Melanippos
Melanippos ( Greek Μελάνιππος , Latin Melanippus ) was a Theban who defended the city against the seven and was killed in the process.
His father was Astakos , a man of Spartan descent described as noble and proud. Melanippos had three brothers who also fought in the defense of Thebes: Ismaros , Leades and Amphidikos .
In the play of Aeschylus he defended the proitid gate (named after Proitus , the king of Tiryns ) against Tydeus . He slew Mekisteus and mortally wounded Tydeus. Melanippus was killed by Tydeus himself or by Amphiaraos . Tydeus asked for his head, opened his skull and slurped his brain. The goddess Athena was so outraged that she abandoned her original plan to give Tydeus immortality. The Bibliotheke of Apollodor According Tydeus was misled by Amphiaraos in revenge for this cannibalistic act.
Kleisthenes of Sikyon established a cult for him in Sikyon , to which he entrusted the festivals and sacrifices that had been valid until then to the Adrastos . The grave of Melanippus near Thebes was still shown in Pausanias ' time.
literature
- Heinrich Wilhelm Stoll : Melanippos 2 . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 2.2, Leipzig 1897, Sp. 2577-2580 ( digitized version ).
Remarks
- ↑ Memnon in The Fragments of the Greek Historians , Volume 3, p. 536.
- ↑ Aeschylus, Seven against Thebes 609.
- ↑ Herodotus , Histories 5,67; Pausanias , Description of Greece 9,18,1.
- ↑ Statius , Thebais 8,716-766; Library of Apollodor 3, 6, 8, there called 741 Menalippos.
- ^ Statius, Thebais 8. 171.
- ↑ Herodotus, Historien , 5,67,2-5.
- ↑ Herodotus, Histories 5,67.
- ↑ Pausanias, Description of Greece 9,18,1.