In Greek mythology, Ampyx (Ancient Greek: Ἄμπυξ) or Ampycus (Ἄμπυκος Ampykos, ‘woman’s diadem, frontlet‘) was the name of the following figures:
- Ampyx, also called Ampycus or Ampyce[1] was a Titaresian seer, the son of Elatus[2] or Titairon, eponymous founder of the town of Titaron.[3] He fathered Mopsus with the nymph Chloris (daughter of Orchomenus[4]) or Aregonis.[5] His son Mopsus joined the Argonauts after he was slain.[6]
- Ampyx, father of the seer Idmon in some texts.[7] Otherwise, Idmon was called the son of Abas or the god Apollo by Antianeira. Not to be confused with the above-mentioned Ampyx who was the father of another seer, Mopsus.
- Ampyx or Ampycus, an Ethiopian priest of Demeter (Ceres). He appears in Ovid‘s Metamorphoses[8] and was slain by Phineus during a fight between Phineus and Perseus (see Boast of Cassiopeia), just before Phineus was turned to stone.
- In Ovid‘s Metamorphoses, Ampyx was one of the Lapiths who fought the centaurs at Pirithous‘s wedding. He killed a centaur named Echetlos.[9]
- Ampyx, son of Pelias, descendant of King Amyclas of Laconia. Through his son Areus, Ampyx became the ancestor of Patreus who founded Patrae.[10]
Notes
- ^ Hesiod, Shield of Heracles 180
- ^ Hyginus, Fabulae 128
- ^ Tzetzes ad Lycophron, 881
- ^ Tzetzes on Lycophron, 881, 980
- ^ Orphic Argonautica 127, 948; Pausanias, 5.17.10.
- ^ Hyginus, Fabulae 14
- ^ Orphic Argonautica 721.
- ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses 5.110
- ^ Hiller von Gaertringen, para. 1; Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.450–451 (Miller, pp. 212–213). Hiller von Gaertringen gives the centaur’s name as “Echetlos”, whereas Miller’s translation renders it as “Echeclus”.
- ^ Pausanias, 7.18.5 (Achaica)
References
- Hesiod, Shield of Heracles from The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
- Hyginus, Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
- Hiller von Gaertringen, Friedrich, “Ampykos, Ampyx (7)”, in Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, Band I, Halbband 2, edited by Georg Wissowa, Stuttgart, J. B. Metzler, 1894. Wikisource.
- Madeła, Alexandra Maria (2024). The Argonautika by Orpheus: Writing Pre-Homeric Poetry in Late Antiquity. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-71568-4.
- Ovid, Metamorphoses, Volume II: Books 9-15, translated by Frank Justus Miller, revised by G. P. Goold, Loeb Classical Library No. 43, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1984, first published 1916. ISBN 978-0-674-99047-0. Harvard University Press.
- Ovid, Metamorphoses translated by Brookes More (1859-1942). Boston, Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Ovid, Metamorphoses. Hugo Magnus. Gotha (Germany). Friedr. Andr. Perthes. 1892. Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
- Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Scholia to Lycophron’s Alexandra, marginal notes by Isaak and Ioannis Tzetzes and others from the Greek edition of Eduard Scheer (Weidmann 1881). Greek text available on Archive.org