Jochen,
Your post is, as usual, very interesting. I don't have anything "new" to offer; I am really only reiterating what you've provided, with simply a little supporting information and a photo of a portion of the
Telephos Frieze from
Pergamon. Thank you for your posts,
"il miglio fabbro!"; I always learn something.
Cheers,
Cleisthenes (Jim)
Telephos Telephos represents for
Pergamon, what Romulus/Remus represent for
Rome. Various ancient authors write about
Telephos and there are different and inconsistent versions of the same story (
Homer in
The Iliad, Euripides, Aristophanes, Hyginus...).
Telephos’ parents are
Heracles and princess Auge, the daughter of
King Aleus of Tegea.
King Aleus, who knows an oracle predicting that a son of Auge will cause the death of one of
his sons, installs her as priestess in
Athena’s temple,
a post requiring perpetual virginity. However, during
Heracles’ stay at Tegea, he falls in love with princess Auge, and he seduces her.
On discovering that Auge is pregnant, Aleus is angry and sends
his daughter to the sea to be drowned; on the way there, according to some texts, she gives birth to
Telephos. In Nauplia,
King Nauphilus places both mother and son in a chest, and sets it adrift in the sea; they land, according to this version, in
Mysia, where Auge raises
Telephos. In a different version of the story, Auge gives birth to a son in
Athena’s temple and hides him there. This angers
Athena, and the goddess causes all of the surrounding land to be barren.
Auge’s father,
King Aleus, seeks the reason for this pestilence, and he discovers that it is
his daughter and her newborn son who are responsible. He, therefore, abandons and exposes the child on Mount Parthenium, and sends Auge overseas to Nauphilus where she will be sold into slavery. Auge is sold to Teuthras,
king of Teuthrania on the River Caicus in
Mysia.
According to the traditional version,
Telephos is discovered by some shepherds in the care of a doe, (‘elaphos,’ Greek) which was suckling him (‘a teat,’ ‘thele,’ Greek); the shepherds name the foundling
Telephos (‘thele’ + ‘elaphos’). According to another, more recent heroic version,
Herakles discovers
Telephos being suckled by a lioness.
In the shepherd version, the shepherds raise
Telephos in the company of Parthenopaeus, who also has been abandoned nearby. They become great friends. According to some authors, Auge herself abandons
Telephos on Mt. Parthenium to hide her shame, or that she gives birth to him there on the way to Naupila.
When
Telephos grows up, he wants to know the identity of
his parents, in
part because he suffers taunting at Aleus’ court because he does not know
his lineage. On one momentous occasion, when he is being insulted,
Telephos kills the person who so angers him. The oracle proves to be true: the dead
man is Aleus’ son. In every version, it is agreed that
Telephus subsequently consults the
Delphi Oracle; the Oracle sends him to
Mysia to find out
his origins.
Accompanied by Parthenopaeus, he sails to Teuthrania, where, at the
head of an army of Greek invaders, he helps to drive out Teuthras' enemies. Teuthras, who has no son, makes
Telephos his heir. In one version, Teuthras has married Auge. In another, (analogous with Oedipus), Teuthras has adopted Auge as
his daughter, and now insists on marrying her to
Telephos as a
part of
Telephos’ reward. Auge, though unaware she is
Telephos’ mother, is opposed to the match; according to some accounts she feels this way because she wishes to remain faithful to
Heracles’ memory. Therefore, she takes a sword to bed with her, intending to stab
Telephos. Miraculously, an enormous
snake appears in the bed between them, and then Auge, terrorized, confesses her intention.
Telephos, understandably outraged, prepares to kill her; whereupon Auge calls on
Heracles for
his help. This prompts
Telephos to ask her why she has appealed to the Hero. Auge, then, tells
Telephos her long story that begins with her seduction by
Heracles. In this way, Auge and
Telephos come to recognize each other.
In the Hyginus version of the story,
Telephos then marries Ardiope, Teuthras’ daughter.
Telephos’ wife is alternatively identified as Astyoche (Laodice), a daughter of
Priam.
While
Telephos is on the throne of Teuthrania, the
Trojan War breaks-out; as
Priam’s son-in-law, he supports the
Trojan side. The
Greeks mistakenly land in
Mysia, believing it to be
Trojan territory.
Telephos fights against them, killing Polyncies’ son Thersander, but is wounded by
Achilles when
his foot is caught in a grapevine. After the
Greeks return
home,
Telephos’ wound
still has not healed. He consults an oracle and is told that the wound will eventually heal--but that he must seek out
help from the
Greeks (
Iliad). Dressed in beggar’s rags,
Telephos travels to
Mycenae, where the Greek captains are preparing another expedition against
Troy.
He confides
his plight to Clytemnestra, who advises him that the only way to gain
his point with the kings is to seize the child Orestes and make supplication to Agamemnon. He does so, urging that
Achilles should cure him. The Greek commanders, by this time have received an oracle that informs them that they will reach
Troy, only if
Telephos guides them there. They consent to
Telephos’ request.
Achilles, however, declares that he has no experience as a doctor. Odysseus sees a deeper meaning in the oracle, and suggests that it refers to
Achilles’ spear rather than to
Achilles himself. Each day a little rust from
Achilles’ spear is
applied to
Telephos’ wound; in a few days
Telephos’ wound heals.
Telephos guides the Greek fleet to
Troy, but refuses to join them in war. After
Telephos dies,
his son Eurypylus, in the last year of the
Trojan war, leads
Mysia reinforcements to aid
Priam.
The myth of
Telephos is, in later times, reinforced by the Attalid kings of
Pergamon in
Mysia.
Telephos is the founder of the cults of
Dionysos, Athene and
Zeus at
Pergamon.
Bibliography: Bauchenss-Thueirdel, Christa, Der Mythos von
Telephos in “der antiken Bildkunst”.
Beitraege zur Archaelogie, Wuerzburg: Konrad Trilitsch Verlag;
Schrader, Hans. “Die Anordnungund Deutung
des pergamenischen Telephosfrieses”,
Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archaeologischen Instituts 15 (1900);
Michael Grant and John Hazel,
Who’s Who in Classical Mythology.
http://www.1stmuse.com/Pergamon/frieze.html