Telchines
Either a mythical race or group, possibly of web-footed or fish-tailed daemones, living on Rhodes, described variously. Rhea was said to have entrusted the infant Poseidon to their care; they were great artisans, having the ability to work metal, and were supposedly the makers of the sickle of Cronos and the trident of Poseidon, though the trident’s manufacture is usually attributed to the Cyclopes. They were also credited with the invention of sculpture, for which Hellenic Rhodes was famous. They were, however, also described as malevolent and destructive beings who interfered with the weather, thus earning the hostility of Apollo, who assumed the form of a wolf to destroy some of them, and of Zeus, who overwhelmed others with a flood.
Telegonus
Son of Odysseus by Circe. Searching for his father, he landed on Ithaca and began to plunder for food. When opposed by Odysseus and Telemachus, neither side recognized the other, and Telegonus killed his father with a spear tipped with the sting from a stingray. When all was revealed to him, he took Telemachus and Penelope back to Aeaea, where he married Penelope; Telemachus married Telegonus’s mother, Circe.
Telemachus
The son of Odysseus and Penelope. While still a baby his father, feigning madness, was tricked into revealing his sanity when Palamedes placed the infant in front of the plough that Odysseus was using to sow salt into his fields. Thus Odysseus went to the Trojan War, and Telemachus was raised by Penelope alone, Mentor being his teacher and adviser during this period.
Following the end of the Trojan War, and when his father had not returned, Telemachus went in search of him. He visited both Menelaus and Nestor before returning to Ithaca, where he went to the hut of Eumaeus. There he found and was reunited with Odysseus; he told how Penelope was being besieged by suitors vying for her hand. Together father and son planned their revenge. Telemachus returned to Penelope and persuaded her to hold an archery contest; whoever was able to bend the great bow of Eurytus would win her as the prize.
None had been able to do it until Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, managed the feat and shot Antinous, the leader of the unruly suitors. Telemachus and his father then killed all the other suitors, and so after a separation of 20 years Odysseus and Penelope were reunited.
A later tradition adds to this story, saying that Telegonus, Odysseus’s son by Circe, later came to Ithaca in search of his father. During a struggle Telegonus killed Odysseus, after which Telemachus and Penelope returned with him to Aeaea, where Tele-machus married Circe and Telegonus married Penelope.
Telephassa
Wife of Agenor, king of Phoenicia, and mother by him of Europa and Cadmos.
Telephus
The son of Heracles and Auge, the priestess-daughter of Aleus, king of Tegea. Exposed at birth by Auge’s father but found and raised by shepherds, Telephus upon reaching manhood questioned the Delphic Oracle about his parentage. The oracle told him to sail to King Teuthras of Teuthrania in Mysia. There he found Auge married to the king. He subsequently succeeded the king and was reputed to have married one of Priam’s 50 daughters, possibly Laodice.
When the Greek fleet, en route to Troy, landed at Mysia, Telephus at first repelled them until Dionysos caused him to stumble over a vine, whereupon Achilles wounded him, a wound that refused to heal. Consulting an oracle, Telephus was told that only the inflictor could cure the wound, so Telephus visited the Greeks, who had likewise been advised by an oracle that Troy could not be taken without the help of Telephus. At first at a loss as to how to cure Telephus, they finally realized that the inflictor of the wound was not Achilles but rather the spear he had used. By scraping some rust from the spear into the wound, they healed it. In return Telephus told the Greeks exactly how they might reach Troy.
Telepylos
The city of Lamus, king of the cannibalistic Laestrygones, where Odysseus lost all his ships but one, which he sailed to Aeaea, the island home of Circe.
Tellus (Mater)
The Roman goddess of the Earth, a fertility goddess whose Greek equivalent is Ge.
Tempe
A beautiful valley in Thessaly, between Mounts Olympus and Ossa, through which the River Peneus flows. Here Apollo pursued Daphne, the daughter of the river god Peneus; it was also the place where he sought purification after killing the Python.
Tenedos
Island within sight of Troy; the realm of Tenes, son of Apollo or Cycnus. The Greek fleet first landed here as it approached the start of the Trojan War. Philoctetes received his festering, stinking wound here as well. The envoys Menelaus, Odysseus, and Palamedes were probably dispatched from Tenedos before the start of the Trojan War to request the return of Helen, a request that was refused. Ten years later the Greeks returned to the island, leaving behind the Wooden Horse on the Trojan Plain to await the signal of Sinon to return and sack the city.
Tenes
Son of Apollo or of Cycnus, the king of Colonae in Troas. His stepmother falsely accused him to Cycnus when she failed to seduce him. Cycnus then threw Tenes, along with his sister, Hemithea, into the sea in a chest, which eventually washed up on the shore of the island of Leucophrys, where the inhabitants made Tenes their king. The island was thenceforth known as Tenedos. Cycnus, having discovered the truth, sailed to Tenedos and there reconciled with his son. Both father and son, however, were killed by Achilles when the Greek fleet landed on Tenedos shortly before the start of the Trojan War.
Teratius
Servant or companion of Tarchetius, the tyrannical king of Alba Longa. When twin boys were born to the servant girl of Tarchetius’s daughter following union with the apparition of a phallus that rose from the household hearth, Teratius was told to kill the infants, but instead he simply left them beside a river. There they were tended by a wolf and birds until found and raised by a cowherd. Grown to manhood, the boys returned to Alba Longa and killed Tarchetius.
Tereus
A son of Ares and king of Daulia. He helped Pandion, king of Athens, and was rewarded with the hand of Pandion’s daughter, Procne, in marriage. She bore him a son, Itys, but Tereus fell in love with Procne’s sister, Philomela. Hiding his wife among the slaves, he told Philomela that her sister was dead and seduced her. He then tore out Procne’s tongue to keep the secret safe, but she wove a message to her sister in a robe. Philomela then released Procne, who then avenged herself on Tereus by killing and cooking their son, Itys. When Tereus realized he had been eating his own son he chased the sisters with an axe, but the gods intervened and changed all three into birds. Procne became a swallow, Philomela a nightingale, and Tereus either a hoopoe or a hawk. Some sources, particularly later ones, reverse the sisters’ roles and transformations.
Terminus
The Roman god of boundaries whose milestones and boundary stones became occasional altars.
Terpsichore Greco-Roman One of the nine Muses, being that of choral song and dancing; often depicted wearing the long robe of a citharode and carrying a lyre and a plectrum. She was the mother of Linus, Hymenaeus, and the Sirens.
Tethys
A sea deity, one of the Titan daughters of Uranos and Ge; wife of her brother, Oceanos, by whom she became the mother of the Oceanides, including Zeus’s first wife, Metis, and Proteus. As the foster mother of Hera, she refused to allow Callisto—who had been Zeus’s concubine and was turned into the constellation Ursa Major—to ever enter her realm, the sea.
Astronomical: One of the satellites of the planet Saturn, lying fifth closest to the planet at an average distance of 295,000 kilometers (184,375miles), between the orbits of Encela-dus and Dione.
Teucer
1. The first king of the Troad (hence the reason the Trojans are called Teucri); the son of Scamander and the nymph Idea who was later succeeded by Dardanos, who some sources make his son but who is usually said to be the son of Zeus and Electra, one of the Pleiades.
2. The son of Telamon and Hesione. A skilled archer, he fought alongside his brother, Ajax the Greater, during the Trojan War, gaining recognition as the greatest archer to fight with the Greeks before the arrival of Philoctetes. When Ajax took his own life, Teucer upheld his brother’s right to burial. However, Telamon subsequently expelled Teucer from Salamis on suspicion of complicity in the death of Ajax. On the instructions of the Delphic Oracle, Teucer traveled to Cyprus, where he founded a new Salamis, there marrying a daughter of Cinyras.
Teucri
A name for the Trojans, after the first king of the Troad, Teucer, the son of Scamander and Idea.
Teuthras
King of Teuthrania in Mysia, husband of Auge (the mother of Telephus by Heracles and mother by Teuthras of Tecmessa). He was killed by Ajax the Greater, who took his daughter, Tecmessa, his successor being his stepson, Telephus.
Thalia
1. One of the nine Muses, being that of comedy and pastoral poetry; depicted wearing or carrying a comic mask and holding a shepherd’s staff or wearing a wreath of ivy. She was the mother of Corybantes. 2. One of the three Charites or Graces. See also: Charites; Graces; Muses, the
Thamyris
A mythical bard hailing from Thrace. He fell in love with the beautiful youth Hyacinthos, reputedly the first man to love another of his own sex. Having entered and won a singing contest at Delphi, he became extremely arrogant and challenged the Muses to a contest. They won and blinded him for his vanity. See also: Hyacinthos
Thanatos
"Death"; the brother of Hypnos (Sleep) and son of Night. He was equated by the Romans with Mars. Heracles was said to have wrestled Thanatos when he traveled to the Underworld to win back the dead Alcestis.
Thargelia
The annual festival of Apollo that was held in Athens.
Thasos
Island off the southern coast of Thrace that has remains of a Greek city containing sanctuaries to Dionysos, Heracles, Poseidon, and Pan as well as the city guardians. There is also a large altar to Hera and a temple dedicated to Athene, though only the foundations of the latter now survive. It was also the home of Theagenes and the site of a bronze statue erected in his honor, which fell on an enemy who nightly flogged the statue.
Theagenes
A great semilegendary athlete from Thasos who won the boxing competition at Olympia in 480 B.C., along with a great many other victories. When he died a bronze statue of him was erected. However, a rival came and flogged the statue every night until one night it fell on and killed the assailant. The dead man’s son prosecuted the statue for murder; found guilty, it was thrown into the sea.
Thasos subsequently became barren, so the Delphic Oracle was consulted. They were advised to "take back the exiles," but restoring a number of men made no effect. A second consultation elicited the response, "You leave great Theagenes unremembered." At about that time a fishing boat brought up the statue of Theagenes in its nets. Restored to its rightful place, where it was rededicated and offered divine sacrifices, the land of Thasos once more bore fruit.
Theano
The wife of Antenor who was, along with her husband and children, spared when the Greeks sacked Troy. They sailed to the western coast of the Adriatic Sea, where they were said to have founded Venice and Padua.
Thebe
The wife of Zethus who gave her name to the city of Thebes.
Thebes
In Greek, Thivai, an ancient city in Boeotia that is the subject of many classical legends. Founded sometime before the six century B.C., it was, from the late sixth century B.C., the bitter rival of Athens and, after the Pelopon-nesian War, the rival of Sparta for the hegemony of Greece. Razed to the ground in 335 B.C. but subsequently rebuilt, the city survived Roman times before it was destroyed as late as 1311 A.D.
Legend says that Thebes was founded by Cadmos, son of Agenor and Telephassa and the brother of Europa, who was carried off by Zeus. Unable to find his sister, Cadmos consulted the Delphic Oracle, who advised him to give up the futile search and instead follow a cow and build a town where the animal finally sank down out of fatigue. Cadmos followed the cow from Phocis to Boeotia, and where she finally rested he started to build the Cadmea.
Sacrificing to Athene, Cadmos sent some of his men to fetch water from a spring that was sacred to Ares, not knowing that it was guarded by a dragon, which killed most of his men. Cadmos killed the dragon and then, on the advice of Athene, sowed the dead animal’s teeth. The Sparti or "Sown Men" sprang up immediately, fully grown and fully armed, and began to fight each other until just five remained. These five—Echion, Udaeus, Chthonius, Hyperenor, and Pelorus—helped Cadmos finish the Cadmea and later became revered as the ancestors of Thebes.
Cadmos married Harmonia at a service attended by the Olympian deities. By her he became the father of Autonoe, Ino, Semele, Agave, Polydorus, and Illyrius. He reigned until old age, when he relinquished the throne to Pentheus, his grandson by Agave and Echion.
The fortifications of the city, below the site of the Cadmea, were built by Amphion and Zethus, who jointly ruled the city. Amphion married Niobe; Zethus married Thebe, who gave her name to the city.
Many other legends concern or involve the city of Thebes, including the legend of Oedipus and the expeditions of the Seven Against Thebes and the Epigoni.
Theia
One of the Titan daughters of Uranos and Ge, she was the mother of Helios, Eos, and Selene by Hyperion and of the Cercopes by Oceanos.
Themis
The personification of law, order, and justice; one of the Titan daughters of Uranos and Ge, she was the second wife of Zeus and by him became the mother of the Horae, the Moirae, Eunomia, Dike, Astraea, and Eirene, or Irene. Although a Titan, she was honored by the gods of Olympus for her wisdom and foresight.
She acted as the housekeeper to the gods and muse to Zeus, functioning also as midwife at the births of Apollo and Artemis. Until Apollo usurped her she held the position of oracle at Delphi, her most famous prophecy being that to Zeus: that any son born to Thetis would be greater than his father, a prophecy that quickly dissuaded Zeus from attempting to make Thetis his mistress. She also told Deucalion and Pyrrha how they might repop-ulate the earth after the Deluge sent by Zeus.
Themis was depicted as a stern woman bearing a pair of scales that were seen as weighing facts brought before her before permitting judgment to be passed. Her scales were passed to her daughter, Astraea, and were later placed in the sky as the constellation Libra.
Theogony
A verse narrative of the origins of the gods. The only surviving one is that by Hesiod, giving the canonical succession of Uranos— Cronos—Zeus. Many other theogonies existed in antiquity, ascribed to Orpheus and others. These accounts, which essentially treated cosmology in mythical terms, are often conflicting. Orphic theogonies became the basis of mystery cults and later religious beliefs. The only true theogony from classical times, however, is that of Hesiod.
Thersander
Son of Polyneices who followed the example of his father in bribing Eriphyle, this time with the robe of Harmonia, when Alcmaeon, the son of Amphiaraus, showed a decided disinterest in joining the expedition of the Epigoni against Thebes.
Thersites
An ugly, common, scurrilous, and misshapen Greek soldier at the Trojan War. He provided a good laugh for the Greek forces when he was beaten by Odysseus for complaining of Agamemnon’s seizure of Briseis. Later he derided Achilles while he mourned the death of the Amazon Queen Penthesilea. Achilles killed him with a single blow.
Theseus
The heroic son of Aegeus, king of Athens, and Aethra, daughter of King Pittheus of Troezen. Though Aethra was not Aegeus’s wife, she made an agreement with him to provide an heir when he had come to Troezen. Poseidon lay with Aethra on the same night she conceived Theseus, so some sources say that Theseus is in fact a son of Poseidon rather than of Aegeus. As Aegeus left Troezen to return to Athens he hid a sword and sandals beneath a large rock. He told Aethra that when their son, whom she was to raise in secret, had reached manhood she was to show him the tokens; if he could lift the rock and retrieve them, she was to send him on to Athens.
Naturally enough the young Theseus succeeded in retrieving the tokens, and rather than going by sea he left for Athens via the Isthmus of Corinth. This journey provided his first adventures, for during the course of the trip he encountered, and dispatched, several notorious bandits. The first was Periphetes at Epidaurus, who had the annoying habit of cracking travelers over the head with his club. Theseus dispatched him by his own preferred method of killing. Next he came across Sinis, who tied victims by their arms between two double-bent pines then released the trees, thus tearing them apart. Theseus did the same to him. Next he encountered the wild sow of Crommyum, which Theseus simply speared.
Continuing on his journey, Theseus next faced Sciron, who made passers-by wash his feet then kicked them over the cliff to their deaths. Theseus did likewise to Sciron. At Eleusis he met Cercyon, who wrestled travelers to their deaths, but he met his end when Theseus duly beat him. Finally he came across Sinis’s father, Polypemon (surname Procrustes), who invited victims to spend the night, stretching them or lopping their limbs as necessary to fit his bed. Theseus took care of him by fitting him to his own bed.
Having been purified of all these killings by some men he met at a shrine of Zeus Meilichius, Theseus finally made it to Athens, where he was greeted as a hero. However, Medea, who had become Aegeus’s consort and bore him the son Medus, recognized Theseus and plotted to get rid of him. At that time the Cretan Bull was terrorizing Marathon (the reason it became known as the Mara-thonian Bull), so Medea persuaded Aegeus that a hero as great as Theseus should be sent to dispatch it. Theseus successfully captured the great bull and brought it back to Athens, where he offered it to Athene. At the celebratory banquet Medea poisoned a drink and had Aegeus offer it to Theseus, but in the nick of time Aegeus saw the sword Theseus was carrying and, recognizing it as the token he had left under the rock all those years before, welcomed Theseus as his son. Medea fled, taking Medus with her.
However, the time was fast approaching when Athens was due to send the tribute of seven maidens and seven youths to Minos on Crete, where they would be fed to the Minotaur. Theseus immediately volunteered to be one of the 14, fully intending to kill the Minotaur and thus put an end to the tribute. He rigged a ship with black sails, promising to change them to white should he return victorious.
During the voyage to Crete, Minos and Theseus quarreled, each casting doubt on the other’s paternity. Minos called on his father, Zeus, to send thunder and lightning to prove his status. After this had been duly sent Minos flung his ring into the sea and challenged Theseus to fetch it back from the realm of his alleged father, Poseidon. Without hesitation Theseus dived in, was welcomed by Nereides, and was taken to the underwater palace of Amphitrite. There Thetis not only returned Minos’s ring but also gave him the crown she had received from Aphrodite as a wedding gift. Theseus then returned to the ship and gave Minos his ring.
Having arrived in Crete, Theseus was seen by Ariadne, one of Minos’s daughters. She fell immediately in love with the youth and was determined to help him. She first made Daedalus reveal to Theseus how the Cretan Labyrinth—where the Minotaur was housed—could be safely penetrated, then gave Theseus a spool of thread to unwind and thereby find his way out. Having cornered the Minotaur, Theseus wrestled it and tore off one of its horns, for the beast was vulnerable only to its own horns. With this horn Theseus stabbed the creature to death and then, following the thread he had unwound behind him, made his escape.
Quickly, Theseus and his companions escaped from Crete, taking Ariadne along with them. However, while she slept on the island of Naxos, or Dia, Theseus abandoned her and sailed off. There she was later found by Dionysos, who made her his bride. Theseus next stopped at Delos, where he instituted the festival of the Crane Dance around an altar consisting of twisting horns, the festival dance imitating the winding intricacies of the Cretan Labyrinth.
Unfortunately Theseus forgot to hoist the white sails as he had promised and so approached Athens with the black sails still in position. Aegeus, from his lookout on the Acropolis, saw the black sails. Thinking Theseus dead, he threw himself into the sea, which thereafter became known as the Aegean Sea.
Theseus was now proclaimed king of Athens and quickly made himself master over all Attica. He was later regarded, by fifth-century A.D. Athenians, as the founder of their democracy. He refounded the Isthmian Games and dedicated them to Poseidon. He then accompanied Heracles against the Amazons and he carried off their queen, Antiope, or Hippolyta, who bore him a son, Hippolytus. The Amazons tried to take their revenge by attacking Attica, but they were finally defeated by Theseus in the very heart of Athens. He then participated in the hunt for the Calydonian Boar and may even have been one of the Argonauts.
Theseus was with his Lapith friend, Peiri-thous, at his wedding to Hippodameia and joined in the famous fight between the Lapithae and the centaurs, when one of their drunken number tried to carry off the bride. Following the death of Hippodameia the two decided they would carry off a daughter of Zeus. They succeeded in abducting the young Helen from Sparta; she fell, by lot, to Theseus. However, as she was too young to marry, they left her in the village of Aphidnae with Theseus’s mother, Aethra. They next decided to carry off Persephone for Peirithous. Descending to the Underworld, they were invited to sit down. The chairs on which they sat, however, bound them fast, and there they stayed until Heracles came to the Underworld during his last labor, to fetch Cerberus, and managed to release Theseus. Peirithous was not so lucky and remained in the Underworld for all time.
Theseus now married Phaedra, another of Minos’s daughters, who bore him the sons Acamas and Demophoon. He and his family were, however, exiled from Athens for a year for killing the 50 sons of Pallas, the nephew of Aegeus who had tried to usurp his throne. They traveled to Troezen, where Phaedra fell in love with her stepson, Hippolytus. When the chaste youth rejected her advances she falsely accused him to Theseus of attempting to rape her. Theseus believed her and cursed his son, praying to his father, Poseidon, that Hippolytus should die that very day. As the youth fled in his chariot along the seashore, Poseidon sent a bull that frightened the horses and dragged Hippolytus to his death. Phaedra then hanged herself.
Upon returning to Athens, Theseus found that the hearts of the people had been turned against him by the Dioscuri, who had come during his absence and rescued Helen, taking Theseus’s mother, Aethra, captive to act as Helen’s slave. They had placed Menetheus on the throne, and as king he was proving immensely popular. Finding no place for himself in Athens, Theseus traveled to Scyros, where he died after accidentally falling off a cliff or being pushed by King Lycomedes, who was jealous of Theseus’s fame. He nevertheless returned in spirit, at least according to a later tradition, to help the Athenians at the Battle of Marathon. Though Menetheus had been made king in Theseus’s absence, his sons were afterwards restored to the throne.
Thesmaphoria
Annual festival in honor of Demeter that celebrates the foundation of laws, held in Athens and other parts of Greece.
