Melampus means ‘black-foot’. His feet were black because although his mother had placed him in the shade shortly after his birth, she had carelessly left his feet exposed to the sunlight. From an early age Melampus was fond of all animals. In front of his father’s house was a large oak and a hollow at its base was home to two snakes. The creatures were quite harmless and Melampus was fascinated by them, especially when he noticed that there were young on the way. These had no sooner been born than his father’s servant beat the two adult snakes to death. The grief-stricken Melampus burned the dead snakes and carefully reared their orphaned brood. One day, when they were fully grown, the snakes slid to his bedside and licked his ears with their tongues. The startled Melampus sat bolt upright. . . and immediately could hear what birds flying overhead were saying to each other. From then on he could foretell the future, since the birds told him everything that was about to happen. On the banks of the River Alpheus he met the god Apollo and became an accomplished seer.
As luck would have it, Melampus’ brother Bias had set his sights on the delectable Pero, but her father refused to give her in marriage to anyone but the man who could bring him Phulakos’ herd of cattle. The problem was that the herd was guarded by a dog too fierce to be approached by man or beast. At his wit’s end, Bias asked his omniscient brother for help. Melampus agreed to try. He foresaw that he would be caught in the act and put in prison, but would return with the herd.
Things turned out just as he had predicted, and a married couple were appointed as his jailers. The husband treated him with great kindness, while the wife behaved viciously towards the shackled prisoner. Then something very odd happened! Up in the wooden roof Melampus heard woodworm talking to each other. From their conversation he gathered that they had very nearly eaten their way through the main roof beam. Melampus hurriedly called his guards, claiming that he felt ill and preferred not to remain in the low-ceilinged room. They lifted his bed, with the husband at the head and the wife at the foot. As they were carrying him outside the woman was struck a fatal blow by the falling beam.
Of course the husband reported the incident to Phulakos, the owner of the herd. Phulakos went to see the prisoner with his son Iphiclus and asked Melampus who he really was. When Melampus replied that he was a seer, he was immediately released from his shackles and invited to the royal citadel. The king asked Melampus to cure his son, who was unable to sire children. Melampus agreed, on condition that if he proved successful he would be rewarded with the herd.
The seer then sacrificed a bull, cut the meat into small pieces and invited all the birds except for the reclusive vulture to come and eat. They all flocked to the feast and Melampus asked each one about the secret cure for Iphiclus’ ailment. The birds did not know, but when they noticed the vulture was not yet in their midst, they went and fetched him. The old vulture arrived and told his story:
One day Phulakos was with the herd, castrating new-born bull — calves with a knife. Iphiclus, then still a child, was with him and had been misbehaving, causing his father to fly into a rage and push the knife against his son’s genitalia. To frighten the boy still further he had thrown the knife up into a tree. It had lodged in the tree and the bark had grown over it. This gave Iphiclus such a terrible shock that ever since he had been impotent and unable to sire children.
The old vulture said that the king’s son could be cured; the knife must be recovered from beneath the bark of the oak, rust must be scraped off it and Iphiclus must drink a glass of wine containing the rust scrapings for a period of ten days.
Melampus found the knife and the magic potion proved effective. Nine months later Iphiclus’ son was born. He was named Podarkes, ‘swift-foot’, because his father had excelled as a sportsman since childhood. The joyful Melampus took the herd and Bias to meet the bride his brother had longed for so passionately. . .