GLAUCUS, a word meaning "bright," and the name of sev eral figures in Greek mythology, the most important of which are the following : I. GLAUCUS, surnamed Pontius, a sea divinity. Originally a fisherman and diver of Anthedon in Boeotia, having eaten a cer tain magical herb, he leaped into the sea, where he was changed into a god, and endowed with the gift of unerring prophecy. According to others he sprang into the sea for love of the sea-god Melicertes, with whom he was often identified. He was wor shipped in most parts of the Greek world by fishermen and sailors. In art he is depicted as a merman covered with shells and sea weed. Various legends, none very important, connect him with the saga of the Argonauts and other cycles. He was famous for his amours, especially those with Scylla and Circe. See especially Athenaeus, 296, 297.
2. GLAUCUS, of Potniae near Thebes, son of Sisyphus by Merope and father of Bellerophon. According to the legend he was torn to pieces by his own mares (Virgil, Georgics, iii. 267; Hyginus, Fab., 250, 273).
3. GLAUCUS, the son of Minos and Pasiphae. When a child, while playing at ball or pursuing a mouse, he fell into a jar of honey and was smothered. His father, after a vain search for him, consulted the oracle, and was referred to the person who should suggest the aptest comparison for one of the cows of Minos which had the power of assuming three different colours. Polyidus of Argos, who had likened it to a mulberry (or bramble), which changes from white to red and then to black, soon after wards discovered the child ; but on his confessing his inability to restore him to life, he was shut up in a vault with the corpse. Here he killed a serpent which was revived by a companion, which laid a certain herb upon it. With the same herb Polyidus brought the dead Glaucus back to life. According to others, he owed his recovery to Asklepios.
4. GLAUCUS, son of Hippolochus, and grandson of Bellerophon, mythical progenitor of the kings of Ionia. He was a Lycian prince who, along with his cousin Sarpedon, assisted Priam in the Trojan War. When he found himself opposed to Diomedes, his guest friend, 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. Glaucus was afterwards slain by Ajax, son of Telamon.
See further Roscher's Lexikon, s.v.