Manto (mythology)
Encyclopedia
There are several distinct figures in Greek mythology
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

 named Manto, the most prominent being the daughter of Tiresias
Tiresias
In Greek mythology, Tiresias was a blind prophet of Thebes, famous for clairvoyance and for being transformed into a woman for seven years. He was the son of the shepherd Everes and the nymph Chariclo; Tiresias participated fully in seven generations at Thebes, beginning as advisor to Cadmus...

. The name Manto derives from Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

 Mantis, "seer, prophet" (PIE
Pie
A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that covers or completely contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients....

 *men-, "to think").

Daughter of Tiresias

Manto was the daughter of the prophet Tiresias
Tiresias
In Greek mythology, Tiresias was a blind prophet of Thebes, famous for clairvoyance and for being transformed into a woman for seven years. He was the son of the shepherd Everes and the nymph Chariclo; Tiresias participated fully in seven generations at Thebes, beginning as advisor to Cadmus...

 and mother of Mopsus
Mopsus
Mopsus or Mopsos was the name of two famous seers in Greek mythology. A historical/legendary Mopsus was the founder of a house in power at widespread sites in the coastal plains of Pamphylia and Cilicia during the early Iron Age.-Son of Manto and Rhacius or Apollo:Mopsus, a celebrated seer and...

. Tiresias was a priestess of Hera
Hera
Hera was the wife and one of three sisters of Zeus in the Olympian pantheon of Greek mythology and religion. Her chief function was as the goddess of women and marriage. Her counterpart in the religion of ancient Rome was Juno. The cow and the peacock were sacred to her...

 who was transformed into a male in later myths when Zeus
Zeus
In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...

 became more dominant, but whose role as a seer and prophet remained. The original tradition of Tiresias as a woman must have been quite strong and since it could never be suppressed completely, was explained as his being able to change from one to the other. Oracles were the domain of priestesses even when a layer of priests was established over them much later, the priestesses remained the prophets at the oracles.

During the War of the Epigoni
Epigoni
In Greek mythology, Epigoni are the sons of the Argive heroes who had fought and been killed in the first Theban war, the subject of the Greek Thebaid, in which Polynices and six allies attacked Thebes because Polynices' brother, Eteocles, refused to give up the throne as promised...

, a later myth relates, Manto was brought to Delphi
Delphi
Delphi is both an archaeological site and a modern town in Greece on the south-western spur of Mount Parnassus in the valley of Phocis.In Greek mythology, Delphi was the site of the Delphic oracle, the most important oracle in the classical Greek world, and a major site for the worship of the god...

 as a war prize. Apollo sent her to Colophon
Colophon
Colophon was a city in the region of Lydia in antiquity dating from about the turn of the first millennium-BC. It was likely one the oldest of the twelve Ionian League cities, between Lebedos and Ephesus and its ruins are in the eponymously named modern region of Ionia.The city's name comes from...

 to find an oracle
Oracle
In Classical Antiquity, an oracle was a person or agency considered to be a source of wise counsel or prophetic predictions or precognition of the future, inspired by the gods. As such it is a form of divination....

 devoted to him. She married Rhacius
Rhacius
In Greek mythology, Rhacius was the son of Lebes, and the leader of the first Greeks to settle in Caria, and became King of Caria. His court was located at Colophon in Ionia. With his wife Manto, daughter of the seer Teiresias, he was the father of Mopsus, a renowned seer....

 and gave birth to Mopsus
Mopsus
Mopsus or Mopsos was the name of two famous seers in Greek mythology. A historical/legendary Mopsus was the founder of a house in power at widespread sites in the coastal plains of Pamphylia and Cilicia during the early Iron Age.-Son of Manto and Rhacius or Apollo:Mopsus, a celebrated seer and...

 (although by some accounts Apollo
Apollo
Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...

 was the father). According to Apollodorus
Apollodorus
Apollodorus of Athens son of Asclepiades, was a Greek scholar and grammarian. He was a pupil of Diogenes of Babylon, Panaetius the Stoic, and the grammarian Aristarchus of Samothrace...

, she had two children by Alcmaeon, Amphilochus
Amphilochus (son of Alcmaeon)
In Greek mythology, in a myth assigned to Euripides by Apollodorus, Amphilochus is the son of Alcmaeon, one of the Epigoni, and Manto, the daughter of the Theban seer Teiresias....

 and Tisiphone
Tisiphone
Tisiphone is the name of two figures in Greek mythology.-Erinyes:Tisiphone was one of the Erinyes or Furies, and sister of Alecto and Megaera. She was the one who punished crimes of murder: parricide, fratricide and homicide...

. In Roman myth, Manto went to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 and gave birth to Ocnus
Ocnus
In Greek and Roman mythology, Ocnus or Bianor was a son of Manto and Tiberinus. He founded Mantua . Alternatively, he was the son or brother of Auletes and founded Felsina or Perusia or Cesena....

 (father: Tiberinus
Tiberinus (god)
Tiberinus is a figure in Roman mythology. He was added to the 3,000 rivers , as the genius of the river Tiber.According to Virgil's epic Aeneid, he helped Aeneas in his travel from Troy, suggesting to him that he land in Latium and gave him much other precious advice...

, the genius
Genius
Genius is something or someone embodying exceptional intellectual ability, creativity, or originality, typically to a degree that is associated with the achievement of unprecedented insight....

 of the river Tiber
Tiber
The Tiber is the third-longest river in Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Umbria and Lazio to the Tyrrhenian Sea. It drains a basin estimated at...

). Ocnus founded Mantua
Mantua
Mantua is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy and capital of the province of the same name. Mantua's historic power and influence under the Gonzaga family, made it one of the main artistic, cultural and notably musical hubs of Northern Italy and the country as a whole...

 and named it after his mother.

It was said that Manto's abilities in prophecy were much greater and exceeded that of her father's.

Daughter of Heracles

Manto was also described in late myths as a daughter of Heracles
Heracles
Heracles ,born Alcaeus or Alcides , was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus...

. A myth claims that Mantua
Mantua
Mantua is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy and capital of the province of the same name. Mantua's historic power and influence under the Gonzaga family, made it one of the main artistic, cultural and notably musical hubs of Northern Italy and the country as a whole...

 was named after her (Servius on Virgil
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...

, Aeneid
Aeneid
The Aeneid is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is composed of roughly 10,000 lines in dactylic hexameter...

X, 199).

Daughter of Polyidus

Another Manto was a daughter of the seer Polyidus. She and her sister Astycrateia were brought to Megara
Megara
Megara is an ancient city in Attica, Greece. It lies in the northern section of the Isthmus of Corinth opposite the island of Salamis, which belonged to Megara in archaic times, before being taken by Athens. Megara was one of the four districts of Attica, embodied in the four mythic sons of King...

 by their father, who came there to cleanse Alcathous
Alcathous, son of Pelops
Alcathous was in Greek mythology the son of Pelops and Hippodamia, and brother of Atreus and Thyestes. He first married Pyrgo and afterwards Euaechme, and was the father of Echepolis , Callipolis , Iphinoe , Periboea , and Automedusa .Pausanias relates that after Euippus, son of king Megareus,...

 for the murder of his son Callipolis. The tomb of the two sisters was shown at Megara in later times. (Pausanias, Description of Greece, 1. 43. 5)

Daughter of Melampus

Manto was also the name of a daughter of another famous seer, Melampus
Melampus
In Greek mythology, Melampus, or Melampous , was a legendary soothsayer and healer, originally of Pylos, who ruled at Argos. He was the introducer of the worship of Dionysus, according to Herodotus, who asserted that his powers as a seer were derived from the Egyptians and that he could understand...

. Her mother was Iphianeira
Iphianeira
In Greek mythology, the name Iphianeira may refer to two women, great-grandmother and great-granddaughter:*Daughter of Megapenthes and wife of Melampus, mother of Antiphates, Bias, Pronoe and Manto....

, daughter of Megapenthes
Megapenthes
In Greek mythology, Megapénthês is a name that refers to:* A son of Proetus. He exchanged kingdoms with his cousin Perseus, whom he killed much later. He was the father of Argeus and possibly Anaxagoras...

, and her siblings were Antiphates
Antiphates
In Greek mythology, Antíphatês or Antiphátês is the name of five characters.# Antíphatês, King of the Laestrygones, a mythological tribe of gigantic cannibals. He was married and had a daughter...

, Bias and Pronoe
Pronoe
Pronoe refers to six characters in Greek mythology.1. Pronoe, one of the Nereids.2. Pronoe, daughter of Phorbus. She married Aetolus and bore him Pleuron and Calydon....

. (Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian who flourished between 60 and 30 BC. According to Diodorus' own work, he was born at Agyrium in Sicily . With one exception, antiquity affords no further information about Diodorus' life and doings beyond what is to be found in his own work, Bibliotheca...

, Library of History, 4. 68. 5)

Sources

  • Virgil. Eclogae ix.59-60.
  • Isidore. Etymologai xv.1.59.
  • Statius. Thebais iv.463-468, x.597-603.
  • Pomponius Mela. De chorographia i.88.
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