Manto (daughter of Tiresias)

In Greek mythology, Manto (Ancient Greek: Μαντώ) was the daughter of the prophet Tiresias and mother of Mopsus.[1] Tiresias was a Theban oracle who, according to tradition, was changed into a woman after striking a pair of copulating snakes with a rod, and was thereafter a priestess of Hera.[2]

Mythology

During the War of the Epigoni, a later myth relates, Manto was brought to Delphi as a war prize. Apollo made her his priestess and sent her to Colophon to found an oracle devoted to him. She had a son named Mopsus by Apollo,[3][4] although by some accounts, the father of Mopsus is Rhacius, whom Manto later married. According to the Bibliotheca, she had two children by Alcmaeon, Amphilochus and Tisiphone. In Roman myth, Manto went to Italy and gave birth to Ocnus (father: Tiberinus, the genius of the river Tiber). Ocnus founded Mantua and named it after his mother. It was said that Manto's abilities in prophecy were much greater than her father's.

Manto also appears in the myth of Niobe, the boastful queen of Thebes who degraded Leto. Manto warns her not to anger the gods and suggests she ask for Leto's forgiveness. Niobe refuses and continues to insult Leto, and consequently is punished by Apollo and Artemis.[5]

Lampus, who tried to violate Manto on her couch, was killed by Apollo for this act.[6]

She is one of the fortune-tellers and diviners whom Dante sees in the fourth pit of the eighth circle of the Inferno.[7]

Woodcut illustration (leaf [e]10r, f. xxxx) of Manto, daughter of Tiresias, hand-colored in red, green, yellow and black, from an incunable German translation by Heinrich Steinhöwel of Giovanni Boccaccio's De mulieribus claris, printed by Johannes Zainer at Ulm ca. 1474

Notes

When Thebes was taken by Thersander, the son of Polyneices, and the Argives, among the prisoners brought to Apollo at Delphi was Manto. Her father Teiresias had died on the way, in Haliartia, and when the god had sent them out to found a colony, they crossed in ships to Asia, but as they came to Clarus, the Cretans came against them armed and carried them away to Rhacius. But he, learning from Manto who they were and why they were come, took Manto to wife, and allowed the people with her to inhabit the land. Mopsus, the son of Rhacius and of Manto, drove the Carians from the country altogether

Pausanias:

Boccaccio, Giovanni (2003). Famous Women. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674011304.
Bell's New Pantheon; Or Historical Dictionary of the Gods, Demi-gods, Heroes ... J. Bell. 1790.
Apollodorus, Bibliotheca E6. 3
Strabo, Geography 14. 5. 16
Ovid, Metamorphoses 6
Statius, Thebaid 7
"Circle 8, subcircles 1-6, cantos 18-23". The University of Texas. Retrieved 11 April 2012.

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