Glaucus
（
Γλαῦκος).
1.
A sea deity, probably only another form of Poseidon, whose son he is, according to some
accounts. Like the marine gods in general, he had the gift of prophecy; and we find him
appearing to the Argonauts (
Apoll. Rh. i. 1310 foll.), and to
Menelaüs (Eurip.
Orest. 356 foll.), and telling them what had happened, or what was to
happen. In later times sailors were continually making reports of his soothsaying (Pausan.
ix. 22). Some said that he dwelt with the Nereides at Delos, where he gave responses to all
who sought them. According to others, he visited each year all the isles and coasts, with a
train of monsters of the deep (
κήτεα), and, unseen, foretold
in the Aeolic dialect all kinds of evil. The fishermen watched for his approach, and
endeavoured by fastings, prayer, and fumigations to avert the ruin with which his prophecy
menaced the fruits and cattle. At times he was seen among the waves, and his body appeared
covered with mussels, seaweed, and stones. He was heard evermore to lament his fate in not
being able to die (
Plato Rep. x. 611). This
last circumstance refers to the common legendary history of Glaucus. He was a fisherman, it
is said (Pausan. l. c.; Ovid,
Met. xiii. 904 foll.), of Anthedon, in Boeotia. Observing one day the
fish which he had caught and thrown on the grass to bite it, and then to jump into the sea,
his curiosity incited him to taste it also. Immediately on his doing so he followed their
example, and thus became a sea-god. Another account made him to have obtained his immortality
by tasting the grass, which had revived a hare he had run down in Aetolia. He was also said
to have built and steered the Argo, and to have been made a god of the sea by Zeus during the
voyage. An account of the story of his love for Scylla will be found under
Scylla. See Gädecken,
Glaukos, der
Meeresgott (Göttingen, 1860).
2.
A son of Sisyphus, king of Corinth, by Mero pé, the daughter of Atlas, born at
Potniae, a village of Boeotia. According to one account, he restrained his mares from having
intercourse with the stallions; upon which Aphrodité inspired the former with such
fury that they tore his body to pieces as he returned from the games which Adrastus had
celebrated in honour of his father. Another version of the story makes
them to have run mad after eating a certain plant at Potniae (
Etymol. Mag. s.
v.
Ποτνιάδες;
Hyg.
Fab. 250;
Georg. iii. 268).
3.
A son of Minos and Pasiphaë, who, when a child, pursuing a mouse, fell into a
vessel of honey and was smothered. His father, ignorant of his fate, consulted the oracle to
know where he was, and received for answer that there was a three-coloured cow in his herd,
and that he who could best tell what she was like could restore his son to life. The
soothsayers were all assembled, and Polyidus, the son of Coiranus, said that her colour was
that of the berry of the briar, green, red, and, lastly, black. Minos thereupon desired him
to find his son; and Polyidus, by his skill in divination, discovered where he was. Minos
then ordered him to restore him to life; and, on his declaring his incapacity so to do, shut
him up in a chamber with the body of his child. While here, the soothsayer saw a serpent
approach the body, and he struck and killed it. Another immediately appeared, and seeing the
first one dead, retired, and came back soon after with a plant in its mouth, and laid it on
the dead one, which instantly came to life. Polyidus, by employing the same herb, recovered
the child. Minos, before he let him depart, insisted on his communicating his art to Glaucus.
He did so, but as he was taking leave he desired his pupil to spit into his mouth. Glaucus
obeyed, and lost the recollection of all he had learned (
Apollod.
iii. 3.1). Hyginus makes him to have been restored to life by Aesculapius
(
Poet. Astron. ii. 14).
4.
The grandson of Bellerophontes, and son of Hippolochus, prince of the Lycians. With his
kinsman Sarpedon, he was leader of the Lycian auxiliaries of Priam, and met Diomedes in the
mêlée. The two chieftains recognized each other as
friends and guests of their grandfather Bellerophontes and Oeneus, and exchanged armour,
Glaucus parting with his golden suit for the brazen arms of Diomedes. When the Greek
intrenchments were stormed, Glaucus had reached the top of the wall when he was put to flight
by an arrow shot by Teucer. He protected Hector when wounded by Achilles; with Apollo's aid
he avenged Sarpedon, and took a prominent part in the struggle for the body of Patroclus. He
finally met his death at the hand of Aias.
