A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

(Βράγχος), a son of Apollo or Smicrus of Delphi. His mother, a Milesian woman, dreamt at the time she gave birth to him, that the sun was passing through her body, and the seers interpreted this as a favourable sign. Apollo loved the boy Branchus for his great beauty, and endowed him with prophetic power, which he exercised at Didyma, near Miletus. Here he founded an oracle, of which his descendants, the Branchidae, were the priests, and which was held in great esteem, especially by the lonians and Aeolians. (Hdt. 1.157; Strab. xiv. p.634, xvii. p. 814; Lutat. ad Stat. Theb. 8.198; Conon, Narrat. 33; Luc. Dial. Deor. 2; comp. Dict. of Ant. s. v. Oraculum.)