Telephus

This article is about Telephus the son of Heracles. The name also refers to the father of Cyparissus.

A Greek mythological figure, Telephus was one of the Heraclidae. He was the son of Heracles and Auge, the spouse of Astyoche and the father of Eurypylus. He was supposed to be king of Tegea, but became the king of Mysia in Asia minor

Mythology

He was a son of Heracles and Princess Auge of Tegea. Her father Aleus was told by an oracle that he would be overthrown by his grandson. So he:#Forced Auge to become a priestess of Athena and leave the child, Telephus, on Mt. Parthenion. Heracles had by that time become a god transformed himself into a deer and suckled Telephus.#Auge and Telephus were put in a crate and set adrift on the sea. They washed up in Asia Minor.#Abandoned Telephus and sold Auge into slavery. She ended up marrying King Teuthras.

Telephus later became King of the Mysians. When the Greeks left for the Trojan War, they accidentally, lacking maps, found themselves in Mysia . In the battle, Achilles wounded Telephus, who killed Thersander. The wound would not heal and Telephus asked an oracle which claimed "he that wounded shall heal". Telephus' convinced Achilles to heal his wound in return for showing them the way to Troy.

According to others' reports about Euripides' lost play about Telephus, he went to Aulis, pretending to be a beggar and asked Achilles to help heal his wound. Achilles refused, claiming to have no medical knowledge. Alternatively, Telephus held Orestes for ransom, the ransom being Achilles' aid in healing the wound. Odysseus reasoned that the spear had inflicted the wound and the spear must be able to heal it. Pieces of the spear were scraped off onto the wound, and Telephus healed. This is an example of sympathetic magic.

There was a myth that Auge had been sold to Teuthras king of Tegea. Telephus traveled to Tegea and helped king Teuthras in a war, so as a gift he let him marry Auge to Telephus and made him the king.Wanting to remain faithful to her lover Heracles, she hid a knife in her room. When they were in their room she grabbed the knife but he wrestled it out of her hands and he From Olympus Heracles sent a snake that bit Telephus. After that he recognized Auge as his mother and she recognized Telephus as her son.

Telephus features in Sophocles's The Assembly of the Acheans and Euripides' Telephus.

Telephus (the father of Cyparissus) appears in works by Euripides and Ennius among others. A fragment of narrative in elegaic meter by Archilochus has been discovered among Oxyrhyncus papyri.