Telegony
Encyclopedia
The Telegony is a lost ancient Greek
epic poem
about Telegonus
, son of Odysseus
by Circe
. His name ("born far away") is indicative of his birth on Aeaea
, far from Odysseus' home of Ithaca
. It was part of the Epic Cycle of poems that recounted the myths not only of the Trojan War
but also of the events that led up to and followed the war. The story of the Telegony comes chronologically after that of the Odyssey
, and is the final episode in the Epic Cycle. The poem was sometimes attributed in Antiquity
to Cinaethon of Sparta
, but in one source it is said to have been stolen from Musaeus
by Eugamon or Eugammon of Cyrene
(see Cyclic poets
). The poem comprised two books of verse in dactylic hexameter
.
the Telegony may have also been known as the Thesprotis (Greek: Θεσπρωτίς), which is referred to once by Pausanias
in the 2nd century CE; alternatively, the Thesprotis may have been a name for the first book of the Telegony, which is set in Thesprotia
. Such naming of isolated episodes within a larger epic was common practice for the ancient readers of the Homer
ic epics.
A third possibility is that there was a wholly separate epic called the Thesprotis; and yet a fourth possibility is that the Telegony and Thesprotis were two separate poems that were at some stage compiled into a single Telegony. Most scholars at present tend to regard the third and fourth possibilities as unlikely, or at least worthless hypotheses, since neither possibility is demonstrable or falsifiable.
, the native city of Eugammon, the purported author, was founded in 631 BCE; but the narrative details may have existed prior to Eugammon's version, perhaps even in the oral tradition
. There is a distinct possibility that the author of the Odyssey knew at least some version of the Telegony story (the Thesprotian episode and Telegonus' unusual spear in the Telegony may have been based on Tiresias
' prophecy in Odyssey book 11; but it is also possible that the Odyssey poet used the Telegonus story as a basis for Teiresias' prophecy). Certainly Eugammon's poem is most likely to have been composed in the 6th century BCE.
' voyage to Thesprotia
, and the story of Telegonus
. Probably each of the two books of the Telegony related one of these episodes. In current critical editions only two lines of the poem's original text survive. For its storyline we are dependent primarily on a summary of the Telegonus myth in Proclus' Chrestomathy
. The poem opens after the events depicted in the Odyssey. According to Proclus' summary, the Telegony opens with the burial of Penelope
's suitors. Odysseus makes sacrifices to the Nymphs. He makes a voyage to Elis
, where he visits an otherwise unknown figure Polyxenos, who gives him a bowl depicting the story of Trophonius
. Odysseus returns to Ithaca and then travels to Thesprotia
, presumably to make the sacrifices commanded by Tiresias
in Odyssey 11. There he weds the Thesprotian queen Kallidike
, who bears him a son, Polypoites
. Odysseus fights for the Thesprotians in a war against the neighbouring Brygoi; the gods participate in the war, Ares
routing Odysseus and the Thesprotians, countered by Athena
, ever Odysseus' patron; Apollo
intervenes between the battling gods. However, Kallidike
is killed in the war, Polypoetes succeeds to the kingdom and Odysseus returns to Ithaca.
Meanwhile, it transpires that Circe
, with whom Odysseus had an affair for a year in the Odyssey (books 10-12), has born his son, Telegonus
(Τηλέγονος, "born far away"). He grows up living with Circe on the island of Aeaea
. On the goddess Athena
's advice, Circe tells him the name of his father. In a detail inserted into the account in pseudo-Apollodorus
' Epitome of the Bibliotheke she gives him a supernatural spear to defend himself which is tipped with the sting of a poisonous stingray and was made by the god Hephaestus. A storm forces Telegonus onto Ithaca without his realising where he is. As is customary for Homeric heroes in unfriendly land, he commits piracy, and unwittingly begins stealing Odysseus' cattle. Odysseus comes to defend his property. During the ensuing fight, Telegonus kills Odysseus with his unusual spear, thereby partially fulfilling Tiresias' prophecy in Odyssey 11 that death would come to Odysseus "out of the sea" (i.e., the poison of the ray). (In another respect, however, Odysseus' death contradicts the prophecy of Tiresias, who predicted (Od. 11.135) that a "gentle death" would come to Odysseus "in sleek old age"). As Odysseus lies dying, he and Telegonus recognise one another, and Telegonus laments his mistake. Telegonus brings his father's corpse, Penelope
, and Odysseus' other son Telemachus
, back to Aeaea
, where Odysseus is buried and Circe makes the others immortal. Telegonus marries Penelope, and Telemachus marries Circe.
differs from Proclus in adding a few details. First, it is both Odysseus and Telemachus who engage Telegonus in combat. Hyginus then adds that Odysseus had received an oracle to beware his son. Finally, Hyginus attributes to Telegonus a son named Italus
, the eponymous founder of Italy; and to Telemachus he attributes a son named Latinus
, whose name was given to the Latin language.
Numerous Latin poets make Telegonus the founder of Praeneste, an important Etruscan
fortified high place and sacred site.
's Divine Comedy, in the eighth bolgia of the Inferno, Dante and his guide meet Ulisse among the false counsellors, and receive a variant accounting of his death "from the sea" in a five-month journey beyond the Pillars of Hercules
that has ended in a whirlpool drowning as the mariners approach the mountain of Purgatory
. No Greek source was available to Dante, only the Latin recensions of Dictys and Dares.
Among the plethora of opera
s based on the myths of Odysseus and those around him, there is but one based on Telegonus, Carlo Luigi Grua
's Telegone (premiered in Düsseldorf, 1697) of which an aria "Dia le mosse a miei contenti" may be noted. Divine intervention, a death and multiple weddings at the end all assorted easily with the conventions of opera seria
.
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
epic poem
Epic poetry
An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...
about Telegonus
Telegonus
Telegonus is the name of three different characters in Greek mythology.-Son of Odysseus:In Greek mythology, Telegonus was the youngest son of Circe and Odysseus....
, son of Odysseus
Odysseus
Odysseus or Ulysses was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle....
by Circe
Circe
In Greek mythology, Circe is a minor goddess of magic , described in Homer's Odyssey as "The loveliest of all immortals", living on the island of Aeaea, famous for her part in the adventures of Odysseus.By most accounts, Circe was the daughter of Helios, the god of the sun, and Perse, an Oceanid...
. His name ("born far away") is indicative of his birth on Aeaea
Aeaea
Aeaea or Eëa was a mythological island said to be the home of the sorceress Circe. Odysseus tells Alcinous that he stayed here for a year on his way home to Ithaca....
, far from Odysseus' home of Ithaca
Ithaca
Ithaca or Ithaka is an island located in the Ionian Sea, in Greece, with an area of and a little more than three thousand inhabitants. It is also a separate regional unit of the Ionian Islands region, and the only municipality of the regional unit. It lies off the northeast coast of Kefalonia and...
. It was part of the Epic Cycle of poems that recounted the myths not only of the Trojan War
Trojan War
In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology and was narrated in many works of Greek literature, including the Iliad...
but also of the events that led up to and followed the war. The story of the Telegony comes chronologically after that of the Odyssey
Odyssey
The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature...
, and is the final episode in the Epic Cycle. The poem was sometimes attributed in Antiquity
Classical antiquity
Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...
to Cinaethon of Sparta
Cinaethon of Sparta
Cinaethon of Sparta or Kinaithon of Lakedaimon is a legendary Greek poet to whom different sources ascribe the lost epics Oedipodea, Little Iliad and Telegony. Eusebius says that he flourished in 764/3 BC.-References:...
, but in one source it is said to have been stolen from Musaeus
Musaeus
Musaeus or Musaios was the name of three Greek poets.-Musaeus of Athens:Musaeus was a legendary polymath, philosopher, historian, prophet, seer, priest, poet, and musician, said to have been the founder of priestly poetry in Attica...
by Eugamon or Eugammon of Cyrene
Eugammon of Cyrene
Eugammon of Cyrene was an early Greek poet to whom the epic Telegony was ascribed. According to Clement of Alexandria, he stole the poem from the legendary early poet Musaeus; meaning, possibly, that a version of a long-existing traditional epic was written down by Eugammon. He is said to have...
(see Cyclic poets
Cyclic Poets
Cyclic Poets is a shorthand term for the early Greek epic poets, approximate contemporaries of Homer. We know no more about these poets than we know about Homer, but modern scholars regard them as having composed orally, as did Homer. In the classical period, surviving early epic poems were...
). The poem comprised two books of verse in dactylic hexameter
Dactylic hexameter
Dactylic hexameter is a form of meter in poetry or a rhythmic scheme. It is traditionally associated with the quantitative meter of classical epic poetry in both Greek and Latin, and was consequently considered to be the Grand Style of classical poetry...
.
Title
In AntiquityClassical antiquity
Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...
the Telegony may have also been known as the Thesprotis (Greek: Θεσπρωτίς), which is referred to once by Pausanias
Pausanias (geographer)
Pausanias was a Greek traveler and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece , a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from firsthand observations, and is a crucial link between classical...
in the 2nd century CE; alternatively, the Thesprotis may have been a name for the first book of the Telegony, which is set in Thesprotia
Thesprotia
Thesprotia is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the Epirus region. Its capital is the town of Igoumenitsa. It is named after the Thesprotians, an ancient Greek tribe that inhabited the region in antiquity.-History:...
. Such naming of isolated episodes within a larger epic was common practice for the ancient readers of the Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
ic epics.
A third possibility is that there was a wholly separate epic called the Thesprotis; and yet a fourth possibility is that the Telegony and Thesprotis were two separate poems that were at some stage compiled into a single Telegony. Most scholars at present tend to regard the third and fourth possibilities as unlikely, or at least worthless hypotheses, since neither possibility is demonstrable or falsifiable.
Date
The date of composition of the Telegony is uncertain. CyreneCyrene, Libya
Cyrene was an ancient Greek colony and then a Roman city in present-day Shahhat, Libya, the oldest and most important of the five Greek cities in the region. It gave eastern Libya the classical name Cyrenaica that it has retained to modern times.Cyrene lies in a lush valley in the Jebel Akhdar...
, the native city of Eugammon, the purported author, was founded in 631 BCE; but the narrative details may have existed prior to Eugammon's version, perhaps even in the oral tradition
Oral tradition
Oral tradition and oral lore is cultural material and traditions transmitted orally from one generation to another. The messages or testimony are verbally transmitted in speech or song and may take the form, for example, of folktales, sayings, ballads, songs, or chants...
. There is a distinct possibility that the author of the Odyssey knew at least some version of the Telegony story (the Thesprotian episode and Telegonus' unusual spear in the Telegony may have been based on Tiresias
Tiresias
In Greek mythology, Tiresias was a blind prophet of Thebes, famous for clairvoyance and for being transformed into a woman for seven years. He was the son of the shepherd Everes and the nymph Chariclo; Tiresias participated fully in seven generations at Thebes, beginning as advisor to Cadmus...
' prophecy in Odyssey book 11; but it is also possible that the Odyssey poet used the Telegonus story as a basis for Teiresias' prophecy). Certainly Eugammon's poem is most likely to have been composed in the 6th century BCE.
Content
The Telegony comprises two distinct episodes: OdysseusOdysseus
Odysseus or Ulysses was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle....
' voyage to Thesprotia
Thesprotia
Thesprotia is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the Epirus region. Its capital is the town of Igoumenitsa. It is named after the Thesprotians, an ancient Greek tribe that inhabited the region in antiquity.-History:...
, and the story of Telegonus
Telegonus
Telegonus is the name of three different characters in Greek mythology.-Son of Odysseus:In Greek mythology, Telegonus was the youngest son of Circe and Odysseus....
. Probably each of the two books of the Telegony related one of these episodes. In current critical editions only two lines of the poem's original text survive. For its storyline we are dependent primarily on a summary of the Telegonus myth in Proclus' Chrestomathy
Chrestomathy
Chrestomathy is a collection of choice literary passages, used especially as an aid in learning a foreign language.In philology or in the study of literature, it is a type of reader or anthology which presents a sequence of example texts, selected to demonstrate the development of language or...
. The poem opens after the events depicted in the Odyssey. According to Proclus' summary, the Telegony opens with the burial of Penelope
Penelope
In Homer's Odyssey, Penelope is the faithful wife of Odysseus, who keeps her suitors at bay in his long absence and is eventually reunited with him....
's suitors. Odysseus makes sacrifices to the Nymphs. He makes a voyage to Elis
Elis
Elis, or Eleia is an ancient district that corresponds with the modern Elis peripheral unit...
, where he visits an otherwise unknown figure Polyxenos, who gives him a bowl depicting the story of Trophonius
Trophonius
Trophonius or Trophonios was a Greek hero or daimon or god - it was never certain which one - with a rich mythological tradition and an oracular cult at Lebadaea in Boeotia....
. Odysseus returns to Ithaca and then travels to Thesprotia
Thesprotia
Thesprotia is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the Epirus region. Its capital is the town of Igoumenitsa. It is named after the Thesprotians, an ancient Greek tribe that inhabited the region in antiquity.-History:...
, presumably to make the sacrifices commanded by Tiresias
Tiresias
In Greek mythology, Tiresias was a blind prophet of Thebes, famous for clairvoyance and for being transformed into a woman for seven years. He was the son of the shepherd Everes and the nymph Chariclo; Tiresias participated fully in seven generations at Thebes, beginning as advisor to Cadmus...
in Odyssey 11. There he weds the Thesprotian queen Kallidike
Kallidike
-Queen of Thesprotia:Callidice was queen of Thesprotia and wife of Odysseus. She and Odysseus had a son, Polypoetes, together. According to the Telegony , Odysseus was sent on another voyage by the gods after killing all of Penelope's suitors. He journeyed through Epirus and came upon the nation of...
, who bears him a son, Polypoites
Polypoites
In Greek mythology, Polypoetes was a name attributed to the following individuals:*Polypoetes was a son of Hippodamia and Pirithous. A native of Gyrtone , he led the armies of Thessaly on the side of the Greeks during the Trojan War. He was among those who vied for Helen's hand in marriage, and...
. Odysseus fights for the Thesprotians in a war against the neighbouring Brygoi; the gods participate in the war, Ares
Ares
Ares is the Greek god of war. He is one of the Twelve Olympians, and the son of Zeus and Hera. In Greek literature, he often represents the physical or violent aspect of war, in contrast to the armored Athena, whose functions as a goddess of intelligence include military strategy and...
routing Odysseus and the Thesprotians, countered by Athena
Athena
In Greek mythology, Athena, Athenê, or Athene , also referred to as Pallas Athena/Athene , is the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, warfare, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, justice, and skill. Minerva, Athena's Roman incarnation, embodies similar attributes. Athena is...
, ever Odysseus' patron; Apollo
Apollo
Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...
intervenes between the battling gods. However, Kallidike
Kallidike
-Queen of Thesprotia:Callidice was queen of Thesprotia and wife of Odysseus. She and Odysseus had a son, Polypoetes, together. According to the Telegony , Odysseus was sent on another voyage by the gods after killing all of Penelope's suitors. He journeyed through Epirus and came upon the nation of...
is killed in the war, Polypoetes succeeds to the kingdom and Odysseus returns to Ithaca.
Meanwhile, it transpires that Circe
Circe
In Greek mythology, Circe is a minor goddess of magic , described in Homer's Odyssey as "The loveliest of all immortals", living on the island of Aeaea, famous for her part in the adventures of Odysseus.By most accounts, Circe was the daughter of Helios, the god of the sun, and Perse, an Oceanid...
, with whom Odysseus had an affair for a year in the Odyssey (books 10-12), has born his son, Telegonus
Telegonus
Telegonus is the name of three different characters in Greek mythology.-Son of Odysseus:In Greek mythology, Telegonus was the youngest son of Circe and Odysseus....
(Τηλέγονος, "born far away"). He grows up living with Circe on the island of Aeaea
Aeaea
Aeaea or Eëa was a mythological island said to be the home of the sorceress Circe. Odysseus tells Alcinous that he stayed here for a year on his way home to Ithaca....
. On the goddess Athena
Athena
In Greek mythology, Athena, Athenê, or Athene , also referred to as Pallas Athena/Athene , is the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, warfare, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, justice, and skill. Minerva, Athena's Roman incarnation, embodies similar attributes. Athena is...
's advice, Circe tells him the name of his father. In a detail inserted into the account in pseudo-Apollodorus
Apollodorus
Apollodorus of Athens son of Asclepiades, was a Greek scholar and grammarian. He was a pupil of Diogenes of Babylon, Panaetius the Stoic, and the grammarian Aristarchus of Samothrace...
' Epitome of the Bibliotheke she gives him a supernatural spear to defend himself which is tipped with the sting of a poisonous stingray and was made by the god Hephaestus. A storm forces Telegonus onto Ithaca without his realising where he is. As is customary for Homeric heroes in unfriendly land, he commits piracy, and unwittingly begins stealing Odysseus' cattle. Odysseus comes to defend his property. During the ensuing fight, Telegonus kills Odysseus with his unusual spear, thereby partially fulfilling Tiresias' prophecy in Odyssey 11 that death would come to Odysseus "out of the sea" (i.e., the poison of the ray). (In another respect, however, Odysseus' death contradicts the prophecy of Tiresias, who predicted (Od. 11.135) that a "gentle death" would come to Odysseus "in sleek old age"). As Odysseus lies dying, he and Telegonus recognise one another, and Telegonus laments his mistake. Telegonus brings his father's corpse, Penelope
Penelope
In Homer's Odyssey, Penelope is the faithful wife of Odysseus, who keeps her suitors at bay in his long absence and is eventually reunited with him....
, and Odysseus' other son Telemachus
Telemachus
Telemachus is a figure in Greek mythology, the son of Odysseus and Penelope, and a central character in Homer's Odyssey. The first four books in particular focus on Telemachus' journeys in search of news about his father, who has been away at war...
, back to Aeaea
Aeaea
Aeaea or Eëa was a mythological island said to be the home of the sorceress Circe. Odysseus tells Alcinous that he stayed here for a year on his way home to Ithaca....
, where Odysseus is buried and Circe makes the others immortal. Telegonus marries Penelope, and Telemachus marries Circe.
Latin inventions
The 1st-century AD Roman fabulist HyginusHyginus
Hyginus can refer to:People:*Gaius Julius Hyginus , Roman poet, author of Fabulae, reputed author of Poeticon astronomicon*Hyginus Gromaticus, Roman surveyor*Pope Hyginus, also a saint, Bishop of Rome about 140...
differs from Proclus in adding a few details. First, it is both Odysseus and Telemachus who engage Telegonus in combat. Hyginus then adds that Odysseus had received an oracle to beware his son. Finally, Hyginus attributes to Telegonus a son named Italus
Italus
Italus or Italos was a legendary king of the Sicels or Oenotrians, who were among the earliest inhabitants of Italy...
, the eponymous founder of Italy; and to Telemachus he attributes a son named Latinus
Latinus
Latinus was a figure in both Greek and Roman mythology.-Greek mythology:In Hesiod's Theogony, Latinus was the son of Odysseus and Circe who ruled the Tyrsenoi, presumably the Etruscans, with his brothers Ardeas and Telegonus...
, whose name was given to the Latin language.
Numerous Latin poets make Telegonus the founder of Praeneste, an important Etruscan
Etruscan civilization
Etruscan civilization is the modern English name given to a civilization of ancient Italy in the area corresponding roughly to Tuscany. The ancient Romans called its creators the Tusci or Etrusci...
fortified high place and sacred site.
Dante's invention
In DanteDANTE
Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe is a not-for-profit organisation that plans, builds and operates the international networks that interconnect the various national research and education networks in Europe and surrounding regions...
's Divine Comedy, in the eighth bolgia of the Inferno, Dante and his guide meet Ulisse among the false counsellors, and receive a variant accounting of his death "from the sea" in a five-month journey beyond the Pillars of Hercules
Pillars of Hercules
The Pillars of Hercules was the phrase that was applied in Antiquity to the promontories that flank the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar. The northern Pillar is the Rock of Gibraltar in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar...
that has ended in a whirlpool drowning as the mariners approach the mountain of Purgatory
Purgatory
Purgatory is the condition or process of purification or temporary punishment in which, it is believed, the souls of those who die in a state of grace are made ready for Heaven...
. No Greek source was available to Dante, only the Latin recensions of Dictys and Dares.
Among the plethora of opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
s based on the myths of Odysseus and those around him, there is but one based on Telegonus, Carlo Luigi Grua
Carlo Grua
Carlo Luigi Grua was an Italian composer who is best known for his position as Kapellmeister for the Electoral Court at the German city of Mannheim....
's Telegone (premiered in Düsseldorf, 1697) of which an aria "Dia le mosse a miei contenti" may be noted. Divine intervention, a death and multiple weddings at the end all assorted easily with the conventions of opera seria
Opera seria
Opera seria is an Italian musical term which refers to the noble and "serious" style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from the 1710s to c. 1770...
.
Editions
- Online editions (English translation):
- Fragments of the Telegony translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, 1914 (public domain)
- Fragments of complete Epic Cycle translated by H.G. Evelyn-White, 1914; Project Gutenberg edition
- Theoi Project — Apollodorus, Epitome
- Theoi Project — Hyginus, Fabula 127
- Print editions (Greek):
- A. Bernabé 1987, Poetarum epicorum Graecorum testimonia et fragmenta pt. 1 (Leipzig: Teubner)
- M. Davies 1988, Epicorum Graecorum fragmenta (Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht)
- Print editions (Greek with English translation):
- M.L. West 2003, Greek Epic Fragments (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University PressHarvard University PressHarvard University Press is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. In 2005, it published 220 new titles. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. Its current director is William P...
) ISBN 0-674-99605-4
- M.L. West 2003, Greek Epic Fragments (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press