In Greek mythology, Epopeus (; Ancient Greek: Ἐπωπεύς) was the 17th king of Sicyon, with an archaic bird-name that linked him to epops (ἔποψ), the hoopoe, the "watcher".[1] A fragment of Callimachus' Aitia ("Origins") appears to ask, "Why, at Sicyon, is it the hoopoe, and not the usual splendid ravens, that is the bird of good omen?"[2]
- ^ "Now the long list of Sicyonian kings which we find in Pausanias touches on bird lore at more than one juncture", Noel Robertson observes, in "Callimachus' Tale of Sicyon ('SH' 238)" Phoenix 53.1/2 (Spring 1999:57-79): a previous king at Sicyon was Korax, the "raven" king, son of Koronos (Pausanias 2.5.8), the "crow" king who was born of a love-match of Apollo, to whom the crow belonged; a later king at Sicyon took as a bride Φηνω, the "vulture" (Pausanias 2.6.5); in other locales one might compare Tereus, transformed into a hoopoe (Pausanias, 1.41.9); and Celeus, the "woodpecker" king in Eleusis— and indeed the Latin Picus, also a "woodpecker" king.
- ^ The fragment is interpreted so by Noel Robertson, "Callimachus' Tale of Sicyon ('SH' 238)" Phoenix 53.1/2 (Spring 1999:57-79); Robertson continues by elucidating Epopeus.