GLAUCUS

(Greek: Gleaming), name of several figures in Greek mythology, the most important of whom were the following: Glaucus, surnamed Pontius, was a sea divinity. Originally a fisherman and diver of Boeotia, he once ate a magical herb and leaped into the sea, where he was changed into a god and endowed with the gift of prophecy. Another version made him spring into the sea for love of the sea god Melicertes, with whom he was often identified. In art he was depicted as a merman covered with shells and seaweed. Glaucus of Potniae near Thebes was the son of Sisyphus (king of Corinth) by his wife Merope and father of the hero Bellerophon. According to one legend, he fed his mares on human flesh and was torn to pieces by them. Glaucus, the son of the Cretan king Minos and his wife Pasiphae, fell into a jar of honey, when a child, and was smothered. The seer Polyeidus finally discovered the child but on confessing his inability to restore him to life was shut up in a vault with the corpse. There he killed a serpent and, seeing it revived by a companion that laid a certain herb upon it, brought the dead Glaucus back to life with the same herb. Glaucus, grandson of Bellerophon, was a Lycian prince who assisted Priam, king of Troy, in the Trojan War. When he found himself opposed in combat to his friend Diomedes, they ceased fighting and exchanged armour. Since the equipment of Glaucus was golden and that of Diomedes bronze, the expression gold for bronze (Iliad, vi, 236) came to be used proverbially for a bad exchange.