MOPSUS (Trojan seer)

He served as a diviner who hosted travelers and helped the group board their ships with good will.^3,4 Mopsus accompanied the group to Iolkos, where he made predictions using omens and sacred lots.⁴ After observing a dove and hawk fall, he spoke prophetic words to the group.⁵ He sent Lacius to Phaselis with a group of men, following his mother Manto's prophetic directions.⁶ His ships later collided with Lacius's vessels off the Chelidoniæ.⁶

Mopsus crossed the Taurus mountains with a group of people, some of whom settled in Pamphylia while others were scattered across Cilicia, Syria, and Phoenicia.⁷ He co-founded the city of Mallus with Amphilochus after returning from Troy.^8,9 Upon his return, he refused to give his companion his share of the town.⁹ Amphilochus, excluded from government, fought Mopsus in single combat, and Mopsus was killed in that engagement.^10,9 Fate had decreed that he would wander and die in the farthest parts of Libya.¹¹

In another account, Mopsus died in the desolate dwelling-place of Atlas near Taucheira, far from his home city of Thebes.^12,13 Though he was false to himself while being truthful to everyone else, his death occurred despite his ability to sing the future with truth.¹³ The mariners who found his body on the shore buried him.¹² His tomb is shown at Magarsa near the Pyramus, separated from his companion's by the hill Magarsus.^8,9 A broken blade from the ship Argo was placed on the pedestal of his tomb.¹²