Selinus, Kingdom of Cilicia: The Phoenicians, Mopsus, Argonauts, Scythians & Ten Tribes

Cilicia extended along the Mediterranean coast east from Pamphylia, to the Nur Mountains, which separated it from Syria. North and east of Cilicia lie the rugged Taurus Mountains that separate it from the high central plateau of Anatolia, which are pierced by a narrow gorge, called in antiquity the Cilician Gates. Ancient Cilicia was naturally divided into Cilicia Trachaea and Cilicia Pedias by the Limonlu River. Salamis, the city on the east coast of Cyprus, was included in its administrative jurisdiction.

The settlers from Greece invented for Cilicia an eponymous Hellene founder in the purely mythical Cilix, but the historic founder of the dynasty that ruled Cilicia Pedias was Mopsus, identifiable in Phoenician sources as Mpš, the founder of Mopsuestia who gave his name to an oracle nearby. Homer mentions the people of Mopsus, identified as Cilices (Κίλικες), as from the Troad in the northernwesternmost part of Anatolia.

Mopsus, son of Ampyx, was born at Titaressa in Thessaly. In Thessaly the place name Mopsion recalled his own. The earliest evidence of him is inscribed on the strap of a soldier's shield, found at Olympia and dated c.600-575 BC. This Mopsus was one of two seers/prophets among the Argonauts. The Argonauts sailed to Colchis where the Scythians were and where the Ten Tribers later settled.

Mopsus had competed at the funeral-games for Jason's father (Jason was also an Argonaut) and was among the Lapiths who fought the Centaurs. While fleeing across the Libyan Desert from angry sisters of the slain Gorgon Medusa, Mopsus died from the bite of a viper that had grown from a drop of Medusa's blood. Medea was unable to save him. The Argonauts buried him with a monument by the sea, and a temple was later erected on the site.

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