Notes

References

Aleus sources

Alcidamas

Alcidamas, Odysseus 14-16 (Garagin and Woodruff, p. 286 [in folder Telephus])

[14] Now, Ales, king of Tegea, consulted the oracle at Delphi and was told that if a son was born to his daughter, this son was destined to kill Aleus' sons. When he heard this, Aleus quickly went home and made his daughter a priestess of Athena, telling her he would put her to death if she ever slept with a man. As fortune (tuchē) would have it, Heracles came by during his campaign against Augeas, king of Elis, [15] and Aleus entertained him in the precinct of Athena. Heracles saw the girl in the temple, and, in a drunken state, he slept with her. When Aleus saw she was pregnant, he sent for this man's father Nauplius, since he knew he was a boatman and a clever one. When Nauplius arrived, Aleus gave him his daughter to cast into the sea. [16] He took her away, and when they reached Mt. Parthenius, she gave birth to Telephus. Nauplius ignored the orders Aleus had given him and took the girl and her child to Mysia, where he sold them to king Teuthras, who was childless. Teuthras made Auge his wife, and giving the child the name Telephus, he adopted him and later gave him to Priam to be educated at Troy.

Alcidamas, Odysseus 14-16 (Sutton, p. 13)

... Heracles arrived, marching towards Elis in order to attack Augeas ...

Alcidamas, Odysseus 14-16 (Muir)

... Heracles arrived on his expedition against Augeas going towards Elis ...

Gantz I, p. 428

Sophocles, "almost certainly one of the sources" for Alcidamas

Apollodorus

Apollodorus, 1.8.2

... Now the men who assembled to hunt the boar were these: ... Ancaeus and Cepheus, sons of Lycurgus, from Arcadia; ... And when they were assembled, Oeneus entertained them for nine days; but on the tenth, when Cepheus and Ancaeus and some others disdained to go hunting with a woman, Meleager compelled them to follow the chase with her, for he desired to have a child also by Atalanta, though he had to wife Cleopatra, daughter of Idas and Marpessa. When they surrounded the boar, Hyleus and Ancaeus were killed by the brute and Peleus struck down Eurytion undesignedly with a javelin.

Apollodorus, 2.2.1

... And Acrisius gained the mastery and drove Proetus from Argos; and Proetus went to Lycia to the court of Iobates or, as some say, of Amphianax, and married his daughter, whom Homer calls Antia,3 but the tragic poets call her Stheneboea. ...

Apollodorus, 2.7.4

Passing by Tegea, Hercules debauched Auge, not knowing her to be a daughter of Aleus.1 And she brought forth her babe secretly and deposited it in the precinct of Athena. But the country being wasted by a pestilence, Aleus entered the precinct and on investigation discovered his daughter's motherhood. So he exposed the babe on Mount Parthenius, and by the providence of the gods it was preserved: for a doe that had just cast her fawn gave it suck, and shepherds took up the babe and called it Telephus.2 And her father gave Auge to Nauplius, son of Poseidon, to sell far away in a foreign land; and Nauplius gave her to Teuthras, the prince of Teuthrania, who made her his wife.

Apollodorus, 3.13.2

Thence [Peleus] went with Eurytion to hunt the Calydonian boar, but in throwing a dart at the hog he involuntarily struck and killed Eurytion."

Apollodorus, 3.8.2

... But Eumelus and some others say that Lycaon had also a daughter Callisto;2 though Hesiod says she was one of the nymphs, Asius that she was a daughter of Nycteus, and Pherecydes that she was a daughter of Ceteus.3 She was a companion of Artemis in the chase, wore the same garb, and swore to her to remain a maid. Now Zeus loved her and, having assumed the likeness, as some say, of Artemis, or, as others say, of Apollo, he shared her bed against her will, and wishing to escape the notice of Hera, he turned her into a bear. But Hera persuaded Artemis to shoot her down as a wild beast. Some say, however, that Artemis shot her down because she did not keep hermaidenhood. When Callisto perished, Zeus snatched the babe, named it Arcas, and gave it to Maia to bring up in Arcadia; and Callisto he turned into a star and called it the Bear..

Apollodorus, 3.9.1

Arcas had two sons, Elatus and Aphidas, by Leanira, daughter of Amyclas, or by Meganira, daughter of Croco, or, according to Eumelus, by a nymph Chrysopelia.1 These divided the land between them, but Elatus had all the power, and he begat Stymphalus and Pereus by Laodice, daughter of Cinyras, and Aphidas had a son Aleus and a daughter Stheneboea, who was married to Proetus. And Aleus had a daughter Auge and two sons, Cepheus and Lycurgus, by Neaera, daughter of Pereus. Auge was seduced by Hercules2 and hid her babe in the precinct of Athena, whose priesthood she held. But the land remaining barren, and the oracles declaring that there was impiety in the precinct of Athena, she was detected and delivered by her father to Nauplius to be put to death, and from him Teuthras, prince of Mysia, received and married her. But the babe, being exposed on Mount Parthenius, was suckled by a doe and hence called Telephus. Bred by the neatheards of Corythus, he went to Delphi in quest of his parents, and on information received from the god he repaired to Mysia and became an adopted son of Teuthras, on whose death he succeeded to the princedom."

Apollodorus, 3.9.2

Lycurgus had sons, Ancaeus, Epochus, Amphidamas, and Iasus,3 by Cleophyle or Eurynome. And Amphidamas had a son Melanion and a daughter Antimache, whom Eurystheus married.

Apollonius Rhodius

Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 1.161–171

Moreover from Arcadia came Amphidamas and Cepheus, who inhabited Tegea and the allotment of Apheidas, two sons of Al[e]us; and Ancaeus followed them as the third, whom his father Lycurgus sent the brother older than both. But he was left in the city to care for Aleus now growing old. while he gave his son to join his brothers. An[c]aeus went clad in the skin of a Maenalian bear, and wielding in his right hand a huge two edged battleaxe. For his armour his grandsire had hidden in the house's innermost recess, to see if he might by some means still stay his departure.

Diodorus Siculus

Diodorus Siculus, 4.33.7

From this campaign Heracles returned into Arcadia, and as he stopped at the home of Aleos the king he lay secretly with his daughter Augê, brought her with child, and went back to Stymphalus.

Diodorus Siculus, 4.33.8

Aleos was ignorant of what had taken place, but when the bulk of the child in the womb betrayed the violation of his daughter he inquired who had violated her. And when Augê disclosed that it was Heracles who had done violence to her, he would not believe what she had said, but gave her into the hands of Nauplius his friend with orders to drown her in the sea.

Diodorus Siculus, 4.33.9

But as Augê was being led off to Nauplia and was near Mount Parthenium, she felt herself overcome by the birth-pains and withdrew into a near-by thicket as if to perform a certain necessary act; here she gave birth to a male child, and hiding the babe in some bushes she left it there. After doing this Augê went back to Nauplius, and when she had arrived at the harbour of Nauplia in Argolis she was saved from death in an unexpected manner."

Diodorus Siculus, 4.33.10

Nauplius, that is, decided not to drown her, as he had been ordered, but to make a gift of her to some Carians who were setting out for Asia; and these men took Augê to Asia and gave her to Teuthras the king of Mysia.

Diodorus Siculus, 4.33.11

As for the babe that had been left on Parthenium by Augê, certain herdsmen belonging to Corythus the king came upon it s it was getting its food from the teat of a hind and brought it as a gift to their master. Corythus received the child gladly, raised him as if he were his own son, and named him Telephus after the hind (elaphos) which had suckled it. After Telephus had come to manhood, being seized with the desire to learn who his mother was, he went to Delphi and received the reply to sail to Mysia to Teuthras the king."

Diodorus Siculus, 4.33.12

Here he discovered his mother, and when it was known who his father was he received the heartiest welcome. And since Teuthras had no male children he joined his daughter Argiopê in marriage to Telephus and named him his successor to the kingdom.

Diodorus Siculus, 4.68.1

Now that we have examined these matters we shall endeavour to set forth the facts concerning Salmoneus and Tyro and their descendants as far as Nestor, who took part in the campaign against Troy. Salmoneus was a son of Aeolus, who was the son of Hellen, who was the son of Deucalion, and settling out from Aeolis with a number of Aeolians he founded a city in Eleia on the banks of the river Alpheius and called it Salmonia after his own name. And marrying Alcidicê, the daughter of Aleus, he begat by her a daughter, her who was given the name Tyro, a maiden of surpassing beauty.

Herodotus

Herodotus, 1.34.2

He had two sons, one of whom was ruined, for he was mute, but the other, whose name was Atys, was by far the best in every way of all of his peers. The dream showed this Atys to Croesus, how he would lose him struck and killed by a spear of iron.

Herodotus, 1.34.3

So Croesus, after he awoke and considered, being frightened by the dream, brought in a wife for his son, and although Atys was accustomed to command the Lydian armies, Croesus now would not send him out on any such enterprise, while he took the javelins and spears and all such things that men use for war from the men's apartments and piled them in his store room,1 lest one should fall on his son from where it hung.

Herodotus, 1.36

About this same time a great monster of a boar appeared on the Mysian Olympus, who would come off that mountain and ravage the fields of the Mysians. The Mysians had gone up against him often; but they never did him any harm but were hurt by him themselves. At last they sent messengers to Croesus, with this message: “O King, a great monster of a boar has appeared in the land, who is destroying our fields; for all our attempts, we cannot kill him; so now we ask you to send your son and chosen young men and dogs with us, so that we may drive him out of the country.” Such was their request, but Croesus remembered the prophecy of his dream and answered them thus: “Do not mention my son again: I will not send him with you. He is newly married, and that is his present concern. But I will send chosen Lydians, and all the huntsmen, and I will tell those who go to be as eager as possible to help you to drive the beast out of the country."

Herodotus, 1.39.2

... You say that the dream told you that I should be killed by a spear of iron? But has a boar hands? Has it that iron spear which you dread? Had the dream said I should be killed by a tusk or some other thing proper to a boar, you would be right in acting as you act; but no, it was to be by a spear. Therefore, since it is not against men that we are to fight, let me go."

Herodotus, 1.43.2–3

... then the guest called Adrastus, the man who had been cleansed of the deed of blood, missed the boar with his spear and hit the son of Croesus. So Atys was struck by the spear and fulfilled the prophecy of the dream.

Hesiod (Pseudo) (6th century BC)

Hesiod (Pseudo), Catalogue of Women fragment 165 (Merkelbach–West numbering) from the Oxyrhynchus Papyri XI 1359 Fragment 1 (Most, pp. 184–187, Grenfell–Hunt, pp. 52–55)

Most, pp. 184–187:

] has greatly pleased the immortals." Thus he spoke; but the other] shuddered and sweated, hearing the speech of the immortals] who had revealed themselves clearly before him; receiving the maiden] in his halls he raised and reared her up well, and he honored her equally with his daughters. She bore] Telephus, Arcas' descendant, king of the Mysians. mingling] in the desire of Heracles' force. When] he marched [to get] illustrious Laomedon's horses. the ] best ones that were raised in the Asian land, ] slew the tribe of the great-spirited [Dardanians ] and drove them out from that whole country. Then Telephus] fled from the Achaeans with their bronze tunics ] on black ships ....

Grenfell–Hunt, pp. 54–55:

... if he delayed or feared to hear the word of the immortal gods who then appeared plainly to him. And he received and bred her up and tended her well in his halls , making her equal in honour with his daughters. And she was the mother of Telephus, of the stock of Areas, king of the Mysians, after being mated in love with mighty Heracles, who went after the horses of proud Laomedon, the swiftest of foot bred in the land of Asia, and destroyed the race of the high souled Amazons in battle and drove them from all that land. Now Telephus put to flight the warriors of the brazen-coated Achaeans and made them embark on their black ships. But when he had laid many low on mother earth, his death-dealing might was stricken ...

Evelyn-White, p. 607:

if indeed he (Teuthras) delayed, and if he feared to obey the word of the immortals who then appeared plainly to them. But her (Auge) he received and brought up well, and cherished in the palace, honouring her even as his own daughters. And Auge bare Telephus of the stock of Areas, king of the Mysians, being joined in love with the mighty Heracles when he was journeying in quest of the horses of proud Laomedon -- horses the fleetest of foot that the Asian land nourished, -- and destroyed in battle the tribe of the dauntless Amazons and drove them forth from all that land. But Telephus routed the spearmen of the bronze-clad Achaeans and made them embark upon their black ships. Yet when he had brought down many to the ground which nourishes men, his own might and deadliness were brought low . . .

(See also Stewart, p. 110)

Hyginus

Hyginus, Fabulae 14

ARGONAUTS ASSSEMBLED ... Amphidamas and Cepheus, sons of Aleus and Cleobule, from Arcadia. Ancaeus, son of Lycurgus; others say grandson, from Tegea.

Hyginus, Fabulae 57

... But Proetus, hearing this, wrote a letter about it, and sent him to Iobates, Stheneboea’s father.

Hyginus, Fabulae 99

Auge, daughter of Aleus, ravished by Hercules, when her time was near, gave birth to a child on Mount Parthenius, and there exposed him. At the same time Atalanta, daughter of Iasius, exposed a son by Meleager. A doe, however, sucked the child of Hercules. Shepherds found these boys and took them away and reared them, giving the name Telephus to the son of Hercules because a doe had suckled him, and to Atalanta’s child the name Parthenopaeus, because she had exposed him on Mount Parthenius [pretending to be virgin]. Auge, however, fearing her father, fled to Moesia to King Teuthras, who took her as a daughter since he was without children.

Hyginus, Fabulae 100

Idas, son of Aphareus, wished to rob Teuthras, king of Moesia, of his kingdom. When Telephus, Hercules’ son, with Parthenopaeus his friend, had come there seeking his mother in accordance with the oracle, Teuthras promised he would give him his kingdom and his daughter Auge in marriage if he would protect him from his enemy. Telephus did not disregard the proposal of the king, and with Parthenopaeus’ help overcame Idas in one battle. The king fulfilled his promise, and gave him his kingdom and Auge as wife, unaware of the relationship. Since she [faithful to Hercules] wished no mortal to violate her body, she intended to kill Telephus, not realizing he was her son. And so when they had entered the wedding-chamber, Auge drew a sword to slay Telephus. Then by the will of the gods a serpent of huge size is said to have glided between them, and at the sight Auge dropped the sword and revealed her attempt to Telephus. Telephus, when he heard this, not realizing she was his mother, was about to kill her, but she called for help on Hercules her ravisher, and by that means Telephus recognized his mother, and took her back to her own country.'

Hyginus, Fabulae 155

SONS OF JOVE ... Arcas by Callisto, daughter of Lycaon.

Hyginus, Fabulae 173

THOSE WHO HUNTED THE CALYDONIAN BOAR ... Ancaeus, son of Lycurgus

Hyginus, Fabulae 252

THOSE SUCKLED BY ANIMALS Telephus, son of Hercules and Auge, by a deer.

Ovid

Ovid, Heroides 9.47

Is this too little for me to endure? You add to it your stranger loves, and whoever will may be by you a mother. I will say nothing of Auge betrayed in the vales of Parthenius

Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.315

What heroes shall immortal song proclaim? ... Ancaeus of Arcadia, ...

Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.391–402

Behold! Ancaeus wielding his war-axe,

and rushing madly to his fate, exclaimed,

“Witness it! See the weapons of a man

excel a woman's! Ho, make way for my

achievement! Let Diana shield the brute!

Despite her utmost effort my right hand

shall slaughter him!” So mighty in his boast

he puffed himself; and, lifting with both hands

his double-edged axe, he stood erect,

on tiptoe fiercely bold. The savage boar

caught him, and ripped his tushes through his groin,

a spot where death is sure.—Ancaeus fell;

and his torn entrails and his crimson blood

stained the fair verdure of the spot with death.

Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.519

Yet with a mighty will, disdaining pain

he grieves his bloodless and ignoble death.

He calls Ancaeus happy for the wounds

that caused his death.

Pausanias

Pausanias, 8.4.1

After the death of Nyctimus, Arcas the son of Callisto came to the throne. He introduced the cultivation of crops, which he learned from Triptolemus, and taught men to make bread, to weave clothes, and other things besides, having learned the art of spinning from Adristas. After this king the land was called Arcadia instead of Pelasgia and its inhabitants Arcadians instead of Pelasgians.

Pausanias, 8.4.2

This nymph they call Erato, and by her they say that Arcas had Azan, Apheidas and Elatus."

Pausanias, 8.4.3

When his sons grew up, Arcas divided the land between them into three parts, and one district was named Azania after Azan; from Azania, it is said, settled the colonists who dwell about the cave in Phrygia called Steunos and the river Pencalas. To Apheidas fell Tegea and the land adjoining, and for this reason poets too call Tegea “the lot of Apheidas.

Pausanias, 8.4.4

It is said that Azan had a son Cleitor, Apheidas a son Aleus, and that Elatus had five sons, Aepytus, Pereus, Cyllen, Ischys, and Stymphalus.

Pausanias, 8.4.5

On the death of Axan, the son of Arcas, athletic contests were held for the first time; horse-races were certainly held, but I cannot speak positively about other contests. Now Cleitor the son of Azan dwelt in Lycosura, and was the most powerful of the kings, founding Cleitor, which he named after himself; Aleus held his father's portion.

Pausanias, 8.4.6

Of the sons of Elatus, Cyllen gave his name to Mount Cyllene, and Stymphalus gave his to the spring and to the city Stymphalus near the spring. The story of the death of Ischys, the son of Elatus, I have already told in my history of Argolis.1 Pereus, they say, had no male child, but only a daughter, Neaera. She married Autolycus, who lived on Mount Parnassus, and was said to be a son of Hermes, although his real father was Baedalion."

Pausanias, 8.4.7

Cleitor, the son of Azan, had no children, and the sovereignty of the Arcadians devolved upon Aepytus, the son of Elatus."

Pausanias, 8.4.8

After Aepytus Aleus came to the throne. For Agamedes and Gortys, the sons of Stymphalus, were three generations removed from Arcas, and Aleus, the son of Apheidas, two generations. Aleus built the old sanctuary in Tegea of Athena Alea, and made Tegea the capital of his kingdom. Gortys the son of Stymphalus founded the city Gortys on a river which is also called after him. The sons of Aleus were Lycurgus, Amphidamas and Cepheus; he also had a daughter Auge."

Pausanias, 8.4.9

Hecataeus says that this Auge used to have intercourse with Heracles when he came to Tegea. At last it was discovered that she had borne a child to Heracles, and Aleus, putting her with her infant son in a chest, sent them out to sea. She came to Teuthras, lord of the plain of the Caicus, who fell in love with her and married her. The tomb of Auge still exists at Pergamus above the Calcus; it is a mound of earth surrounded by a basement of stone and surmounted by a figure of a naked woman in bronze.

Pausanias, 8.4.10

After the death of Aleus Lycurgus his son got the kingdom as being the eldest; he is notorious for killing, by treachery and riot in fair fight, a warrior called Areithous. Of his two sons, Ancaeus and Epochus, the latter fell ill and died, while the former joined the expedition of Jason to Colchis; afterwards, while hunting down with Meleager the Calydonian boar, he was killed by the brute.

Pausanias, 8.23.1

After Stymphalus comes Alea, which too belongs to the Argive federation, and its citizens point to Aleus, the son of Apheidas, as their founder.

Pausanias, 8.45.4

The ancient sanctuary of Athena Alea was made for the Tegeans by Aleus.

Pausanias, 8.45.6

On the front gable is the hunting of the Calydonian boar. The boar stands right in the center. On one side are Atalanta, Meleager, Theseus, Telamon, Peleus, Polydeuces, Iolaus, the partner in most of the labours of Heracles, and also the sons of Thestius, the brothers of Althaea, Prothous and Cometes.

Pausanias, 8.45.7

On the other side of the boar is Epochus supporting Ancaeus who is now wounded and has dropped his axe; by his side is Castor, with Amphiaraus, the son of Oicles, next to whom is Hippothous, the son of Cercyon, son of Agamedes, son of Stymphalus. The last figure is Peirithous. On the gable at the back is a representation of Telephus fighting Achilles on the plain of the Caicus.

Pausanias, 8.47.2

There have been dedicated a sacred couch of Athena, a portrait painting of Auge, and the shield of Marpessa, surnamed Choera, a woman of Tegea;"

Pausanias, 8.47.4

To the north of the temple is a fountain, and at this fountain they say that Auge was outraged by Heracles, therein differing from the account of Auge in Hecataeus.

Pausanias, 8.48.7

The Tegeans surname Eileithyia, a temple of whom, with art image, they have in their market-place, Auge on her knees, saying that Aleus handed over his daughter to Nauplius with the order to take and drown her in the sea. As she was being carried along, they say, she fell on her knees and so gave birth to her son, at the place where is the sanctuary of Eileithyia. This story is different from another, that Auge was brought to bed without her father's knowing it, and that Telephus was exposed on Mount Parthenius, the abandoned child being suckled by a deer. This account is equally current among the people of Tegea.

Pausanias, 8.54.6

At this point begins Mount Parthenius. On it is shown a sacred enclosure of Telephus, where it is said that he was exposed when a child and was suckled by a deer.

Quintus Smyrnaeus

Quintus Smyrnaeus, 6.152–153

Telephus, whom to aweless Hercules Auge the bright-haired bare in secret love.

Quintus Smyrnaeus, 6.154–156

That babe, a suckling craving for the breast, a swift hind fostered, giving him the teat as to her own fawn in all love; for Zeus so willed it, in whose eyes it was not meet that Hercules' child should perish wretchedly.

Sophocles

Sophocles, Aleadae fragment 89 (Lloyd-Jones, Sophocles Fragments p. 40–41)

And a horned deer came down from the high hills ... lifting its nostrils ... and the tines of its horns it went down safely ...

Strabo (64/63 BC – ca. AD 24)

Strabo, 12.8.2

... Teuthrania, situated between these two countries, where Teuthras lived and where Telephus was reared

Strabo, 12.8.4

Telephus might be thought to have come from Arcadia with his mother; and having become related to Teuthras, to whom he was a welcome guest, by the marriage of his mother to that ruler, was regarded as his son and also succeeded to the rulership of the Mysians.

Strabo, 13.1.69

Between Elaea, Pitane, Atarneus, and Pergamum lies Teuthrania, which is at no greater distance than seventy stadia from any of them and is this side the Caïcus River; and the story told is that Teuthras was king of the Cilicians and Mysians. Euripides¹ says that Auge, with her child Telephus, was put by Aleus, her father, into a chest and submerged in the sea when he had detected her ruin by Heracles, but that by the providence of Athena the chest was carried across the sea and cast ashore at the mouth of the Caïcus, and that Teuthras rescued the prisoners, and treated the mother as his wife and the child as his own son. Now this is the myth, but there must have been some other issue of fortune through which the daughter of the Arcadian consorted with the king of the Mysians and her son succeeded to his kingdom. It is believed, at any rate, that both Teuthras and Telephus reigned as kings over the country round Teuthrania and the Caïcus, though Homer goes only so far as to mention the story thus:“But what a man was the son of Telephus, the hero Eurypylus, whom he slew with the bronze; and round him were slain many comrades, Ceteians, on account of a woman's gifts.³

1 Eur. Fr. 696 (Nauck)

3 Hom. Od. 11.521

4 On the variant myths of Auge and Telephus see Eustathius Hom. Od. 11.521; also Leaf's note and references (p. 340).