Editing Melampus (section)

==Homer==
In [[Homer]]'s ''[[Odyssey]]'',<ref>''Odyssey'', XV.223-42.</ref> a digression concerning the lineage of [[Theoclymenus]], "a prophet, sprung from Melampus' line of seers",<ref>Quotes are from [[Robert Fagles]]'s translation, 1996:326-27.</ref> sketches the epic narrative concerning Melampus with such brevity that its details must have been familiar to Homer's audience.  With brief hints, a sequence of episodes is alluded to, in which we discern strife in Pylos between Melampus and [[Neleus]], who usurps Melampus's "great high house", forcing him into heroic exile.  Melampus spends a year as bondsman in the house of [[Phylacus]], "all for Neleus' daughter [[Pero (princess)|Pero]]".  At his extremity, Melampus is visited by "the mad spell a [[Erinyes|Fury]], murderous spirit, cast upon his mind.  But the seer worked free of death" and succeeded at last in rustling Phylacus's cattle back to Pylos, where he avenged himself on Neleus and gave Pero in marriage to his brother [[Bias (mythology)|Bias]].  But Melampus's own destiny lay in [[Argos, Peloponnese|Argos]], where he lived and ruled, married and sired a long line, also briefly sketched in Homer's excursus.