Fragment #1—Strabo, xiv. p. 642: It is said that Calchis the seer
returned from Troy with Amphilochus the son of Amphiaraus and came on
foot to this place 2101. But happening to find near Clarus a seer
greater than himself, Mopsus, the son of Manto, Teiresias’ daughter, he
died of vexation. Hesiod, indeed, works up the story in some form as
this: Calchas set Mopsus the following problem:
‘I am filled with wonder at the quantity of figs this wild fig-tree
bears though it is so small. Can you tell their number?’
And Mopsus answered: ‘Ten thousand is their number, and their measure
is a bushel: one fig is left over, which you would not be able to put
into the measure.’
So said he; and they found the reckoning of the measure true. Then did
the end of death shroud Calchas.
Fragment #2—Tzetzes on Lycophron, 682: But now he is speaking of
Teiresias, since it is said that he lived seven generations—though
others say nine. He lived from the times of Cadmus down to those of
Eteocles and Polyneices, as the author of “Melampodia” also says: for
he introduces Teiresias speaking thus:
‘Father Zeus, would that you had given me a shorter span of life to be
mine and wisdom of heart like that of mortal men! But now you have
honoured me not even a little, though you ordained me to have a long
span of life, and to live through seven generations of mortal kind.’
Fragment #3—Scholiast on Homer, Odyssey, x. 494: They say that
Teiresias saw two snakes mating on Cithaeron and that, when he killed
the female, he was changed into a woman, and again, when he killed the
male, took again his own nature. This same Teiresias was chosen by Zeus
and Hera to decide the question whether the male or the female has most
pleasure in intercourse. And he said:
‘Of ten parts a man enjoys only one; but a woman’s sense enjoys all ten
in full.’
For this Hera was angry and blinded him, but Zeus gave him the seer’s
power.
Fragment #4—2102 Athenaeus, ii. p. 40: ‘For pleasant it is at a feast
and rich banquet to tell delightful tales, when men have had enough of
feasting;...’
Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis vi. 2 26: ‘...and pleasant also it is
to know a clear token of ill or good amid all the signs that the
deathless ones have given to mortal men.’
Fragment #5—Athenaeus, xi. 498. A: ‘And Mares, swift messenger, came to
him through the house and brought a silver goblet which he had filled,
and gave it to the lord.’
Fragment #6—Athenaeus, xi. 498. B: ‘And then Mantes took in his hands
the ox’s halter and Iphiclus lashed him upon the back. And behind him,
with a cup in one hand and a raised sceptre in the other, walked
Phylacus and spake amongst the bondmen.’
Fragment #7—Athenaeus, xiii. p. 609 e: Hesiod in the third book of the
“Melampodia” called Chalcis in Euboea ‘the land of fair women’.
Fragment #8—Strabo, xiv. p. 676: But Hesiod says that Amphilochus was
killed by Apollo at Soli.
Fragment #9—Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis, v. p. 259: ‘And now
there is no seer among mortal men such as would know the mind of Zeus
who holds the aegis.’