Amphiaraus

Amphiaraus is presented in myth as a hereditary seer, a great-grandson of the legendary seer Melampus and son of Oicles. He joined the expedition of the Seven against Thebes despite foreseeing its disastrous outcome; according to the narrative preserved in literary summaries, his wife Eriphyle was bribed (in some accounts with Harmonia's necklace) to secure his participation. During the campaign he was pursued in battle and, when struck by Zeus's thunderbolt, the earth opened and swallowed him and his charioteer, an event that marks his transition from mortal seer to a subterranean, propitiated chthonic hero honored in cult.

Surviving textual sources present Amphiaraus as an exceptional human seer and heroic figure rather than supplying a fixed physical portrait; ancient authors and Pausanias record his depiction in Greek visual programs (for example a scene described on the Chest of Kypselos as reported by Pausanias shows his departure for the expedition), indicating he was represented in art alongside family members such as his infant Amphilochus, wife Eriphyle, daughters, and the naked figure of Alcmaeon. Beyond these narrative and iconographic attestations the supplied sources do not preserve a concrete physical description or distinctive corporeal attributes.

Primary functions attributed to Amphiaraus in the sources are prophetic and cultic-healing. Ancient accounts describe him as a seer favored by Zeus and Apollo; one summary states that 'Zeus gave him his oracular talent.' He foresaw the death of the expedition of the Seven and counseled against it. After his subterranean disappearance he was propitiated at the Amphiareion of Oropos, where he functioned as a healing and fortune-telling figure associated with Asclepius. Petitioners at the sanctuary made offerings (records note a few coins or sometimes a ram) and practiced incubation—sleeping within the sacred precinct to receive revelatory dreams that outlined solutions to their problems. In mythic narrative he also participates in heroic cycles (Calydonian boar hunt, Argonauts) and his death and instructions (for example charging his sons to avenge him) shape subsequent stories such as Alcmaeon's matricide.