TheTelegony (Ancient Greek:Τηλεγόνεια or Τηλεγονία,romanized: Tēlegóneia, Tēlegonía)[1] is alostepic poem ofAncient Greek literature. It is named afterTelegonus, the son ofOdysseus byCirce, whose name ("born far away") is indicative of his birth onAeaea, far from Odysseus' home ofIthaca. It was part of theEpic Cycle of poems that recounted the myths of theTrojan War as well as the events that led up to and followed it. The story of theTelegony comes chronologically after that of theOdyssey and is the final episode in the Epic Cycle. The poem was sometimes attributed inantiquity toCinaethon of Sparta (8th century BC), but in one source it is said to have been stolen fromMusaeus byEugammon of Cyrene (6th century BC)[2] (seeCyclic poets). Its contents are known from surviving summaries by later authors, most notablyEutychius Proclus.[1] The poem comprised two books of verse indactylic hexameter.
InAntiquity, theTelegony may have also been known as theThesprotis (Greek: Θεσπρωτίς), which is referred to once byPausanias in the 2nd century AD;[3][4] alternatively, theThesprotis may have been a name for the first book of theTelegony, which is set inThesprotia. Such naming of isolated episodes within a larger epic was common practice for the ancient readers of theHomeric epics.[5]
A third possibility is that there was a wholly separate epic called theThesprotis; and yet a fourth possibility is that theTelegony andThesprotis were two separate poems that were at some stage compiled into a singleTelegony.
The date of composition of theTelegony is uncertain.Cyrene, the native city of purported author Eugammon, was founded in 631 BC; but the narrative details may have existed prior to Eugammon's version, perhaps even in theoral tradition. There is a distinct possibility that the author of theOdyssey knew at least some version of theTelegony story (the Thesprotian episode and Telegonus' unusual spear in theTelegony may have been based onTiresias' prophecy inOdyssey book 11; but it is also possible that theOdyssey poet used the Telegonus story as a basis for Tiresias' prophecy). The poem is thought to have been composed in the 7th[6] or more commonly in the 6th century BC, with the year 570 BC proposed as thelatest possible date.[7]
Only two lines of the poem's original text survive. For its storyline, we are dependent primarily on a summary of the Telegonus myth in theChrestomathy of one "Proclus".[8]
TheTelegony comprises two distinct episodes:Odysseus' voyage toThesprotia, and the story ofTelegonus. Probably each of the two books of theTelegony related one of these episodes. The poem opens after the events depicted in theOdyssey. According to Proclus' summary, theTelegony opens with the burial ofPenelope's suitors.[9] Odysseus makes sacrifices to theNymphs.[10] He makes a voyage toElis, where he visits an otherwise unknown figure Polyxenos, who gives him a bowl depicting the story ofTrophonius. Odysseus returns to Ithaca and then travels toThesprotia, presumably to make the sacrifices commanded byTiresias inOdyssey 11. There, he weds the Thesprotian queenCallidice, who bears him a son,Polypoetes.[11] Odysseus fights for the Thesprotians in a war against the neighbouringBrygoi; the gods participate in the war,Ares routing Odysseus and the Thesprotians, countered byAthena, ever Odysseus' patron;Apollo intervenes between the battling gods. Later, after the death of Callidice, Odysseus makes their son Polypoetes king of Thesprotia and returns to Ithaca.
Meanwhile, it transpires thatCirce, with whom Odysseus had an affair for a year in theOdyssey (books 10–12), has borne his son,Telegonus (Τηλέγονος, "born far away"). He grows up living with Circe on the island ofAeaea. On the goddessAthena's advice, Circe tells him the name of his father. In a detail inserted into the account in the Epitome of theBibliotheke, she gives him a supernatural spear to defend himself, which is tipped with the sting of a poisonousstingray and was made by the god Hephaestus.[12] A storm forces Telegonus onto Ithaca without his realizing where he is. As is customary for Homeric heroes in unfriendly land, he commits piracy, and unwittingly begins stealing Odysseus' cattle. Odysseus comes to defend his property. During the ensuing fight, Telegonus kills Odysseus with his unusual spear, thereby partially fulfilling Tiresias' prophecy inOdyssey 11 that death would come to Odysseus "out of the sea" (i.e., the poison of the ray).[13] (In another respect, however, Odysseus' death contradicts the prophecy of Tiresias, who predicted (Od. 11.135) that a "gentle death" would come to Odysseus "in sleek old age.") As Odysseus lies dying,[14] he and Telegonus recognize one another, and Telegonus laments his mistake. Telegonus brings his father's corpse,Penelope, and Odysseus' other sonTelemachus, back toAeaea, where Odysseus is buried and Circe makes the others immortal. Telegonus marries Penelope, and Telemachus marries Circe.[15]
According to a later Hellenistic tradition, Circe brought Odysseus back to life after his death, and he arranged for Telemachus to marry his half-sisterCassiphone, Odysseus and Circe's daughter. But after a quarrell with Circe, Telemachus slew his mother-in-law, and in rage Cassiphone killed him, avenging thus the murder of her mother.[16]
The 1st-century AD RomanfabulistHyginus differs from Proclus in adding a few details. First, it is both Odysseus and Telemachus who engage Telegonus in combat. Hyginus then adds that Odysseus had received anoracle to beware his son.[17] Finally, Hyginus attributes to Telegonus a son namedItalus, the eponymous founder of Italy; and to Telemachus he attributes a son namedLatinus, whose name was given to theLatin language.
Numerous Latin poets[18] make Telegonus the founder ofPraeneste orTusculum, importantLatin towns.
InDante'sDivine Comedy, in theeighthbolgia of theInferno,[19] Dante and his guide meet Ulisse among the false counsellors, and receive a variant accounting of Ulisse's death "from the sea", in a five-month journey beyond thePillars of Hercules, that has ended in a whirlpool drowning as the mariners approach the mountain ofPurgatory. No Greek source was available to Dante, only the Latin recensions ofDictys and Dares.
Among the manyoperas based on the myths of Odysseus and those around him, there is but one[20] based on Telegonus, Carlo Grua'sTelegono (premiered in Düsseldorf, 1697) of which an aria "Dia le mosse a miei contenti" may be noted. Divine intervention, a death and multiple weddings at the end all assorted easily with the conventions ofopera seria.