Editing Telephus (section)

==King in Mysia==
===Summary===
====Attacked by the Greeks====
[[File:Achilles fighting against Memnon Leiden Rijksmuseum voor Oudheden.jpg|thumb|left|[[Achilles]]; ancient Greek polychromatic [[Ancient Greek vase painting|pottery painting]] (dating to {{circa}} 300 BC)]]
Telephus was made the heir of Teuthras' kingdom of Teuthrania in Mysia, and eventually succeeded Teuthras as its king.<ref>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]); [[Strabo]],  [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Strab.+12.8.4 12.8.4], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Strab.+13.1.69 13.1.69]; [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+3.9.1 3.9.1].</ref> During Telephus' reign, in a prelude to the [[Trojan War]], the Greeks attacked Telephus' city mistaking it for [[Troy]].<ref>For a discussion of the expedition in Mysia and the wounding and healing of Telephus, see Hard, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA446 446]&ndash;[https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA447 447]; Gantz, pp. 576&ndash;580. Principal texts include: Proclus, [https://chs.harvard.edu/primary-source/epic-cycle-sb/ Summary of the ''Cypria''] = ''Cypria'' argument 7 West, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/greek_epic_fragments_trojan_cycle_cypria/2003/pb_LCL497.73.xml pp. 72, 73]; [[Archilochus]], [http://www.papyrology.ox.ac.uk/POxy/monster/demo/Page1.html POxy LXIX 4708]; 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]); [[Pindar]], ''Isthmean'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0162:book=I.:poem=5&highlight=telephus 5.38&ndash;40], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0162:book=I.:poem=8&highlight=telephus 8.49&ndash;50], ''Olympian'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0162:book=O.:poem=9&highlight=telephus 9.72]; [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''[[Fabulae]]'' 101; [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+Epit.+E.3.17 E.3.17]; [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+1.4.6 1.4.6], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+9.5.14 9.5.14]. Although Archilochus, Proclus, Apollodorus, and Pausanias all agree that the attack was a mistake, [[Philostratus]], ''On Heroes'' 23.5&ndash;9, has a character doubt that the Greeks came to Mysia "in ignorance".</ref> Telephus routed the Greeks, killing [[Thersander]], son of [[Polynices]], and forcing the Greeks back to their ships.

But Telephus was tripped by a vine and wounded in the thigh by [[Achilles]]' spear. According to [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], and a [[scholiast]] on [[Homer]]'s ''[[Iliad]]'', Telephus was tripped while fleeing from Achilles' attack.<ref>Gantz, p. 579; [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+Epit.+E.3.17 E.3.17]; A scholia on ''[[Iliad]]'' 1.52 (cited by Gantz). According to [[Dictys Cretensis]], [http://www.theoi.com/Text/DictysCretensis2.html 2.3], Telephus is "doggedly pursuing" Odysseus when Achilles wounds him. In [[Philostratus]], ''On Heroes'', 23.24&ndash;25, a character says that, according to the dead Trojan War hero [[Protesilaos]] (who communicates from beyond the grave), Telephus was wounded by Achilles when Telephus had lost his shield while fighting [[Protesilaos]], and so was "unprotected".</ref> The scholiast says that [[Dionysus]] caused the vine to trip Telephus because Telephus had failed to properly honor him.<ref>Platter, [https://books.google.com/books?id=PXnLrRQnufgC&pg=PA148 p. 148]; Gantz, p. 579; Frazer's note to [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+Epit.+E.3.17 E.3.17].</ref> Dionysus' involvement is attested by a late sixth-century or early fifth-century BC [[red-figure]] [[krater|calyx krater]].<ref>Gantz, pp. 579&ndash;580; Heres and Strauss, p, 866 ''[[Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae|LIMC]]'' [http://ark.dasch.swiss/ark:/72163/080e-741f47cea62f4-b 8728 (Telephos 48)]; Beazley Archive [http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/DC1084D4-6D5C-4FD5-BB6E-6A6970E60A4C 200122]; AVI [https://www.avi.unibas.ch/DB/searchform.html?ID=7656 7395].</ref> [[Philostratus]] and [[Dictys Cretensis]] give detailed elaborations of all these events.<ref>[[Philostratus]], ''On Heroes'', 23.2&ndash;30, [[Dictys Cretensis]], [http://www.theoi.com/Text/DictysCretensis2.html 2.1&ndash;6].</ref>

====Wound and healing====
The Mysians were victorious, and the Greeks returned home, but Telephus' wound would not heal. Telephus consulted the oracle of Apollo which gave the famous reply ''ὁ τρώσας ἰάσεται'' ("your assailant will heal you"). So Telephus went to [[Argos, Peloponnese|Argos]] to seek a cure, and was healed there by Achilles.<ref>Stewart, p. 114; Proclus, [https://chs.harvard.edu/primary-source/epic-cycle-sb/ Summary of the ''Cypria''] = ''Cypria'' argument 7 West, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/greek_epic_fragments_trojan_cycle_cypria/2003/pb_LCL497.73.xml pp. 72, 73]; [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''[[Fabulae]]''  101; [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+Epit.+E.3.20 E.3.20]; [[Dictys Cretensis]], [http://www.theoi.com/Text/DictysCretensis2.html 2.10]; [[Quintus Smyrnaeus]], [https://archive.org/stream/falloftroy00quin#page/182/mode/2up 4.172&ndash;177]; [https://archive.org/stream/falloftroy00quin#page/356/mode/2up 8.150&ndash;153]. For ''ὁ τρώσας ἰάσεται'', see Liddell & Scott, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=i)a/omai s.v. ἰάομαι]; [[Suetonius]], ''Divus Claudius'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:abo:phi,1348,015:43 43].</ref> In return Telephus agreed to guide the Greeks to Troy.<ref>But compare with [[Homer]], ''[[Iliad]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134%3Abook%3D1%3Acard%3D68 1.71&ndash;72] where [[Calchas]] guides, the Greeks.</ref> Apollodorus and Hyginus tell us that rust scraped from Achilles' spear was the healing agent.<ref>See also [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]], ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/pliny_elder-natural_history/1938/pb_LCL393.169.xml 25.42], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/pliny_elder-natural_history/1938/pb_LCL394.237.xml 34.152], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/pliny_elder-natural_history/1938/pb_LCL394.315.xml 35.71].</ref> The healing of Telephus was a frequent theme in [[Augustan literature (ancient Rome)|Augustan age]] and later Roman poetry.<ref>See for example: [[Horace]], ''[[Epodes (Horace)|Epodes]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/horace-epodes/2004/pb_LCL033.313.xml 17.8&ndash;10]; [[Propertius]], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/propertius-elegies/1990/pb_LCL018.107.xml 2.1.63&ndash;64]; [[Ovid]], ''[[Epistulae ex Ponto]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-ex_ponto/1924/pb_LCL151.325.xml 2.2.26], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-metamorphoses/1916/pb_LCL043.189.xml 12.111&ndash;112], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-metamorphoses/1916/pb_LCL043.241.xml 13.170&ndash;172], ''[[Tristia]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-tristia/1924/pb_LCL151.9.xml 1.1.99&ndash;100], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-tristia/1924/pb_LCL151.57.xml 2.19&ndash;20], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-tristia/1924/pb_LCL151.215.xml 5.2.15&ndash;16]; [[Pentadius (poet)|Pentadius]], ''De Fortuna'' [https://archive.org/stream/minorlatinpoetsw00duffuoft#page/546/mode/2up 29-30]; [[Seneca the Younger|Seneca]], ''[[Troades (Seneca)|Troades]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/tragedieswitheng01seneuoft#page/140 215&ndash;218]. Compare with [[William Shakespeare|Shakespear]]'s ''[[Henry VI, Part 2]]'' 5.1.100&ndash;101: "Whose smile and frown, like to Achilles' spear/Is able with the change to kill and cure".</ref> The ''Pharmacologia'' of [[John Ayrton Paris]] identifies [[verdigris]], which has medicinal properties, as the healing rust of the spear. <ref>{{Cite book |last=Paris |first=John Ayrton |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62958 |title=Pharmacologia |publisher=W. E. Dean |year=1831 |location=New York |pages=The rust of the spear of Telephus, mentioned in Homer as a cure for the wounds which that weapon inflicted, was probably Verdegris, and led to the discovery of its use as a surgical application}}</ref>

===Sources===
There is no mention of the battle in Mysia in the ''[[Iliad]]'' or the ''[[Odyssey]]''.<ref>Gantz, p. 576.</ref> However, the ''[[Cypria]]'' (late seventh century BC?), one of the poems of the [[Epic Cycle]], told the story. According to Proclus' summary of the ''Cypria'', the Greeks mistook Mysia for Troy, Telephus killed Thersander, but was wounded by Achilles. Telephus, guided by an oracle, came to Argos, where Achilles cured him in return for Telephus guiding the Greeks to Troy.<ref>Gantz, p. 576; Proclus, [https://chs.harvard.edu/primary-source/epic-cycle-sb/ Summary of the ''Cypria''] = ''Cypria'' argument 7 West, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/greek_epic_fragments_trojan_cycle_cypria/2003/pb_LCL497.73.xml pp. 72, 73]. The ''[[Little Iliad]]'', another poem in the Epic Cycle, also perhaps referred to the battle, see ''[[Little Iliad]]'', fr. 4 West, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/greek_epic_fragments_trojan_cycle_little_iliad/2003/pb_LCL497.127.xml pp. 126, 127] = Scholiast on ''[[Iliad]]'' 19.326, which says that Achilles after leaving Telephus, landed at [[Scyros]].</ref> [[Pindar]] (c. 522&ndash;443 BC), knew the story of Telephus' wounding by Achilles, presumably after being tripped by a vine: "Achilles, who stained the vine-covered plain of Mysia, spattering it with the dark blood of Telephus".<ref>Gantz, p. 578; Frazer's note to [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+Epit.+E.3.17 E.3.17]; [[Pindar]], ''Isthmean'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0162:book=I.:poem=8&highlight=telephus 8.49&ndash;50]. See also ''Isthmean'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0162:book=I.:poem=5 5.38&ndash;40], and ''Olympian'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0162:book=O.:poem=9&highlight=telephus 9.69&ndash;79].</ref>

[[File:Telephus with bandaged thigh Wellcome V0016507.jpg|thumb|Telephus seated on altar, with bandaged thigh, holding a spear and the infant Orestes. Detail from an Athenian red-figure [[pelike]], c. 450 BC, [[British Museum]] E 382.]]
Each of the three [[tragedian]]s, [[Aeschylus]], [[Sophocles]], and [[Euripides]] wrote plays, all now lost, telling Telephus' story.<ref>Gantz, p. 578.</ref> Euripides' play ''Telephus'' (438 BC), dramatized Telephus' trip to Argos seeking a cure for his festering wound. In Euripides' account, Telephus disguised himself as a beggar dressed in rags. After his disguise was revealed, Telephus seized the Greek king [[Agamemnon]]'s infant son [[Orestes]] to use as a hostage. But it was discovered that Telephus was a Greek by birth, and Telephus agreed to guide the Greek army to Troy, in return for Achilles' healing his wound.<ref>Gantz, p. 578; Collard and Cropp 2008b, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.185.xml pp. 185&ndash;191]; Webster, pp. 43&ndash;48, 302. An important source for the plot of Euripides' ''Telephus'' is [[Aristophanes]]' parodies of the play (see below).</ref> Orestes being held hostage by Telephus was already being illustrated on [[red-figure pottery]] possibly as early as the second quarter of the fifth century,<ref>Gantz, p. 579; e.g. [[British Museum]] [http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=399124&partId=1&museumno=1836,0224.28&page=1 E382] (''[[Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae|LIMC]]'' [http://ark.dasch.swiss/ark:/72163/080e-741f5dc448592-c 8734 (Telephos 52)]; Beazley archive [http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/5F8346E9-92BB-49B5-A59A-CD2999139EBB 207332]). A perhaps earlier (c. 470 BC) representation of the scene on an Attic [[kylix]] cup (Heres and Strauss, p. 866, ''[[Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae|LIMC]]'' [http://ark.dasch.swiss/ark:/72163/080e-73f8612be100f-9 5985 (Telephos 51)]; Beazley Archive [http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/3A042980-5B0B-4A98-BA58-F13B3CC0A3B5 205037]; AVI [https://www.avi.unibas.ch/DB/searchform.html?ID=2821 2674]; [[Museum of Fine Arts, Boston|MFA]] [https://www.mfa.org/collections/object/drinking-cup-kylix-with-telephos-at-the-palace-of-agamemnon-153686 98.931]) shows Telephus sitting alone on an altar with a bandaged thigh, which has been interpreted as evidence that the Orestes hostage taking did not occur in the ''Cypria'', see  Jebb, Headlam and Pearson, [https://books.google.com/books?id=R1qaCxoc90UC&pg=PA96 Vol. 1 p. 96].</ref> and the scene perhaps also appeared previously in Aeschylus' presentation of the story.<ref>Sommerstein, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/aeschylus-attributed_fragments/2009/pb_LCL505.243.xml pp. 242&ndash;243]; Gantz, pp. 578&ndash;579.</ref>

An [[Etruscan civilization|Etruscan]] mirror, from the second half of the fourth century BC ([[Berlin]], [[Antikensammlung Berlin|Antikensammlung]] Fr. 35)<ref>Heres, p. 97; Heres and Strauss, p. 868, ''[[Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae|LIMC]]'' [http://ark.dasch.swiss/ark:/72163/080e-7421c0f914915-e 8903 (Telephos 85)].</ref> and a [[bas-relief]] (c. first century BC) from [[Herculaneum]] ([[Naples]], [[National Archaeological Museum, Naples|National Archaeological Museum]] 6591)<ref>Heres and Strauss, p. 866, ''[[Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae|LIMC]]'' [http://ark.dasch.swiss/ark:/72163/080e-741f1f8c5237d-5 8717 (Telephos 44)] [= Telephos 88]; Deiss, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZVgQB0jDIOcC&pg=PA58 p. 58].</ref> are interpreted as depicting Achilles healing Telephus with rust from his spear. [[Pliny the Elder]] (first-century AD) describes paintings (undated) which depicted Achilles scraping rust from his spear into the wound of Telephus.<ref>Gantz, p. 579; Frazer's note to Apollodorus, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+Epit.+E.3.20 E.3.20]; [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]], ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/pliny_elder-natural_history/1938/pb_LCL393.169.xml 25.42], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/pliny_elder-natural_history/1938/pb_LCL394.237.xml 34.152], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/pliny_elder-natural_history/1938/pb_LCL394.315.xml 35.71].</ref> One such painting was perhaps attributed by tradition to the fifth-century BC Athenian painter [[Parrhasius (painter)|Parrhasius]].<ref>Heres, pp. 96&ndash;97; Heres and Strauss, p. 868 (Telephos 84).</ref> The first literary references to the use of rust scraped from Achilles' spear as the healing agent for Telephus' wound are found in the first-century BC Roman poets [[Propertius]] and [[Ovid]].<ref>Gantz, p. 579; Frazer's note to Apollodorus, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+Epit.+E.3.20 E.3.20];  [[Propertius]], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/propertius-elegies/1990/pb_LCL018.107.xml 2.1.63&ndash;64]; [[Ovid]], ''[[Epistulae ex Ponto]]''  [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-ex_ponto/1924/pb_LCL151.325.xml 2.2.26]. Gantz  thinks it likely that "this folktale-laden motif goes back to the ''Kypria''."</ref>

Apollodorus gives a version of the Mysian expedition, probably drawn directly from the ''Cypria''.<ref>Gantz, p. 579; [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+Epit.+E.3.17 E.3.17&ndash;20], along with Frazer's notes.</ref> Apollodorus' account agrees with Proclus' summary, but gives more of the story. Telephus killed many Greeks in addition to Thersander, but was tripped by a vine while fleeing from Achilles. Apollo told Telephus that his wound "would be cured when the one who wounded him should turn physician". So Telephus went to Argos "clad in rags" (as in Euripides' ''Telephus'') and, promising to guide the Greeks to Troy, begged Achilles to cure him, which Achilles did by using rust scraped from his spear. Telephus then showed the Greeks the way to Troy. The A scholia on ''[[Iliad]]'' 1.59, agrees with Proclus' and Apollodorus' accounts, but attributes the vine-tripping to Dionysus, angry because of unpaid honors, and adds that in addition to leading the Greeks to Troy, Telephus also agreed not to aid the Trojans in the coming war.<ref>Gantz, p. 579.</ref>

Hyginus' account seems to be based, in part at least, on one or more of the tragedians' lost plays.<ref>Gantz, p. 579.</ref> Hyginus tells of the wound inflicted by Achilles' spear, the wound's festering, and Telephus' consulting of the Apollo's oracle, with the answer that "the only thing that could cure him was the very same spear by which he had been wounded."<ref>[[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''[[Fabulae]]'' 101, translation  by Smith and Stephen M. Trzaskoma, pp. 131&ndash;132.</ref> So Telephus sought out Agamemnon, and on the advice of Agamemnon's wife Clytemnestra, Telephus snatched their infant son Orestes from his cradle, and threatened to kill the child unless his wound was healed. As the Greeks had also received an oracle saying that they would not be able to take Troy without Telephus' aid, they asked Achilles to heal Telephus. When Achilles protested he did not know anything about medicine, Odysseus pointed out that Apollo did not mean Achilles, but that the spear itself would be the cure. So they scraped rust from the spear into the wound, and Telephus was cured. The Greeks then asked Telephus to join them in sacking Troy, but Telephus refused because his wife [[Laodice (daughter of Priam)|Laodice]] was the daughter of [[Priam]], the king of Troy.<ref>Compare with [[Dictys Cretensis]] 2.5 (Frazer, p. 40), which says that he refused because his wife Astyoche was a daughter of Priam.</ref> However, Telephus did promise to be the Greeks' guide to Troy.