Editing Telephus (section)

===Sources===

A surviving fragment of the Hesiodic ''[[Catalogue of Women]]'' (sixth century BC),<ref>Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA544 p. 544]; Gantz, p. 428; Hesiod (Pseudo), ''[[Catalogue of Women]]'' fr. 165 (Merkelbach–West numbering) from the ''Oxyrhynchus Papyri'' XI 1359 fr. 1 (Most, pp. 184&ndash;187; Stewart, p. 110; Grenfell and Hunt, [https://archive.org/stream/oxyrhynchuspapyr11gren#page/52/mode/1up pp. 52&ndash;55]).</ref> representing perhaps the oldest tradition,<ref>Stewart, p. 110.</ref> places Telephus' birth in Mysia. In this telling Telephus' mother Auge had been received at the court of Teuthras in Mysia (possibly at the command of the gods) and raised by him as a daughter.<ref>Compare with [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''[[Fabulae]]'' 99, 100 which also have Auge adopted by Teuthras.</ref> And it is in Mysia that Heracles, while seeking the horses of [[Laomedon]], fathers Telephus.

All other surviving sources have Telephus born in [[Arcadia (ancient region)|Arcadia]].<ref>Gantz, p. 428.</ref> The oldest such account (c. 490&ndash;480 BC), by the historian and geographer [[Hecataeus of Miletus|Hecataeus]], says that Heracles used to have sex with Auge whenever he came to Tegea. We are told this by the second-century traveler [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], who goes on to say, perhaps drawing upon Hecataeus, that when Aleus discovered that Auge had given birth to Telephus, he had mother and child shut up in a wooden chest and cast adrift on the open sea. The chest made its way from Arcadia to the [[Bakırçay|Caicus]] river plain in Asia Minor, where the local king [[Teuthras]] married Auge.<ref>Stewart, p. 110; Gantz, p. 428; [[Hecataeus of Miletus|Hecataeus]], fr. 29 Jacoby (= [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+8.4.9 8.4.9]). [[Strabo]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Strab.+13.1.69 13.1.69], gives a similar account, which he attributes to [[Euripides]] (see below).</ref>

[[Sophocles]], in the fifth century BC, wrote a tragedy ''Aleadae'' (''The sons of Aleus''), which apparently told the circumstances of Telephus' birth.<ref>Lloyd-Jones, [https://books.google.com/books?id=voiup-mz2CkC&pg=PA32 pp. 32&ndash;41 (frs. 77&ndash;89)]; Jebb, Headlam and Pearson, [https://books.google.com/books?id=R1qaCxoc90UC&pg=PA46 Vol. 1 pp. 46 ff. (frs. 77&ndash;89)].</ref> The play is lost and only fragments now remain, but a declamation attributed to the fourth-century BC orator [[Alcidamas]] probably used Sophocles' ''Aleadae'' for one of its sources.<ref>Gantz, pp. 428&ndash;429; Jebb, Headlam and Pearson, [https://books.google.com/books?id=R1qaCxoc90UC&pg=PA46 Vol. 1 pp. 46&ndash;47].</ref> According to Alcidamas, Auge's father Aleus had been warned by the [[Delphic oracle]] that if Auge had a son, then this grandson would kill Aleus' sons, so Aleus made Auge a priestess of [[Athena]], telling her she must remain a virgin, on pain of death.<ref>[[Alcidamas]], ''Odysseus'' 14-16 (Garagin and Woodruff,  [https://books.google.com/books?id=Fb6JIMA1jLUC&pg=PA286 p. 286]). Alcidamas is the only source for the oracle given to Aleus (see Jebb, Headlam and Pearson, [https://books.google.com/books?id=R1qaCxoc90UC&pg=PA47 Vol. 1, p. 47]).</ref> But Heracles passing through Tegea, being entertained by Aleus in the temple of Athena, became enamored of Auge and, while drunk, had sex with her. Aleus discovered that Auge was pregnant and gave her to [[Nauplius (mythology)|Nauplius]] to be drowned. But, on the way to the sea, Auge gave birth to Telephus on [[Mount Parthenion]], and according to Alcidamas, Nauplius, ignoring his orders, sold mother and child to the childless Mysian king Teuthras, who married Auge and adopted Telephus, and "later gave him to Priam to be educated at Troy". Alcidamas' version of the story must have diverged from Sophocles in at least this last respect. For, rather than the infant Telephus being sold to Teuthras, as in Alcidamas, an ''Aleadae ''fragment seems to insure that in the Sophoclean play, as in many later accounts (see above), the new-born Telephus was instead abandoned (on Mount Parthenion?), where he is suckled by a deer.<ref>Gantz, p. 429; Huys, [https://books.google.com/books?id=UG8DzIqIHREC&pg=PA293 p. 293]; Jebb, Headlam and Pearson, [https://books.google.com/books?id=R1qaCxoc90UC&pg=PA47 Vol. 1 p. 47]; Sophocles, ''Aleadae'' fr. 89 (Lloyd-Jones, [https://books.google.com/books?id=voiup-mz2CkC&pg=PA40 p. 40, 41]).</ref>

[[File:0 Hercule et Télèphe - Museo Chiaramonti (Vatican).JPG|thumb|left|Marble statue of Hercules holding baby Telephus in his arms. Ancient Roman copy from a Greek original of 4th century BC. Found in the 16th century in Campo de' Fiori in Rome. Museo Chiaramonti, the Vatican]]
[[Euripides]] wrote a play ''Auge'' (408 BC?) which also dealt with Telephus' birth. The play is lost, but a summary of the plot can be pieced together from various later sources, in particular a narrative summary given by the [[Armenia]]n historian [[Movses Khorenatsi|Moses of Chorene]].<ref>Collard and Cropp 2008a, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL504.259.xml pp. 259&ndash;277]; Huys, [https://books.google.com/books?id=UG8DzIqIHREC&pg=PA81 pp. 81&ndash;82]; Gantz, pp. 429&ndash;430; Webster, pp. 238&ndash;240.</ref> A drunken Heracles,<ref>[[Euripides]], ''Auge'' fr. 272b (= 265 N), Collard and Cropp 2008a, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL504.275.xml pp. 274, 275], has Heracles say: "As it is, wine made me lose control. I admit I wronged you, but the wrong was not intentional."</ref> during a festival of Athena, rapes "Athena's priestess Auge, daughter of Aleus, as she conducted the dances during the nocturnal rites."<ref>[[Euripides]], ''Auge'' test. iib, Collard and Cropp 2008a, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL504.267.xml pp. 266, 267] (= [[Movses Khorenatsi|Moses of Chorene]], ''Progymnasmata'' 3.3). [[Pompeii|Pompeian]] frescoes (which show Auge being raped while washing clothing) and [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+8.47.4 8.47.4], place the rape at a spring, and this version of events may reflect Euripides' ''Auge''. See Collard and Cropp 2008a. [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL504.263.xml p. 262], [[Euripides]], ''Auge'' test. iia (Hypothesis), Collard and Cropp 2008a, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL504.265.xml pp. 264, 265, with n. 1]; Rosivach, p. 44 with n. 126;  Kerényi, p. 338).</ref> Auge gives birth secretly in Athena's temple at Tegea, and hides the new-born Telephus there.<ref>Collard and Cropp 2008a, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL504.261.xml p. 260]; test. iii, Collard and Cropp 2008a, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL504.267.xml pp. 266, 267] (= [[Tzetzes]] On Aristophanes, ''Frogs'' 1080); fr. 266, Collard and Cropp 2008a, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL504.271.xml pp. 270, 271] (= [[Clement of Alexandria]], ''[[Stromata|Miscellanies]]'' 7.3.23.4). See also [[Euripides]]' ''Telephus'', fr. 696, which has Telephus say that Auge "bore me secretly" (Collard and Cropp 2008b, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.195.xml pp. 194, 195]; cf. Page, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/select_papyri_poetry_tragedy_5th_4th_centuries_bc/1941/pb_LCL360.131.xml pp. 130, 131]).</ref> The child is discovered, and Aleus orders Telephus [[Exposure (infant)|exposed]] and Auge drowned, but Heracles returns and apparently saves the pair from imminent death. The play perhaps ended with the assurance (from Athena to Heracles?) that Auge and Telephus would be wife and son to Teuthras.<ref>Collard and Cropp 2018a, p. 261; Gantz, p. 430; Huys, [https://books.google.com/books?id=UG8DzIqIHREC&pg=PA82 p. 82]; Webster, p. 240; [[Euripides]], ''Auge'' test. iib, Collard and Cropp 2008a, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL504.267.xml pp. 266, 267] (= [[Movses Khorenatsi|Moses of Chorene]], ''Progymnasmata'' 3.3).</ref>

[[Strabo]] gives a version of the story similar to Pausanias', saying that, after discovering "her ruin by Heracles", Aleus put Auge and Telephus into a chest and cast it into the sea, that it washed up at the mouth of the [[Caicus]], and that Teuthras married Auge, and adopted Telephus.<ref>See [[Strabo]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Strab.+13.1.69 13.1.69], which attributes this to [[Euripides]]. If so then this would have presumably been in Euripide's ''Auge'' (see Gantz, p. 429; Webster, p. 238) however Strabo's attribution may be erroneous (see Collard and Cropp 2008a, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL504.261.xml p. 261]); see also [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Strab.+12.8.2 12.8.2], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Strab.+12.8.4 12.8.4].</ref>

Later accounts by the first-century BC Historian [[Diodorus Siculus]] and the 1st or second-century AD mythographer [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]] provide additional details and variations.<ref>Gantz, p. 430.</ref> Diodorus, as in Alcidamas' account, says that Aleus gave the pregnant Auge to Nauplius to be drowned, that she gave birth to Telephus near Mount Parthenion, and that she ended up with Teuthras in Mysia. But in Diodorus' account, instead of being sold, along with his mother, to Teuthras, Telephus is abandoned by Auge "in some bushes", where he is suckled by a doe and found by herdsmen. They give him to their King [[Corythus]], who raises Telephus as his son. When Telephus grows up, wishing to find his mother, he consults the oracle at Delphi, which sends him to king Teuthras in Mysia. There he finds Auge and, as before, is adopted by the childless king and made his heir.<ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/4B*.html#33 4.33.7&ndash;12].</ref> Apollodorus, as in Euripides' ''Auge'', says that Auge delivered Telephus secretly in Athena's temple, and hid him there.<ref>[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]] [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+2.7.4 2.7.4], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+3.9.1 3.9.1].</ref> Apollodorus adds that an ensuing famine, was declared by an oracle to be the result of some impiety in the temple, and a search of the temple caused Telephus to be found.<ref>[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+3.9.1 3.9.1]. This may also have been in Euripides, ''Auge'', see fr. 267 (Collard and Cropp 2008a, pp. [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL504.261.xml 260], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL504.271.xml 270, 271]): "A city that is sick is clever at seeking out errors", which may refer to a search for the cause of the famine.</ref> Aleus had Telephus exposed on Parthenion, where as in Sophocles' ''Aleadae'', he is suckled by a doe. According to Apollodorus, he was found and raised by herdsman.<ref>[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+3.9.1 3.9.1].</ref> As in Diodorus' account, Telephus consults the oracle at Delphi, is sent to Mysia, where he becomes the adopted heir of Teuthras.

According to the mythographer [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]] (whose account is apparently taken from an older tragic source, probably Sophocles' ''Mysians''),<ref>Gantz, p. 430; Jebb, Headlam and Pearson, [https://books.google.com/books?id=enUmCztpbI0C&pg=PA70 Vol. 2, pp. 70&ndash;72].</ref> after Auge abandoned Telephus on Mount Parthenion<ref>As in [[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/4B*.html#33 4.33.9, 11].</ref> she fled to Mysia where, as in the ''Catalogue of Women'', she became the adopted daughter (not wife) of Teuthras.<ref>[[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''[[Fabulae]]'' 99.</ref> When Telephus goes to Mysia on the instruction of the oracle, Teuthras promises him his kingdom and his daughter Auge in marriage if he would defeat his enemy [[Idas]]. This Telephus did, with the help of [[Parthenopeus]], a childhood companion who had been found as a baby on Mount Parthenion at the same time as Telephus, and was raised together with him. Teuthras then gave Auge to Telephus, but Auge, still faithful to Heracles, attacked Telephus with a sword in their wedding chamber, but the gods intervened sending a serpent to separate them, causing Auge to drop her sword. Just as Telephus was about to kill Auge, she called out to Heracles for rescue and Telephus then recognized his mother.<ref>[[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''[[Fabulae]]'' 100. Compare with [[Claudius Aelianus|Aelian]], ''On Animals'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/aelian-characteristics_animals/1958/pb_LCL446.209.xml 3.47], which attributes this story of near-incest by Telephus to "the tragic dramatists and their predecessors, the inventors of fables".</ref>