Polyeidos

This article is about the mythic figure. For the poet, see Polyeidos (poet).In Greek mythology, Polyeidos (or Polyidus) was the wisest man in Lycia. He told Bellerophon how to find and tame Pegasus in order to kill the Chimera.

One day, Glaucus, son of King Minos and Queen Pasiphae of Crete, was playing with a ball or mouse and suddenly disappeared. His parents went to the Oracle at Delphi who told them "A marvelous creature has been born amongst you: whoever finds the true likeness for this creature will also find the child."

They interpreted this to refer to a newborn calf in Minos' herd. Three times a day, the calf changed color from white to red to black. Polyeidos observed the similarity to the ripening of the fruit of the mulberry (or possibly the blackberry) plant, and Minos sent him to find Glaucus.

Searching for the boy, Polyeidos saw an owl driving bees away from a wine-cellar in Minos' palace. Inside the wine-cellar was a cask of honey, with Glaucus dead inside. Minos demanded Glaucus be brought back to life, though Polyeidos objected. Minos was justified in his insistence, as the Delphic Oracle had said that the seer would restore the child alive. Minos shut Polyeidos up in the wine-cellar with a sword. When a snake appeared nearby, Polyeidos killed it with the sword. Another snake came for the first, and after seeing its mate dead, the second serpent left and returned with an herb which then brought the first snake back to life.

Minos refused to let Polyeidos leave Crete until he taught Glaucus the art of divination. Polyeidos did so, but then, at the last second before leaving, he asked Glaucus to spit in his mouth. Glaucus did so and forgot everything he had been taught.

The story of Polyeidos and Glaucus was the subject of a lost play of Euripides, his Bellerophon, and of one by Aeschylus, and Sophocles' lost The Mantises.