person speaking in it, ''-z-t-w-d'' (Phoenician) and Azatiwada (Luwian),<ref>The name of the king erecting the Karatepe inscription, Azatiwada, is probably related to the toponym ''Aspendos'', the name of a city in Pamphylia founded by the Argives according to Strabo (14.4.2). The name of the city is written {{lang|grc|ΕΣΤFΕΔΙΙΥΣ}} (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 of Greek origin (= Luwian "Lover of the Sun God [Wa(n)da]"? ({{harvnb|Barnett|1953}}) or "Sun-god (Tiwad) love (him)", according to a more recent interpretation ({{harvnb|Yakubovich|2010|p=112}}).</ref> professes to be king of the ''d-n-n-y-m'' / Hiyawa, and describes his dynasty as "the house of ''M-p-š'' / Muksa".<ref>{{harvnb|Younger|1998}}.</ref> Apparently, he is a descendant of Mopsus. Furthermore, the name ''Mopsus'' appears in both the İncirli inscription and the Çineköy inscription, where it is written as {{lang|phn|mp[š]}} in Phoenician. In the Çineköy inscription, the corresponding Hieroglyphic Luwian form is {{lang|luw|Muk]sas}}.<ref>{{harvnb|Kopanias|2018|pp=74}}</ref> Both inscriptions mention King Awarikus and date to the 8th century BC.

The Phoenician name of the people recalls one of the Homeric names of the Greeks, ''Danaoi'' 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, settlement in Asia Minor. Ancient Greek authors ascribe a central role to Mopsus in the colonization of Pamphylia.<ref>Theopompus, ''FGrH'' 115 F 103; Callisthenes, ''FGrH'' 124 F 32. According to Eusebius of Caesarea, ''De laudibus Constantini'' 13.5, the Cilicians worshipped Mopsus as a god, possibly as the mythical founder. A statue base of the Roman age found in Sillyum in Pamphylia bears Mopsus' name ({{lang|grc|ΜΟΨΟΥ}}). The Christian chronicler Eusebius of Caesarea 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''. ''Mopsus regnauit in Cilicia a quo Mopsicrenae et Mopsistae'' (i.e. Mopsucrene and Mopsuestia): Eusebius, quoted by Jerome: {{harvnb|Lane Fox|2008|p=215 n. 23}}.</ref>

According to Greek mythology, Mopsus led a group of settlers eastward along the southern Anatolian coast, passing through Pamphylia and Cilicia, where his name is attested in both Luwian and Phoenician inscriptions. Some scholars<ref>e.g. {{harvnb|Finkelberg|2005|pp=140–159}}.</ref> associate Mopsus' movements along the southern coast of Asia Minor and the Levant with the activities of the Sea Peoples, who attacked Egypt at the beginning of the 12th century BC. Among these groups was the ''Denyen'', often compared to the ''d-n-n-y-m'' in the above mentioned Karatepe inscription. According to this view, Mopsus may have been a leader of one of these migratory groups active during the collapse of Bronze Age civilizations. However, this identification with the Sea Peoples is debated, and several scholars question the reliability of linking Mopsus to these events on philological or historical grounds.<ref>e.g. {{harvnb|Drews|1994|pp=48–72}}.</ref>

==Notes== {{Reflist|30em}}

==References== * {{cite journal |last=Barnett |first=R.D. |year=1953 |title=Mopsos |journal=The Journal of Hellenic Studies |volume=73 |pages=140–143 |doi=10.2307/628215 |jstor=628215 }} * {{cite journal |last=Barnett |first=R.D. |year=1975 |title=Mopsos and the Dnnym |journal=The Cambridge Ancient History |volume=II |issue=2 |pages=363–366 |publisher=Cambridge University Press }} * {{cite book |last=Burkert |first=Walter |year=1992 |title=The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Early Archaic Greece |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge}} * {{cite book |last=Drews |first=Robert |year=1994 |title=The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catastrophe ca. 1200 B.C. |publisher=Princeton University Press}} * {{cite book |last=Finkelberg |first=Margalit |year=2005 |title=Greeks and Pre-Greeks: Aegean Prehistory and Greek Heroic Tradition |publisher=Cambridge University Press}} * {{cite book |last=Lane Fox |first=Robin |year=2008 |author-link=Robin Lane Fox |title=Travelling Heroes: Greeks and Their Myths in the Epic Age of Homer |pages=206–226}} * {{cite journal |last=Hammond |first=N. G. L. |year=1975 |title=The End of Mycenaean Civilization and the Dark Age. (b) The Literary Tradition for the Migrations |journal=The Cambridge Ancient History |volume=II, part 2 |pages=678–712 |publisher=Cambridge University Press}} * {{cite journal |last1=Jasink |first1=Anna Margherita |last2=Marino |first2=Mauro |year=2007 |title=The West-Anatolian origins of the Que kingdom dynasty |journal=Studi Micenei ed Egeo-Anatolici |pages=407–426}} * {{cite journal |last=Kopanias |first=Konstantinos |year=2018 |title=Cilicia and Pamphylia during the Early Iron Age: Hiyawa, Mopsos and the Foundation of the Greek Cities |journal=AURA |volume=1 |pages=69–95 |url=https://epub.lib.uoa.gr/index.php/aura/article/download/2174/1881 |access-date=15 July 2025}} * {{cite book |last=Lemprière |first=John |year=1850 |title=Lemprière's Classical Dictionary |publisher=Bracken Books |location=London |edition=Reprint 1994 |isbn=1-85891-228-8 |page=422}} * {{cite book |last=Oettinger |first=Norbert |year=2008 |chapter=The Seer Mopsos (Muksas) as a Historical Figure |editor1-last=Collins |editor1-first=Billie Jean |editor2-last=Bachvarova |editor2-first=Mary R. |editor3-last=Rutherford |editor3-first=Ian |title=Anatolian Interfaces: Hittites, Greeks, and Their Neighbours |pages=63–66 |publisher=Oxbow Books |location=Oxford }} * {{cite journal |last=Yakubovich |first=Ilya |year=2010 |title=Sociolinguistics of the Luvian Language |journal=Handbuch der Orientalistik |volume=1 |publisher=Brill}} * {{cite journal |last=Yakubovich |first=Ilya |year=2015 |title=Phoenician and Luwian in Early Iron Age Cilicia |journal=Anatolian Studies |volume=65 |pages=35–53}} * {{cite journal |last=Younger |first=K. Lawson |year=1998 |title=The Phoenician Inscription of Azatiwada: An Integrated Reading |journal=Journal of Semitic Studies |volume=43 |pages=11–47}}

==External links== *{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Mopsus}}

Category:Argonauts Category:Characters in the Argonautica Category:Denyen Category:Greek mythology of Anatolia Category:Characters in Greek mythology Category:Archaeological sources on Greek mythology