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 minorHe 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.
