Epebolus
Family: Messenian · Role: seer · First appears: Book 4 · Chapter 9
In Book 4, Chapter 9, when the lot fell upon Lyciscus’s daughter, Epebolus the seer said she could not be sacrificed because she was not really Lyciscus’s daughter. After Aristodemus killed his daughter, Epebolus declared that she could no longer serve as the oracle’s victim and called for another.
In Book 4, Chapter 10, Epebolus and Ophioneus both held that the kingdom should not go to a man polluted by the murder of his daughter.
Relationship record
Life events
- Epebolus reveals that Lyciscus’s daughter is not biologically his and therefore cannot be sacrificed.(Book 4 · Chapter 9)
- With: Lyciscus
- “Epebolus the seer said it would not do to sacrifice her; for she was not really the daughter of Lyciscus”
- Epebolus declares that Aristodemus’s dead daughter cannot fulfill the oracle and demands another victim.(Book 4 · Chapter 9)
- “for the daughter of Aristodemus (he said) could be no more use to them now she was dead”
Book 4 · Chapter 9
- with Lyciscus (Epebolus exposed Lyciscus's claimed paternity of the girl.) “And when the lot fell upon the daughter of Lyciscus, Epebolus the seer said it would not do to sacrifice her; for she was not really the daughter of Lyciscus, but a girl that the wife of Lyciscus being barren had palmed off as hers.”
- with Aristodemus (king of Messenia) (Epebolus judged that Aristodemus's killing of his daughter did not fulfill the oracle.) “And at last he wrought up Aristodemus to such a pitch, that driven to madness in his anger he killed his daughter, and afterwards cut her up and found she was not pregnant. And Epebolus who was present bade somebody else give his daughter as a victim, for the daughter of Aristodemus (he said) could be no more use to them now she was dead: for her father had indeed killed her, but not sacrificed her to the gods as the Pythian oracle ordered.”
Book 4 · Chapter 10
- with Ophioneus (They shared a similar opinion as seers.) “And the opinions of the seers, Epebolus and Ophioneus, were both similar, that the kingdom of Æpytus and his descendants should not be conferred upon a man polluted with the murder of a daughter.”
⭐ Constellation map → · 📖 Read the original → · 🗂 Character index → · 🕰 Chronicle → · 📍 Places →
Extracted from the original text of Pausanias' Description of Greece. Made with Rho MD.