Telegonos

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In Greek mythology is Telegonus ( Greek  Τηλέγονος , Latin Telegonus ) one of the sons who Kirke along with Odysseus had. The name means "born far away", that is, "born far from Ithaca ".

Telegonos is not mentioned by Homer . Only the later added end of Hesiod's theogony lists him as a son of Odysseus and Kirke. According to Telegonia , when Kirke Telegonos was an adult he sent him to look for his father Odysseus, who had already returned to Ithaca at that time . A storm drove Telegonos to the island of Ithaca, which he believed to be Kerkyra . Driven by hunger, he robbed the fields. Odysseus and his eldest son Telemachus defended their country, with Telegonos unsuspecting killing his father with his lance. Telegonos received this weapon, at the tip of which the poisonous thorn of a stingray was attached, from his mother Kirke. He brought his father's body back to Kirke's island of Aiaia , taking Penelope , Odysseus' widow, and Telemachus with him. Kirke made her immortal and married Telemachos, while Telegonos took Penelope, the widow of Odysseus, as his wife. Penelope gave birth to Italus , who later married Electra , the daughter of King Latinus.

This story was told in Telegonie , an early Greek epic that has only survived in a summary. The epic is a continuation of the Odyssey and is said to have been written by Eugamon (or Eugammon) of Cyrene . Variants of the story can be found in later poets. Sophocles wrote the tragedy Odysseus Akanthoplex , which is possibly identical to Sophocles' play Niptra and is lost except for fragments. According to an attempt to reconstruct the plot, Odysseus learned in this play during his stay in Thesprotien through the oracle of Dodona that he was doomed to be killed by his son. He assumed that Telemachus was meant and therefore feared him. After his return home he was recognized washing his feet, but only revealed himself to his wife when he heard that Telemachus was not in Ithaca. He then wanted to drive an alleged stranger who had committed theft from Ithaca, but suffered fatal injuries from the tip of his spear, which was provided with a ray spike. As he died, he lamented that he had received a false prophecy until it became clear that the oracle had not been missing, since the adversary who brought him death was his son von Kirke, Telegonos. At the end of the drama Telegonus married Penelope and Kirke married Telemachos; So the same marriages took place as in Telegonia .

In Italian and Roman mythology , Telegonos is considered the founder of Tusculum , a city in southeast Rome , and sometimes the founder of Praeneste , the modern Palestrina. Ancient Roman poets regularly use phrases such as "walls of Telegonus" or "walls of the Circe" to refer to Tusculum.

Another Telegonus is believed to be the king of Egypt in Greek mythology , who married the nymph Io .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hesiod , Theogony 1011-1014.
  2. ↑ Libraries of Apollodor Epitome 7, 34ff .; Hyginus Mythographus , Fabulae 127.
  3. ↑ Ernst Wüst : Odysseus. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XVII, 2, Stuttgart 1937, Sp. 1990.
  4. ↑ Titus Livius 1:49.
  5. ^ Pseudo- Plutarch , Parallel. min. 41.