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
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, 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.
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)
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.
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, 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 ...