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Amphiaraus

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Mythology

Amphiaraus was the leading Greek seer of his time, the generation preceding that of the Trojan War. He was also a prominent Greek hero, participating in the most notable heroic adventures of his day, the Calydonian Boar hunt, and, according to the mythographer Apollodorus, the quest of Jason and the Argonauts for the Golden Fleece. However he is most well known for his participation in the war of the Seven Against Thebes.

Seven against Thebes

Main article: Seven against Thebes

Prelude

There was a dispute, of some sort, between the descendants of Melampus, and his brother Bias—two of the most powerful families in the Argolid—involving Amphiaraus, the great-grandson of Melampus, and Adrastus, the son of Talaus, and grandson of Bias. According to Pindar, at one time the sons of Talaus ruled Argos but were "overpowered by discord" and Adrastus fled Argos and went to Sicyon to escape Amphiaraus. According to one version, Amphiaraus killed Talaus, causing Adrastus to flee, while according to another Adrastus fled, after his brother Pronax, the king of Argos, died.

Adrastus eventually became king of Sicyon, after which, according to Pindar, Adrastus (and his brothers) were able to effect a reconciliation with Amphiaraus by giving him their sister Eriphyle in marriage, and Adrastus was able to return to Argos and assume the Argive throne. As part of the marriage agreement, or perhaps sometime later, Amphiaraus and Adrastus promised that they would let Eriphyle settle any future disputes between the two of them.

Expedition

When Adrastus began recruiting heroes for the war of the Seven against Thebes, Amphiaraus, having forseen that the expedition was doomed to fail, and that all of the champions but Adrastus would die, refused to join. But when Polynices bribed Amphiaraus' wife Eriphyle, with the Necklace of Harmonia, to declare that Amphiaraus must join the expedition, he was forced to obey because of the promise Amphiaraus had made to allow Eriphyle to settle any disputes between himself and Adrastus. However knowing that Eriphyle has betrayed him, Amphiaraus made his son Alcmaeon promise to avenge him.

Sources

Ancient

Apollodorus

1.8.2

... Now the men who assembled to hunt the boar were these³: ... Amphiaraus, son of Oicles, from Argos. ... But Atalanta was the first to shoot the boar in the back with an arrow, and Amphiaraus was the next to shoot it in the eye; but Meleager killed it by a stab in the flank, ...

³ For lists of the heroes who hunted the Calydonian boar, see Ov. Met. 8.299ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 173.

1.9.13

Bias and Pero had a son Talaus, who married Lysimache, daughter of Abas, son of Melampus, and had by her Adrastus, Parthenopaeus, Pronax, Mecisteus, Aristomachus, and Eriphyle, whom Amphiaraus married. Parthenopaeus had a son Promachus, who marched with the Epigoni against Thebes;¹ and Mecisteus had a son Euryalus, who went to Troy.² Pronax had a son Lycurgus; and Adrastus had by Amphithea, daughter of Pronax, three daughters, Argia, Deipyle, and Aegialia, and two sons, Aegialeus and Cyanippus.

1.9.16

Sent to fetch the fleece, Jason ... And those who assembled were as follows: ... Amphiaraus, son of Oicles; ...

3.6.2

But Amphiaraus, son of Oicles, being a seer and foreseeing that all who joined in the expedition except Adrastus were destined to perish, shrank from it himself and discouraged the rest. However, Polynices went to Iphis, son of Alector, and begged to know how Amphiaraus could be compelled to go to the war. He answered that it could be done if Eriphyle got the necklace.¹ Now Amphiaraus had forbidden Eriphyle to accept gifts from Polynices; but Polynices gave her the necklace and begged her to persuade Amphiaraus to go to the war; for the decision lay with her, because once, when a difference arose between him and Adrastus, he had made it up with him and sworn to let Eriphyle decide any future dispute he might have with Adrastus.² Accordingly, when war was to be made on Thebes, and the measure was advocated by Adrastus and opposed by Amphiaraus, Eriphyle accepted the necklace and persuaded him to march with Adrastus. Thus forced to go to the war, Amphiaraus laid his commands on his sons, that, when they were grown up, they should slay their mother and march against Thebes.

¹ For the story of the treachery of Eriphyle to her husband Amphiaraus, see also Diod. 4.65.5ff.; Paus. 5.17.7ff.; Paus. 9.41.2; Scholiast on Hom. Od. 11.326 （who refers to Asclepiades as his authority）; Hyginus, Fab. 73; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. p. 49 (First Vatican Mythographer 152). The story is alluded to but not told by Hom. Od. 11.326ff.; Hom. Od. 15.247; Soph. Elec. 836ff.）, and Hor. Carm. 3.16.11-13. Sophocles wrote a tragedy Eriphyle, which was perhaps the same as his Epigoni. See The Fragments of Sophocles, ed. A. C. Pearson, vol. i. pp. 129ff.

² Compare Diod. 4.65.6; Scholiast on Hom. Od. xi.326; Scholiast on Pind. N. 9.13(30). As the sister of Adrastus （see above, Apollod. 1.9.13） and the wife of Amphiaraus, the traitress Eriphyle might naturally seem well qualified to act as arbiter between them.

3.6.3

Having mustered an army with seven leaders, Adrastus hastened to wage war on Thebes. The leaders were these¹: Adrastus, son of Talaus; Amphiaraus, son of Oicles; Capaneus, son of Hipponous; Hippomedon, son of Aristomachus, but some say of Talaus. These came from Argos; but Polynices, son of Oedipus, came from Thebes; Tydeus, son of Oeneus, was an Aetolian; Parthenopaeus, son of Melanion, was an Arcadian. Some, however, do not reckon Tydeus and Polynices among them, but include Eteoclus, son of Iphis,² and Mecisteus³ in the list of the seven.

¹ For lists of the seven champions who marched against Thebes, see Aesch. Seven 375ff.; Soph. OC 1309ff.; Eur. Ph. 1090ff. and Eur. Supp. 857ff.; Diod. 4.65.7; Hyginus, Fab. 70.

² The place of Eteocles among the Seven Champions is recognized by Aesch. Seven 458ff., Soph. OC 1316, and Euripides in one play （Eur. Supp. 871ff.）, but not in another （Eur. Ph. 1090ff.）; and he is omitted by Hyginus, Fab. 70. His right to rank among the Seven seems to have been acknowledged by the Argives themselves, since they included his portrait in a group of statuary representing the Champions which they dedicated at Delphi. See Paus. 10.10.3.

³ Brother of Adrastus. See Apollod. 1.9.13.

3.6.4

Having come to Nemea, of which Lycurgus was king, they sought for water; and Hypsipyle showed them the way to a spring, leaving behind an infant boy Opheltes, whom she nursed, a child of Eurydice and Lycurgus.¹ For the Lemnian women, afterwards learning that Thoas had been saved alive,² put him to death and sold Hypsipyle into slavery; wherefore she served in the house of Lycurgus as a purchased bondwoman. But while she showed the spring, the abandoned boy was killed by a serpent. When Adrastus and his party appeared on the scene, they slew the serpent and buried the boy; but Amphiaraus told them that the sign foreboded the future, and they called the boy Archemorus.³ They celebrated the Nemean games in his honor; and Adrastus won the horse race, Eteoclus the footrace, Tydeus the boxing match, Amphiaraus the leaping and quoit-throwing match, Laodocus the javelin-throwing match, Polynices the wrestling match, and Parthenopaeus the archery match.

¹ As to the meeting of the Seven Champions with Hypsipyle at Nemea, the death of Opheltes, and the institution of the Nemean games, see Scholiast on Pind. N., Arg. pp. 424ff. ed. Boeckh; Bacch. 8.10ff. [9], ed. Jebb; Clement of Alexandria, Protrept. ii.34, p. 29, ed. Potter, with the Scholiast; Hyginus, Fab. 74, 273; Statius, Theb. iv.646-vi.; Lactantius Placidus on Statius, Theb. iv.717; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode. vol. i. p. 123 （Second Vatican Mythographer 141）. The institution of the Nemean games in honour of Opheltes or Archemorus was noticed by Aeschylus in a lost play. See TGF (Nauck 2nd ed.), p. 49. The judges at the Nemean games wore dark-coloured robes in mourning, it is said, for Opheltes （Scholiast on Pind. N., Arg. p. 425, ed. Boeckh）; and the crown of parsley bestowed on the victor is reported to have been chosen for the same sad reason （Serv. Verg. Ecl. 6.68）. However, according to another account, the crowns at Nemea were originally made of olive, but the material was changed to parsley after the disasters of the Persian war （Scholiast on Pind. N., Arg. p. 425）. The grave of Opheltes was at Nemea, enclosed by a stone wall; and there were altars within the enclosure （Paus. 2.15.3）. Euripides wrote a tragedy Hypsipyle, of which many fragments have recently been discovered in Egyptian papyri. See TGF (Nauck 2nd ed.), pp. 594ff.; A. S. Hunt, Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta Papyracea nuper reperta （Oxford, no date, no pagination）. In one of these fragments (col. iv.27ff.) it is said that Lycurgus was chosen from all Asopia to be the warder （Κληδοῦχος） of the local Zeus. There were officials bearing the same title （κλειδοῦχοι） at Olympia （Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum 1021, vol. ii. p. 168） in Delos （Dittenberger, Orientis Graeci Inscriptiones Selectae, vol. i. p. 252, No. 170）, and in the worship of Aesculapius at Athens （E. S. Roberts and E. A. Gardner, Introduction to Greek Epigraphy, Part ii. p. 410, No. 157）. The duty from which they took their title was to keep the keys of the temple. A fine relief in the Palazzo Spada at Rome represents the serpent coiled round the dead body of the child Opheltes and attacked by two of the heroes, while in the background Hypsipyle is seen retreating, with her hands held up in horror and her pitcher lying at her feet. See W. H. Roscher, Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie, i.473; Baumeister, Denkmaler des klassichen Altertums, i.113, fig. 119. The death of Opheltes or Archemorus is also the subject of a fine vase-painting, which shows the dead boy lying on a bier and attended by two women, one of whom is about to crown him with a wreath of myrtle, while the other holds an umbrella over his head to prevent, it has been suggested, the sun's rays from being defiled by falling on a corpse. Amongst the figures in the painting, which are identified by inscriptions, is seen the mother Eurydice standing in her palace between the suppliant Hypsipyle on one side and the dignified Amphiaraus on the other. See E. Gerhard, “Archemoros,” Gesammelte Abhandlungen (Berlin, 1866- 1868) i.5ff., with Abbildungen, taf. i.; K. Friederichs, Praxiteles und die Niobegruppe （Leipzig, 1855）, pp. 123ff.; Baumeister, op. cit. i.114, fig. 120.

² See above, Apollod. 1.9.17.

³ That is, “beginner of doom”; hence “ominous,” “foreboding.” The name is so interpreted by Bacch. 8.14, ed. Jebb, σᾶμα μέλλοντος φόνου）, by the Scholiast on Pind. N., Arg. pp. 424ff. ed. Boeckh, and by Lactantius Placidus in his commentary on Statius, Theb. iv 717.

3.6.6

Having armed themselves, the Argives approached the walls¹; and as there were seven gates, Adrastus was stationed at the Homoloidian gate, Capaneus at the Ogygian, Amphiaraus at the Proetidian, Hippomedon at the Oncaidian, Polynices at the Hypsistan,² Parthenopaeus at the Electran, and Tydeus at the Crenidian.³ Eteocles on his side armed the Thebans, and having appointed leaders to match those of the enemy in number, he put the battle in array, and resorted to divination to learn how they might overcome the foe.

¹ The siege of Thebes by the Argive army under the Seven Champions is the subject of two extant Greek tragedies, the Seven against Thebes of Aeschylus, and the Phoenissae of Euripides. In both of them the attack on the seven gates by the Seven Champions is described. See the Aesch. Seven 375ff.; Eur. Ph. 105ff.; Eur. Ph. 1090ff. The siege is also the theme of Statius's long-winded and bombastic epic, the Thebaid . Compare also Diod. 4.65.7-9; Paus. 1.39.2; Paus. 2.20.5; Paus. 8.25.4; Paus. 10.10.3; Hyginus, Fab. 69, 70. The war was also the subject of two lost poems of the same name, the Thebaid of Callinus, an early elegiac poet, and the Thebaid of Antimachus, a contemporary of Plato. See Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, ed. G. Kinkel, pp. 9ff., 275ff. As to the seven gates of Thebes, see Paus. 9.8.4-7, with Frazer, commentary （vol. iv. pp. 35ff.）. The ancients were not entirely agreed as to the names of the gates.

² That is, “the Highest Gate.”

³ That is, “the Fountain Gate.”

3.6.8

When that befell, the Argives turned to flee. And as many fell, Eteocles and Polynices, by the resolution of both armies, fought a single combat for the kingdom, and slew each other.¹ In another fierce battle the sons of Astacus did doughty deeds; for Ismarus slew Hippomedon,² Leades slew Eteoclus, and Amphidicus slew Parthenopaeus. But Euripides says that Parthenopaeus was slain by Periclymenus, son of Poseidon.³ And Melanippus, the remaining one of the sons of Astacus, wounded Tydeus in the belly. As he lay half dead, Athena brought a medicine which she had begged of Zeus, and by which she intended to make him immortal. But Amphiaraus hated Tydeus for thwarting him by persuading the Argives to march to Thebes; so when he perceived the intention of the goddess he cut off the head of Melanippus and gave it to Tydeus, who, wounded though he was, had killed him. And Tydeus split open the head and gulped up the brains. But when Athena saw that, in disgust she grudged and withheld the intended benefit.⁴ Amphiaraus fled beside the river Ismenus, and before Periclymenus could wound him in the back, Zeus cleft the earth by throwing a thunderbolt, and Amphiaraus vanished with his chariot and his charioteer Baton, or, as some say, Elato;⁵ and Zeus made him immortal. Adrastus alone was saved by his horse Arion. That horse Poseidon begot on Demeter, when in the likeness of a Fury she consorted with him.⁶

¹ As to the single combat and death of Eteocles and Polynices, see Aesch. Seven 804ff.; Eur. Ph. 1356ff.; Diod. 4.65.8; Paus. 9.5.12; Hyginus, Fab. 71; Statius, Theb. xi.447-579.

² According to Statius, Theb. ix.455-539, Hippomedon was overwhelmed by a cloud of Theban missiles after being nearly drowned in the river Ismenus.

³ As to the death of Parthenopaeus, see Eur. Ph. 1153ff. In the Thebaid , also, Periclymenus was represented as the slayer of Parthenopaeus. See Paus. 9.18.6.

⁴ Compare Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 1066; Scholiast on Pind. N. 10.7(12); Scholiast on Hom. Il. v.126. All these writers say that it was Amphiaraus, not Tydeus, who killed as well as decapitated Melanippus. Pausanias also （Paus. 9.18.1） represents Melanippus as slain by Amphiaraus. Hence Heyne was perhaps right in rejecting as an interpolation the words “who, wounded though he was, had killed him.” See the Critical Note. The story is told also by Statius, Theb. viii.717-767 in his usual diffuse style; but according to him it was Capaneus, not Amphiaraus, who slew and beheaded Melanippus and brought the gory head to Tydeus. The story of Tydeus's savagery is alluded to more than once by Ovid, Ibis 427ff., 515ff., that curious work in which the poet has distilled the whole range of ancient mythology for the purpose of commination. With this tradition of cannibalism on the field of battle we may compare the custom of the ancient Scythians, who regularly decapitated their enemies in battle and drank of the blood of the first man they slew （Hdt. 4.64）. It has indeed been a common practice with savages to swallow some part of a slain foe in order with the blood, or flesh, or brains to acquire the dead man's valour. See for example L. A. Millet-Mureau, Voyage de la Perouse autour du Monde （Paris, 1797）, ii.272 （as to the Californian Indians）; Fay-Cooper Cole, The Wild Tribes of Davao District, Mindanao （Chicago, 1913）, pp. 94, 189 （as to the Philippine Islanders）. I have cited many more instances in Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, ii.148ff. The story of the brutality of Tydeus to Melanippus may contain a reminiscence of a similar custom. From the Scholiast on Hom. Il. v.126 we learn that the story was told by Pherecydes, whom Apollodorus may be following in the present passage. The grave of Melanippus was on the road from Thebes to Chalcis （Paus. 9.18.1）, but Clisthenes, tyrant of Sicyon, “fetched Melanippus” （ἐπηγάγετο τὸν μελάνιππον ） to Sicyon and dedicated a precinct to him in the Prytaneum or town-hall; moreover, he transferred to Melanippus the sacrifices and festal honours which till then had been offered to Adrastus, the foe of Melanippus. See Hdt. 5.67. It is probable that Clisthenes, in “fetching Melanippus,” transferred the hero's bones to the new shrine at Sicyon, following a common practice of the ancient Greeks, who were as anxious to secure the miraculous relics of heroes as modern Catholics are to secure the equally miraculous relics of saints. The most famous case of such a translation of holy bones was that of Orestes, whose remains were removed from Tegea to Sparta （Hdt. 1.67ff.）. Pausanias mentions many instances of the practice. See the Index to my translation of Pausanias, s.v. “Bones,” vol. vi. p. 31. It was, no doubt, unusual to bury bones in the Prytaneum, where was the Common Hearth of the city （Pollux ix.40; Corpus Inscriptionum Atticarum, ii.467, lines 6, 73; Frazer, note on Paus. viii.53.9, vol. iv. pp. 441ff.）; but at Mantinea there was a round building called the Common Hearth in which Antinoe, daughter of Cepheus, was said to be buried （Paus. 8.9.5）; and the graves of not a few heroes and heroines were shown in Greek temples. See Clement of Alexandria, Protrept. iii.45, pp. 39ff., ed. Potter. The subject of relic worship in antiquity is exhaustively treated by Fr. Pfister, Der Reliquienkult im Altertum （Giessen, 1909-1912）.

⁵ Compare Pind. N. 9.24(59)ff.; Pind. N. 10.8(13); Eur. Supp. 925ff.; Diod. 4.65.8; Strab. 9.2.11; Paus. 1.34.2; Paus. 2.23.2; Paus. 9.8.3; Paus. 9.19.4; Statius, Theb. vii.789-823. The reference to Periclymenus clearly proves that Apollodorus had here in mind the first of these passages of Pindar. Pausanias repeatedly mentions Baton as the charioteer of Amphiaraus （Paus. 2.23.2; Paus. 5.17.8; Paus. 10.10.3）. Amphiaraus was believed to be swallowed up alive, with his chariot and horses, and so to descend to the nether world. See Eur. Supp. 925ff.; Statius, Theb. viii.1ff.; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. p. 49 (First Vatican Mythographer 152). Hence Sophocles speaks of him as reigning fully alive in Hades （Soph. Elec. 836ff.）. Moreover, Amphiaraus was deified （Paus. 8.2.4; Cicero, De divinatione i.40.88）, and as a god he had a famous oracle charmingly situated in a little glen near Oropus in Attica. See Paus. 1.34, with （Frazer, commentary on Paus., vol. ii. pp. 466ff.）. The exact spot where Amphiaraus disappeared into the earth was shown not far from Thebes on the road to Potniae. It was a small enclosure with pillars in it. See Paus. 9.8.3. As the ground was split open by a thunderbolt to receive Amphiaraus （Pind. N. 9.24(59)ff.; Pind. N. 10.8(13)ff.）, the enclosure with pillars in it was doubtless one of those little sanctuaries, marked off by a fence, which the Greeks always instituted on ground struck by lightning. See Frazer on Apollod. 3.7.1.

⁶ Arion, the swift steed of Adrastus, is mentioned by Homer, who alludes briefly to the divine parentage of the animal （Hom. Il. 22.346ff.）, without giving particulars to the quaint and curious myth with which he was probably acquainted. That myth, one of the most savage of all the stories of ancient Greece, was revealed by later writers. See Paus. 8.25.4-10; Paus. 8.42.1-6; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 153; compare Scholiast on Hom. Il. 23.346. The story was told at two places in the highlands of Arcadia: one was Thelpusa in the beautiful vale of the Ladon: the other was Phigalia, where the shallow cave of the goddess mother of the horse was shown far down the face of a cliff in the wild romantic gorge of the Neda. The cave still exists, though the goddess is gone: it has been converted into a tiny chapel of Christ and St. John. See Frazer, commentary on Pausanias, vol. iv. pp. 406ff. According to Diod. 4.65.9 Adrastus returned to Argos. But Pausanias says （Paus. 1.43.1） that he died at Megara of old age and grief at his son's death, when he was leading back his beaten army from Thebes: Pausanias informs us also that Adrastus was worshipped, doubtless as a hero, by the Megarians, Hyginus, Fab. 242 tells a strange story that Adrastus and his son Hipponous threw themselves into the fire in obedience to an oracle of Apollo.

3.7.2

for Eriphyle had received the robe from Thersander, son of Polynices, and had persuaded her sons also² to go to the war. Having chosen Alcmaeon as their leader, they made war on Thebes. The men who took part in the expedition were these: Alcmaeon and Amphilochus, sons of Amphiaraus;

² The sons of Eriphyle were Alcmaeon and Amphilochus, as we learn immediately. The giddy and treacherous mother persuaded them, as she had formerly persuaded her husband Amphiaraus, to go to the war, the bauble of a necklace and the gewgaw of a robe being more precious in her sight than the lives of her kinsfolk. See above, Apollod. 3.6.2; and as to the necklace and robe, see Apollod. 3.4.2; Apollod. 3.6.1-2; Diod. 4.66.3.

Bacchylides

9.10–24

There [Phlius] the heroes with red shields, the best of the Argives, held games for the first time in honor of Archemorus, whom a fiery-eyed monstrous dragon killed in his sleep: a sign of the slaughter to come. [15] Powerful fate! The son of Oicles [i.e. Amphiaraos] could not persuade them to go back to the streets thronged with good men. Hope robs men [of their sense]: it was she who then sent Adrastus son of Talaus [20] to Thebes ... to Polyneices ... The mortal men who crown their golden hair with the triennial garland from those glorious games in Nemea are illustrious;

Diodorus Siculus

4.32.3

When Heracles, then, had landed on the coast of the Troad, he advanced in person with his select troops against the city and left in command of the ships Oecles, the son of Amphiaraus. And since the presence of the enemy had not been expected, it proved impossible for Laomedon, on account of the exigencies of the moment, to collect a passable army, but gathering as many soldiers as he could he advanced p447 with them against the ships, in the hope that if he could burn them he could bring an end to the war. Oecles came out to meet him, but when he, the general, fell, the rest succeeded in making good their flight to the ships and in putting out to sea from the land.

4.65.5

Polyneices also endeavoured to persuade the seer Amphiaraüs to take part with him in the campaign against Thebes; and when the latter, because he knew in advance that he would perish if he should take part in the campaign, would not for that reason consent to do so, Polyneices, they say, gave the golden necklace which, as the myth relates, had once been given by Aphroditê as a present to Harmonia, to the wife of Amphiaraüs, in order that she might persuade her husband to join the others as their ally.

4.65.6

At the time in question Amphiaraüs, we are told, was at variance with Adrastus, striving for the kingship, and the two came to an agreement among themselves whereby they committed the decision of the matter at issue between them to Eriphylê, the wife of Amphiaraüs and sister of Adrastus. When Eriphylê awarded the victory to Adrastus and, with regard to the campaign against Thebes, gave it as her opinion that it should be undertaken, Amphiaraüs, believing that his wife had betrayed him, did agree to take part in the campaign, but left orders with his son Alcmaeon that after his death he should slay Eriphylê.

Homer

Odyssey

11.326–327

and hateful Eriphyle, who took precious gold as the price of the life of her own lord.

15.243–248

Now Antiphates begot great-hearted Oicles, and Oicles Amphiaraus, the rouser of the host, [245] whom Zeus, who bears the aegis, and Apollo heartily loved with all manner of love. Yet he did not reach the threshold of old age, but died in Thebe, because of a woman's gifts. To him were born sons, Alcmaeon and Amphilochus. And Mantius on his part begot Polypheides and Cleitus. [250] Now Cleitus golden-throned Dawn snatched away by reason of his beauty, that he might dwell with the immortals; but of Polypheides, high of heart, Apollo made a seer, far the best of mortals, after that Amphiaraus was dead.

Horace

Odes

1.18.2

around the genial soil of Tibur and the walls of Catilus;³⁷

³⁷ A founder of Tibur.

2.6.5

Tibur, founded by an Argive settler,¹¹

¹¹ Tiburnus, a founder of Tibur (Tivoli).

Hyginus

Fabulae

70 The Seven Kings Who Set Out against Thebes

Adrastus ...

...

Amphiaraus son of Oecles (or son of Apollo as some authors say) by Hypermenstra daughter of Thestius, from Pylos.

73 Amphiaraus, Eriphyle, and Alcmaeon

The augur Ampiaraus, the son of Oecles and Hypermestra daughter of Thestius, knew that if he went to attack Thebes, he would not reurn. He therefore went into hiding. Only his wife, Eriphyle, Talaus' daughter, knew where he was. In order to smoke him out, however, Adrastus made a golden necklace studded with gems and gave it to his sister Eriphle as a bribe. She wanted the gift, so she betrayed her husband. Amphiaraus gave kinstructions to his son Alcmaeon that after his death he was to exact punishment from his mother. After Amphiaraus was swallowed whole by the earth at Thebes, Alcmaeon followed his father's orders and killed his mother, Eriphyle. He was later tormented by the furies.

Ovid

Metamorphoses

8.316–317

and the son³ of Oecleus, who had not yet been ruined by his wife

³ Amphiaraüs.

Pausanias

5.17.7

Oenomaus is chasing Pelops, who is holding Hippodameia. Each of them has two horses, but those of Pelops have wings. Next is wrought the house of Amphiaraus, and baby Amphilochus is being carried by some old woman or other. In front of the house stands Eriphyle with the necklace, and by her are her daughters Eurydice and Demonassa, and the boy Alcmaeon naked.

5.17.8 [= Asius fr. 4 West]

Asius in his poem makes out Alcmena also to be a daughter of Amphiaraus and Eriphyle. Baton is driving the chariot of Amphiaraus, holding the reins in one hand and a spear in the other. Amphiaraus already has one foot on the chariot and his sword drawn; he is turned towards Eriphyle in such a transport of anger that he can scarcely refrain from striking her.

6.17.6

That he was the soothsayer of the clan of the Clytidae, Eperastus declares at the end of the inscription:

"Of the stock of the sacred-tongued Clytidae I boast to be,

Their soothsayer, the scion of the god-like Melampodidae."

For Mantius was a son of Melampus, the son of Amythaon, and he had a son Oicles, while Clytius was a son of Alcmaeon, the son of Amphiaraus, the son of Oicles. Clytius was the son of Alcmaeon by the daughter of Phegeus, and he migrated to Elis because he shrank from living with his mother's brothers, knowing that they had compassed the murder of Alcmaeon.

8.45.7

[Describing the Temple of Athena Alea at Tegea] On the other side of the boar is Epochus supporting Ancaeus who is now wounded and has dropped his axe; by his side is Castor, with Amphiaraus, the son of Oicles,

9.5.15

On the death of Thersander, when a second expedition was being mustered to fight Alexander at Troy, Peneleos was chosen to command it, because Tisamenus, the son of Thersander, was not yet old enough. When Peneleos was killed by Eurypylus, the son of Telephus, Tisamenus was chosen king, who was the son of Thersander and of Demonassa, the daughter of Amphiaraus. The Furies of Laius and Oedipus did not vent their wrath on Tisamenus, but they did on his son Autesion, so that, at the bidding of the oracle, he migrated to the Dorians.

Pindar

Nemean

9.13–27

For in time past, to escape bold-counseling Amphiaraus and terrible civil strife, he [Adrastus] had fled

from his ancestral home and Argos. No longer were Talaus’² sons rulers; they had been overpowered by discord.

But the stronger man puts an end to a former dispute.³ [15]

After giving man-subduing Eriphyle as a faithful pledge

to Oecles’ son⁴ for a wife, they⁵ became the greatest of the fair-haired Danaans . . .

and later they led an army of men to seven-gated Thebes

on a journey with no favorable omens, and Cronus’ son brandished his lightning and urged them not to set out

recklessly from home, but to forgo the expedition.⁶ [20]

But after all, the host was eager to march, with bronze

weapons and cavalry gear, into obvious disaster, and on the banks of the Ismenus⁷

they laid down their sweet homecoming and fed the white-flowering smoke with their bodies,

for seven pyres feasted on the men’s young limbs.⁸ But for Amphiaraus’ sake Zeus split the deep-bosomed

earth with his almighty thunderbolt and buried him with his team, [25]

before being struck in the back by Periclymenus'⁹ spear

and suffering disgrace in his warrior spirit.

² Talaus was Adrastus’ father.

³ I.e. Adrastus put an end to the quarrel by giving his sister Eriphyle in marriage to Amphiaraus. Others take it to refer to Amphiaraus: the stronger man puts an end to what was just before. The scholia support both interpretations.

⁴ Amphiaraus. Eriphyle persuaded him to embark on the expedition against his better judgment.

⁵ The sons of Talaus. No convincing supplement has been proposed for the lacuna at the end of the verse.

⁶ For lightning as a warning to hold back, see Od. 24.539–544. If οὐδέ is taken with both ἐλελίξαις and ἐπώτρυν᾿, the passage means: and by not brandishing his lightning Cronus’ son did not urge them to set out.

⁷ A river near Thebes.

⁸ There was a pyre for each contingent of the Seven.

⁹ A Theban defender, son of Poseidon and Chloris (Teiresias’ daughter), with the same name as the son of Neleus at Pyth. 4.175 (schol.).

10.7–9

and at Thebes the earth, blasted with Zeus’ thunderbolts, received beneath her Oecles’ son the seer, a storm cloud of war.⁷

⁷ Amphiaraus, one of the Argive chieftains who attacked Thebes, was swallowed up in the earth near Thebes (cf. Nem. 9.24–27).

Olympian

6.13–17 [Loeb]

that Adrastus once justly proclaimed aloud about the seer Amphiaraus, son of Oecles, when the earth had swallowed up the man himself and his shining steeds.

Afterwards, when the corpses of the seven funeral pyres had been consumed,³ Talaus’ son⁴

spoke a word such as this at Thebes: “I dearly miss the eye of my army,

good both as a seer and at fighting with the spear.”

³ These are apparently pyres for each of the seven contingents led by Adrastus against Thebes.

⁴ Adrastus.

Pythian

8.39–55

... Oecles’ son⁷ once spoke in riddles as he beheld

the sons standing firm in battle at seven-gated Thebes, [40]

when the Epigoni came from Argos

on a second expedition.

Thus he spoke as they fought:

"By nature the noble resolve from fathers

shines forth in their sons. I clearly see [45]

Alcman wielding the dappled serpent on his flashing shield in the forefront at the gates of Cadmus.⁸

But he who suffered in a former defeat,

the hero Adrastus,

is now met with news [50]

of better omen, but in his own household

he will fare otherwise: for he alone from the Danaan army

will gather the bones of his dead son and with the favor

of the gods will come with his host unharmed

to the spacious streets of Abas."⁹

⁷ Amphiaraus.

⁸ Amphiaraus was both a seer and a fighter (cf. Ol. 6.16–17); the snake on Alcman’s shield symbolizes his own prophetic powers (schol.).

⁹ Twelfth king of Argos.

Pliny the Elder

Natural History

16.87

The people of Tivoli also date their origin far before the city of Rome; and they have three holm-oaks still living that date even earlier than their founder Tiburnus, the ceremony of whose installation is said to have taken place near them; but tradition relates that he was the son of Amphiaraus, who died in battle before Thebes a generation before the Trojan war.

Sophocles

fr. 187 Lloyd-Jones

ALCMEON

[To Adrastus] You are the brother of a woman who killed her husband!

Solinus

Polyhistor

2.8–9

That Tibur, as Cato gives testimony, by Catillus the Arcadian, prefect of Evander’s fleet, or, as Sextius has it, by the youth of Argos? 8 Catillus was the son of Amphiaraus. After the portentous death of his father at Thebes, he, the sacrifice of the spring-born, was sent forth on his grandfather Oecleus’ orders, with all his children. In Italy he begot three more children: Tibertus, Coras and Catillus; he expelled from Sicilia the old inhabitants of the town, the Sicani, and called it by the name of the eldest brother, Tibertus.

Thebaid

fr. 6 West, pp. 48, 49

6

(Amphiaraus), both a good seer and good at fighting with the spear.

Pindar, Olympian Odes 6.15

Then after the seven dead were hallowed on the pyre, the son of Talaos³ at Thebes said something like this: "I miss my army’s seeing eye, both a good seer and good at fighting with the spear." Scholiast: Asclepiades (of Myrlea) says Pindar has taken this from the Cyclic Thebaid.

fr. 7* West, pp. 48, 49 [= Schol. Pindar Nemean 9.30b]

7* Schol. Pind. Nem. 9.30b

7* Scholiast on Pindar

A quarrel came about between Amphiaraus and Adrastus, with the consequence that Talaos was killed by Amphiaraus and Adrastus fled to Sicyon . . . But later they came to terms, it being provided that Amphiaraus should marry Eriphyle,⁴ so that if any

great dispute should arise between the two of them,

she would arbitrate.

⁴ Adrastus’ sister.

Virgil

Aeneid

7.670–672

Next twin brothers leave the walls of Tibur and the folk called after the name of their brother Tiburtus—Catillus and valiant Coras, Argive youths.

Modern

Gantz

p. 506

Adrastos, Eriphyle, and Amphiaraos

In chapter 5 we found that for the Ehoiai (although not for Pherekydes) Bias and Pero's marriage is blessed with a son Talaos (Hes fr 37 MW). The Ehoiai does not develop the family further at this point in the poem, but in Bakchylides a Talaos is the father of Adrastos of Argos (9.19), and Pindar speaks of Adrastos and the other sons of Talaos who confer their sister Eriphyle on Ampiaraos, son of Oikles (Nem 9-9-17).

p. 507

... he [Adrastus] does not appear in the Odyssey, but the Nekuia tells of gifts to a women (Od 15.246-47). The details of this latter event, namely Amphiaraos' fatal participation in Polyneikes' expedition, are well known to later writers, and must have been recounted in detail by both the Thebais and Stesichoros' Eriphyle.

The famous Middle Corinthian krater ...

Pausanias would appear to have seen the same scene on the Chest of Kypselos (5.17.7-8), so that perhaps all were inspired by a large-scale composition. On the Chest, if Pausanias is actually reading inscriptions, the group in front of the house waving goodbye to Amphiaraos includes and old woman carrying an infant Amphilochos, Eriphyle with the necklace, her daughters Eurydike and Demonassa, and a naked Alkmaion; Baton stands in the chariot and Amphiaraos again turns around as he steps in. ... Our later sources will specify that the whole story started with a dispute between the families of Adrastos and Amphiaraos, and indeed Pindar does say that Adrastos once fled Amphiaraos, with Eriphyle's bestowal to the latter becoming the token of reconciliation (Nem 9.13-17). But neither Bakchylides nor Pindar discuss Eriphyle's subsequent transaction in what survives of their work (although Pindar seems to have mentioned it: fr. 182 SM), and our actual account comes from Amphiaraos himself in Euripides' Hypsipyle, plus scholia to Pindar and the Odyssey.

As the Pindar scholia relate these matters, there was a quarrel over something (land and power, presumably) between the descendants of Melampous (i.e. Amphiaraous) and those of his brother Bias (Talaos and his family: Σ Nem 9.30 passim). In a version then cited as from the fourth-century historian Menaichmos of Sikyon, Pronax, son of Talaos, is king of Argos but dies, and his brother Adrastos flees to Sikyon where he inherits the kingdom of his mother's father Polybos (Σ Nem 9.30 131F10; on this last point cf. Hdt. 5.76). According to others, however, the dispute leads to Amphiaraos' slauing of Talaos, after which Adrastos flees as before but gets the kingdom of [cont.]

p. 508

Sikyon by marrying Polybos' daughter (Σ Nem 9.30b). Either way, Polybos dies without heirs, and the throne passes to Adrastos. Subsequently there is a reconcilliation between the two sides, with as in Pindar the marriage of Eriphyle, sister of Adrastos, to Amphiaraos.

The further developments ... In any event Asklepiades' ... (12F29). Somehow ... the two men declare that in the future they will always abide by her decision in disputes between them. When the expedition for Thebes is taking shape, Amphiaraos tries to warn the Archives of their impending doom, but is himself forced to join them by Eriphyle, who received from Polyneikes the necklace of Harmonia. ...

Hard

p. 317

Adrastos appoints seven champions for an expedition against Thebes; Ampiaraos and Eriphyle

Adrastos lost no time in gathering together a sizeable army to attack Thebes. In tragedy and the later tradition at least, he appointed seven champions to lead the assault, one for each of the seven gates in the walls of the city. It is not known whether these champions; who were known as the Seven against Thebes, already figured in early epic; Pindar may have been following the epic tradition in stating that the Archive dead were burned on seven funeral pyres,¹³⁵ but this does not necessarily imply that there were seven champions (especially if it is remembered that two of the usual champions, Amphiaraos and Kapaneus, could have been cremated, for reasons that will become apparent presently).

Most sources agree on the names of at least six of the Seven.¹³⁶ Three of the most important of them belonged to Archive royal lines, namely Adrastos himself, who was descended from Bias, Amphiaros, son of Oikles, who was descended from Melampos, and Kapaneus son of Hippnoos, who belonged to the old Inachid ruling line as a descendant of Proitos. To these we can add the two outsiders Polyneikes and Tydeus, and also Partheopaios, who was usually regarded as a son of Atalanta from Arcadia (but sometimes as a son of Talaos and brother of Adrastos). As for the remaining champion ...

AMPHIARAOS, the most formidable of the men who were selected as champions by Adrastos, was a gifted seer like his forebear Melampous and relized that the expedition was doomed to disaster. ... ERIPHYLE ... Adrastos had given his sister Eriphyle to Ampiaros on the sworn agreement that they should accept her decision if they should ever quarrel in the future. So [cont.]

p. 318

Polyneices approached [Eriphyle] in secret ... ¹³⁷

The death of Opheltes and embassy of Tydeus

As Adrastos and his army were marching toward the Isthmus they passed through Nemea in the northern Argolid, where they became involved in a strange incident that led to the founding of the Nemean Games. The city was ruled at that time by Lykourgos, son of Pheres, an immigrant from Thessaly (see p. 426), who had appointed HYPSIPYLE, the former queen of Lemnos, to act as nursemaid to his infant son OPHELTES. As we will see, the Lemnian women had onspired together to kill all their menfolk, but Hypsipyle had broken the agreement by sparing her aged father Thoas (see p. 384); and when the other women had discovered this, they sold her into slavery. Or in another version, she had escaped abroad after her action had been discovered, but had then been captured by pirates who had sold her to Lykourgos.¹³⁹ Adrastos and his companions now encountered her in Nemea and asked her to show them the way to a spring, for they were thirsty after their long journey (or else needed water for a sacrifice). So she placed the infant Opheltes on a bed of parsley and led them to water. Although an oracle had warned that Opheltes should never be placed on the ground until he could walk, she thought that he would be safe because he would not actually be in contact with the ground. On returning from the spring, however, she found that the child had been killed by a snake. Adrastos and his followers killed the snake, and interceded with Lykourgos on Hypsipyle's behalf; and they then gave little Opheltes a magnificent funeral, renaming him Archemoros (Beginning of Doom) because Amphiaros declared that his death was an evil sign that indicated that many members of the army would lose their lives in the forthcoming conflict. They also held funeral games in honour of the dead child, so founding the Nemean Games, at which the judges wore dark clothing as a sign of mourning and the victors were awarded a crown of wild parsley. ... the two sons she had had with Jason.¹⁴⁰

p. 320

As the battle proceeded in front of the city, Tydeus was fatally wounded by Melanippos, son of Astakos, a descendant of one of the Spartoi (sown Men, who were supposed to have founded the military caste at Thebes, see p. 296). Tydeus was a favourite of Athena, who planned to confer imortality on him; but Amphiaraos hated him for his violent ways and for having helped to instigate the war, and was determined to frustrate the goddess's intent. So he cut off the head of Melanippos, and tossed it to Tydeus in expectation of a savage reaction; and when Tydeus cracked it open to gulp down the brains of his killer, Athena was so revolted whe withheld the magical potion that she had intended to apply to him. Melanippos was commonly said to have been killed by Amphiaraos (although an interpolation in Apollodorus' text suggests that Tydeus had managed to kill him after being wounded by him).¹⁴⁵ Parthenopaios was killed by Periklmenos, son of Poseidon and Chloris, daughter of Teiresias,¹⁴⁶ who went on to pursue Amphiaros from the battlefield, and would [cont.]

p. 321

have struck him in the back with his spear if Zeus had not intervened by opening up a chasm in the ground with a thunderbolt, so enabling the seer to disappear beneath the earth together with his chariot and charioteer. This latter episode is already described by Pindar; and it is reported elsewhere that the charioteer of Amphiaraos was a certain knsman of his.^{147 Pi. Nem. 9.24-7, 10.8-9, Eur. Suppl. 925-7, Apollod. 3.6.8; Paus. 5.17.18 (Baton on chest of Kypselos), 2.23.2 and 10.10.2 (on Baton).} Amphiaraos vanished from human sight, either at Knopia, a place near Thebes on the road to Potniai, or further away at Harma (Chariot) between Thebes and the east coast, or at Oropos on the frontier between Boeotia and Attica. He dleveried oracles during his posthumus existence, principally at Oropos but also at Knopia (hence traditions that located his disappearance at these places).^{148 Paus. 1.34.1-2 (Oropos), 1.34-2 and 9.19.4 (Harma); 9.8.2 (Knopia); see also Str. 9.2.10 (oracle moved from Knopia to Oropos).}

p. 325

p. 326

... Pindar reports that Amphiaraos delivered a prophecy from the grave when they arrived at Thebes, foretelling that Alkmaion would enter the city first of all carrying a shiled showing an image of a dragon, and that the omens were more favourable for Adrastos than they had been on the previous expedition, except with regard to his own family (for his son was destined to be the only victim among the Argive leaders).^{184 Pi. Pyth. 8.39-56.}

p. 332

p. 333

p. 413

THESTIOS, king of Pleuron, ... Leda [mother of Helen of Troy, Clytemnestra, and the Dioscuri ] ...Hypermnestra

p. 416

[Calydonian boar hunt]

p. 429

Melampous' branch of the family was also noted for the many seers who were born from it. This is already indicated in the Odyssey, which provides the greater part of the family tree in Table 13^{176 Hom. Od. 15.225-56.} (in which later additons are marked in italics) ... There were two important seers in this line (which was descended from Antiphates, son of Melampous), AMPHIARAOS himself, who delivered oracles at his shrine at Oropos during his posthumous existence (see p. 321), and his son Amphilochos, who was the joint founder of an oracle at Mallos in Asia Minor (see p. 489). ...

p. 430

The most notable diviner in the family after Melampous himself and Amphiaraos was Polyeidos (or Polyeides), son of Koiranos, who is mentioned in the Iliad as a rich and noble Crinthian seer.¹⁸²

Oxford Classical Dictionary

s.v. Amphiaraus

(Ἀμφιάραος, Ἀμφιάρεως), in mythology, son of Oecles (or Apollo), Hyg. Fab. 70, a not unexampled genealogy for diviners). On return of Asrastus (q.v.) from Sicyon, Amphiaraus made peace with him and married his sister Eriphyle (Apollod. 1.103). Foreknowing the result of the expedition of the Seven against Thebes, he would not take part in it til Eriphyle, bribed by Polynices with the necklace of Harmonia, compelled him (for the necklace ...) it having been agreed between Amphiaraus and Adrastus that in case of differences between them she should decide. Before setting out he commanded his children to avenge his death on Eriphyle and to make an expedition against Thebes (cf. ALCMAEON 1). He attacked Thebes at the Homoloian Gate (Aesch. Sept. 570), was driven off, and as he fled, was swallowed up in a cleft in the ground made by Zeus' thunderbolt (rhetorical description, Stat. Theb. 7.771 ff.; for continuous account see Apollod. 3.60-77). Thus originated the very famous oracular shrine of Amphiaraus (Farnell, Hero-Cults, 58 ff.; see also under OROPUS and AMMON).

Whether he was originally a man or a god is disputed; his name ('very sacred') points to the former, as ἱερός is not used of a god in classical Greek (though Hesiod, Theog. 21, uses it of the 'race of immortals'). but if so, the epic hero became identified with a local deity.

Polynices offering the necklace appears on a number of fith-century vases; and she is present holding it in the scenes of Amphiaraus' departure popular in archaic art (see ALCMAEON 1). A mid-fifth-century Attic vase shows the combats at Thebes and Amphiaraus' chariot swallowed by the earth (Brommer, Vasenlisten², 337 f., 344 f.).

Parada

s.v. Amphiaraus

Ἀμφιάραος

Being a seer and foreseeing that all who joined Adrastus 1 against Thebes would perish, he refused at first to join the expedition but was finally forced to go to war. Assailant of the Homolodian Gate at Thebes.

•a)Oicles ∞ Hypermenestra 2.

•b)Apollo ∞ Hypermenestra 2.

••Eriphyle.

•••Alcmaeon 1, Amphilochus 1, +Eurydice 9, Demonassa 4, Oicles.

♇When about to be killed by Periclymenus 3, Zeus saved him by splitting the earth. Amphiaraus vanished for ever. Zeus made him immortal.

1)ARGONAUTS. 2)CALYDONIAN HUNTERS. 3)SEVEN AGAINST THEBES. 4)APOLLO'S OFFSPRING. 5)SEERS.

D.Apd.3.6.2., Aes.Sev.569., Apd.3.6.6. •a)b)Hyg.Fab.70., 73. •a)Pin.Pyth.8.39ff., Stat.Theb.3.470. ••Hyg.Fab.73., Apd.1.9.13. •••Apd.3.7.2, Paus.9.5.15. •••+Pau.517.7. •••Dio.4.32.3. G1Apd.1.9.16. G2Apd.1.8.2., Pau.8.45.7. G3Apd.3.6.3. ♇Apd.3.6.8., Pin.Oly.6.13., Pin.Nem.9.24., Pin.Nem.10.9., Stat.Theb.7.818ff., 8.1.

Smith 1854

s.v. Tibur

Another legend affirmed that the Siculi were expelled by Tiburtus, Coras and Catillus II., sons of Catillus I. The last was the son of Amphiaraus, the celebrated Theban king and prophet, who flourished about a century before the Trojan War. Catillus migrated to Italy in consequence of a ver sacrum. Tiburtus, or Tiburnus, the eldest of his three sons, became the eponymous hero of the newly founded city; for such it may be called, since the Siculi dwelt only in unwalled towns, which were subsequently fortified by the Greek colonists of Italy. According to Cato's version of the legend, Tibur was founded by Catillus, an officer of Evander (Solin. 1.2).

Smith 1873

s.v. Amphiaraus

*)Amfia/raos), a son of Oicles and Hypermnestra, the daughter of Thestius. (Hom. Od. 15.244; Apollod. 1.8.2; Hyg. Fab. 73; Paus. 2.21.2.) On his father's side he was descended from the famous seer Melampus. (Paus. 6.17.4.) Some traditions represented him as a son of Apollo by Hypermnestra, which, however, is merely a poetical expression to describe him as a seer and prophet. (Hyg. Fab. 70.) Amphiaraus is renowned in ancient story as a brave hero : he is mentioned among the hunters of the Calydonian boar, which he is said to have deprived of one eye, and also as one of the Argonauts. (Apollod. 1.8.2, 9.16.) For a time he reigned at Argos in common with Adrastus ; but, in a feud which broke out between them, Adrastus took to flight. Afterwards, however, he became reconciled with Amplliaraus, and gave him his sister Eriphyle in marriage [ADRASTUS], by whom Amphiaraus became the father of Alcmaeon, Amphilochus, Eurydice, and Demonassa. On marrying Eriphyle, Amphiaraus had sworn, that he would abide by the decision of Eriphyle on any point in which he should differ in opinion from Adrastus. When, therefore, the latter called upon him to join the expedition of the Seven against Thebes, Amphiaraus, although he foresaw its unfortunate issue and at first refused to take any part in it, was nevertheless persuaded by his wife to join his friends, for Eriphyle had been enticed to induce her husband by the necklace of Harmonia which Polyneices had given her. Amphiaraus on leaving Argos enjoined his sons to avenge his death on their heartless mother. (Apollod. 3.6.2; Hyg. Fab. 73; Diod. 4.65; Hom. Od. 15.247, &c.) On their way to Thebes the heroes instituted the Nemean games, and Amphiaraus won the victory in the chariot-race and in throwing the discus. (Apollod. 3.6.4.) During the war against Thebes, Amphiaraus fought bravely (Pind. O. 6.26, &c.), but still he could not suppress his anger at the whole undertaking, and when Tydeus, whom he regarded as the originator of the expedition, was severely wounded by Melanippus, and Athena was hastening to render him immortal, Amphiaraus cut off the head of Melanippus, who had in the mean time been slain, and gave Tydeus his brains to drink, and Athena, struck with horror at the sight, withdrew. (Apollod. 3.6.8.) When Adrastus and Amphiaraus were the only heroes who survived, the latter was pursued by Periclymenus, and fled towards the river Ismenius. Here the earth opened before he was overtaken by his enemy, and swallowed up Amphiaraus together with his chariot, but Zeus made him immortal. (Pind. N. 9.57, Ol. 6.21, &c.; Plut. Parall. 6; Cic. de Divin. 1.40.) Henceforth Amphiaraus was worshipped as a hero, first at Oropus and afterwards in all Greece. (Paus. 1.34.2; Liv. 45.27.) He had a sanctuary at Argos (Paus. 2.23.2), a statue at Athens (1.8.3), and a heroum at Sparta. (Müller, Orchom. pp. 146, 486.) The departure of Amphiaraus from his home when he went to Thebes, was represented on the chest of Cypselus. (Paus. 5.17.4.) Respecting some extant works of art, of which Amphiaraus is the subject, see Grüneisen, Die alt griechische Bronze des Tux'schen Kabinets in Tübingen, Stuttg. and Tübing. 1835.

The prophetic power, which Amphiaraus was believed to possess, was accounted for by his descent from Melampus or Apollo, though there was also a local tradition at Phlius, according to which he had acquired them in a night which he spent in the prophetic house (οἶκος μαντικός) of Phlius. (Paus. 2.13.6; comp. 1.34.3.) He was, like all seers, a favourite of Zeus and Apollo. (Hom. Od. 15.245.) Respecting the oracle of Amphiaraus see Dict. of Ant. s. v. Oraculum. It should be remarked here, that Virgil (Aen. 7.671) mentions three Greek heroes as contemporaries of Aeneas, viz. Tiburtus, Catillus, and Coras, the first of whom was believed to be the founder of Tibur, and is described by Pliny (Plin. Nat. 16.87) as a son of Amphiaraus.

Tripp

s.v. Amphiaraüs

An Argive warrior and seer. Amphiaraüs, a son of Oicles and Hypermnestra and a descendant of Melampus, was the great diviner of his day. Loved by both Zeus and Apollo, he received second sight from Zeus. Amphiaraüs hunted the Calydonian boar and, some say, was second only after Atalanta in shooting it. He drove Adrastus from thr Argive throne, but ...