Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

Mopsus, son of Manto daughter of Tiresias (by Apollo or by the Cretan Rhacius), inherited a double prophetic blood—Theban and Apolline—and became the leading seer of Claros and of Cilician foundations. From Claros his fame spread; with Amphilochus son of Amphiaraus he is linked to the founding of Mallos in Cilicia. One tradition sets the two as joint leaders who later quarreled; after a duel both fell, and oracles or tombs held them in the land they settled. His decisive mythic victory is the contest in which he out-prophesied Calchas and so caused the older seer’s death. As Clarian Apollo’s interpreter he stands at the end of the Theban prophetic house: Tiresias → Manto → Mopsus, carried from ruined Thebes to Ionia and the southeast. Catalogue him as that founder-seer, not as the Argonaut Lapith of the same name unless a source explicitly merges them.