Прорицателят Мопсос

Abstract

Various mythological stories relate the case about Mopsos, the Seer. He took part in the expedition of the Argonauts, often mentioned together with Orpheus. He also participated in the Trojan War. On his way back from Troy he challenged the famous prophet Calchas and won the competition with him. It took place at Klaros, at Apollo’s sanctuary. Mopsos’ journeys, as told by the ancient authors, locate him along the western/southwestern and southern coast of Anatolia. He became founder of cities in Lycia, Pamphylia and Cilicia, the most famous of which was Mopsou(h)estia.
Recently graffiti carved on one of the logs from the construction of
the tomb in Tumulus MM at Gordion were found. These are four names, one of which is Muksos. It is a variant of the name Mopsos. In its eastern variant, Muksus, the name is known from second millennium BC Hittite texts. It is also attested in Linear B documents, thus it is difficult to define its origin. In the first millennium BC, the name appears as Muksas in the Karatepe bilingual Luwian-Phoenician inscription. There the kingdom of Que (future Cilicia) is mentioned as “the house of Muksas”, while the king claims that he is “of the line (dynasty) of Muksas.” The present paper further discusses recent developments in the studies of Luwian inscriptions and new attestations of the name Hiyawa (considered as a variant of Ahhiyawa), applied to Que. Southeastern Anatolia might have been the zone where Luwians, Greeks and Phoenicians met. It could have also been the place where Greeks and Phrygians adopted the alphabet. Thus, Mopsos the Seer, might have been a literary metaphor and a remote echo of the contacts between Luwians, Greeks, Phrygians, Thracians and Semites in two different periods: at the end of the second millennium BC and around the 9th–8th centuries BC.