Telephus
A son of Heracles and Auge, the daughter of king Aleus of Tegea. He was reared by a hind, and educated by king Corythus in Arcadia. When Telephus had grown up, he consulted the Delphic oracle as to who his mother was. He was ordered to go to king Teuthras in Mysia. ( Description of Greece by Pausanias Book 1) He there found his mother, was kindly received, and married Argiope, the daughter of Teuthras, whom he succeeded on the throne of Mysia. (Apollodorus III)
According to a different tradition in Hyginus (Fab. ]00), king Teuthras being hard pressed by Idas, who wished to deprive him of his kingdom, solicited the aid of Telephus, who, accompanied by Parthenopaeus, had come into his kingdom, and promised him his throne and the hand of his daughter Auge, if he would deliver him from his enemy. Telephus did so, and thus unwittingly married his own mother Auge.
She, however, without knowing her son, would hear nothing of the marriage, and resolved to murder her intended husband. A dragon sent by the gods prevented this crime; and as she confessed her intention to Telephus, he resolved to kill her but as she invoked the aid of Heracles, the relation between them was discovered, and Telephus led his mother back to his own country.
According to the common tradition, however, Telephus was king of Mysia at the time when the Greeks went to the Trojan war, and when they invaded Mysia, he repelled them, being of all the sons of Heracles the most like his father. (Description of Greece by Pausanias)
Dionysus, however, assisted the Greeks, and caused Telephus to stumble over a vine, in consequence of which he was wounded by Achilles. (Eustathius on Homer; Tzetzes on Lycophron)
Now it was discovered that Telephus himself was a Greek, and he was requested to join in the war against Priam. But he declined it on the plea that his wife Astyoche was a daughter of Priam. (Diet. Cret. ii. 5.)
Other accounts state that Astyoche was a sister of Priam (Eustathius, Scholiast on Homer); Hyginus calls his wife Laodice, and a daughter of Priam; and some, again, call his wife Hiera, by whom he is said to have been the father of Tarchon and Tyrrhenus. (Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron) The wound which Telephus had received from Achilles could not be cured and when he consulted the oracle he received the answer, that only he could cure him who had wounded him. Telephus, therefore, in a deplorable condition, went to seek Agamemnon; and on the advice of Clytaemnestra he carried off Orestes from his cradle, threatening to kill him unless his father would assist him in getting his wound cured. As the Greeks had received an oracle that without the aid of Telephus they could not reach Troy, a reconciliation was easily brought about, and Achilles cured Telephus by means of the rust of the spear by which the wound had been inflicted; Telephus, in return, pointed out to the Greeks the road which they had to take. ( Apollodorus II)
Telephus was worshipped as a hero at Pergamus (Pausanias v.), and on mount Parthenion, in Arcadia (Pausanias viii. Apollodorus II), and on the temple of Athena Alea, in Tegea, he was represented fighting with Achilles. (Pausanias viii)
From Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and MythologyFrom The Fall of Troy, by Quintus Smyrnaeus. Book IV
He sang once more the imperishable deeds
Of princely Achilles. All the mighty throng
Acclaimed him with delight. From that beginning
With fitly chosen words did he extol
The glorious hero; how he voyaged and smote
Twelve cities; how he marched o'er leagues on leagues
Of land, and spoiled eleven; how he slew
Telephus and Eetion's might renowned
In Thebe; how his spear laid Cyenus low,
Poseidon's son, and godlike Polydorus,
Troilus the goodly, princely Asteropaeus;
And how he dyed with blood the river-streams
Of Xanthus, and with countless corpses choked
His murmuring flow, when from the limbs he tore
Lycaon's life beside the sounding river;
And how he smote down Hector; how he slew
Penthesileia, and the godlike son
[3.17] But not knowing the course to steer for Troy, they put in to Mysia and ravaged it, supposing it to be Troy. Now Telephus son of Hercules, was king of the Mysians, and seeing the country pillaged, he armed the Mysians, chased the Greeks in a crowd to the ships, and killed many, among them Thersander, son of Polynices, who had made a stand. But when Achilles rushed at him, Telephus did not abide the onset and was pursued, and in the pursuit he was entangled in a vine-branch and wounded with a spear in the thigh.
From The Odyssey of Homer. Book XI
Now oft as we took counsel around Troy town, he was ever the first to speak, and no word missed the mark; the godlike Nestor and I alone surpassed him. But whensoever we Achaeans did battle on the plain of Troy, he never tarried behind in the throng or the press of men, but ran out far before us all, yielding to none in that might of his. And many men he slew in warfare dread; but I could not tell of all or name their names, even all the host he slew in succouring the Argives; but, ah, how he smote with the sword that son of Telephus, the hero Eurypylus, and many Ceteians {*} of his company were slain around him, by reason of a woman's bribe. He truly was the comeliest man that ever I saw, next to goodly Memnon. And again when we, the best of the Argives, were about to go down into the horse which Epeus wrought, and the charge of all was laid on me, both to open the door of our good ambush and to shut the same, then did the other princes and counsellors of the Danaans wipe away the tears, and the limbs of each one trembled beneath him, but never once did I see thy son's fair face wax pale, nor did he wipe the tears from his cheeks: but he besought me often to let him go forth from the horse, and kept handling his sword-hilt, and his heavy bronze-shod spear, and he was set on mischief against the Trojans. But after we had sacked the steep city of Priam, he embarked unscathed with his share of the spoil, and with a noble prize; he was not smitten with the sharp spear, and got no wound in close fight: and many such chances there be in war, for Ares rageth confusedly."
From Description of Greece by Pausanias. Book 1
(1.4.6) They have spoils from the Gauls, and a painting which portrays their deed against them. The land they dwell in was, they say, in ancient times sacred to the Cabeiri, and they claim that they are themselves Arcadians, being of those who crossed into Asia with Telephus. Of the wars that they have waged no account has been published to the world, except that they have accomplished three most notable achievements; the subjection of the coast region of Asia, the expulsion of the Gauls therefrom, and the exploit of Telephus against the followers of Agamemnon, at a time when the Greeks after missing Troy, were plundering the Meian plain thinking it Trojan territory. Now I will return from my digression.
