Telemachus
- the son of Ulysses and Penelope, Hyg. Fab. 127; Ov. H. 1, 98; 1, 107; Hor. Ep. 1, 7, 40; Cat. 61, 229.
(Τηλέμαχος), the son of Odysseus and Penelope (Hom. Od. 1.216). He was still an infant at the time when his father went to Troy, and in his absence of nearly twenty years he grew up to manhood. After the gods in council had determined that Odysseus should return home from the island of Ogygia, Athena, assuming the appearance of Mentes, king of the Taphians, went to Ithaca, and advised Telemachus to eject the troublesome suitors of his mother from his house, and to go to Pylos and Sparta, to gather information concerning his father. Telemachus followed the advice, but the suitors refused to quit his house; and Athena, in the form of Mentes, accompanied Telemachus to Pylos. There they were hospitably received by Nestor, who also sent his own son to conduct Telemachus to Sparta. Menelaus again kindly received him, and communicated to him the prophecy of Proteus concerning Odysseus. (Hom. Od. i.--iv.) From Sparta Telemachus returned home; and on his arrival there, he found his father, with the swineherd Eumaeus. But as Athena had metamorphosed him into a beggar, Telemachus did not recognise his father until the latter disclosed to him who he was. Father and son now agreed to punish the suitors ; and when they were slain or dispersed, Telemachus accompanied his father to the aged Laertes. (Hom. Od. xv.--xxiv.; comp. Odysseus.) In the Post-Homeric traditions, we read that Palamedes, when endeavouring to persuade Odysseus to join the Greeks against Troy, and the latter feigned idiotcy, placed the infant Telemachus before the plough with which Odysseus was ploughing. (Hygin. Fab. 95 ; Serv. ad Aen. 2.81; Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 384 ; Aelian, Ael. VH 13.12.) According to some accounts, Telemachus became the father of Perseptolis either by Polycaste, the daughter of Nestor, or by Nausicaa, the daughter of Alcinous. (Eustath. ad Hom. p. 1796; Dict. Cret. 6.6.) Others relate that he was induced by Athena to marry Circe, and became by her the father of Latinus (Hygin. Fab. 127 ; comp. Telegonus), or that he married Cassiphone, a daughter of Circe, but in a quarrel with his mother-in-law he slew her, for which in his turn he was killed by Cassiphone. (Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 808.) He is also said to have had a daughter called Roma, who married Aeneas. (Serv. ad Aen. 1.273.) One account states that Odysseus, in consequence of a prophecy that his son was dangerous to him, sent him away from Ithaca. Servius (Serv. ad Aen. 10.167) makes Telemachus the founder of the town of Clusium in Etruria. [L.S]
an Asiatic monk and martyr, who is justly renowned for the act of daring self-devotion, by which he caused the gladiatorial combats at Rome to be abolished, and obtained for himself the honours of cantonization. In the year A.D. 404, in the midst of the spectacles of the amphitheatre, Telemachus rushed into the arena, and tried to separate the gladiators. The spectators, in the first moment of exasperation, stoned him to death, but the emperor Honorius proclaimed him a martyr, and soon afterwards abolished the gladiatorial combats, a measure which Constantine had in vain attempted, and which Honorius had long hopelessly desired to effect. (Theodoret. H. E. 5.26). Some doubt has been thrown upon the story, on account of the absence from the Theodosian Code of any edict of Honorius prohibiting such combats; but there was already such an edict by Constantine in existence, and no evidence can be produced to show that there were any gladiatorial fights after this period, although we know that the combats of wild beasts continued till the fall of the Western Empire. (Schröckh, Christliche Kirchengeschichte, vol. vii. p. 254, or 238, 2d ed.; Gibbon, 100.30, vol. v. p. 199, ed. Milman, with Milman's Note.) [P.S]
(Τηλέμαχος). The son of Odysseus and Penelopé. He was still an infant when the Trojan War began, and when his father had been absent from home nearly twenty years, Telemachus went to Pylos and Sparta to gather information concerning him. He was hospitably received by Nestor , who sent his own son to conduct Telemachus to Sparta. Menelaüs also received him kindly, and communicated to him the prophecy of Proteus concerning Odysseus. From Sparta Telemachus returned home; and on his arrival there he found his father, whom he assisted in slaying the suitors. (See Odysseus.) According to some accounts, Telemachus became the father of Perseptolis either by Polycasté, the daughter of Nestor , or by Nausicaa, the daughter of Alcinoüs (Eustath. ad Hom. p. 1796; Dict. Cret. vi. 6). Others relate that he was induced by Athené to marry Circé, and became by her the father of Latinus (see Circe); or that he married Cassiphoné, a daughter of Circé, but in a quarrel with his mother-in-law slew her, for which he was in his turn killed by Cassiphoné (Tzetz. ad Lyc. 808). The story of Telemachus was taken as a basis for a famous romance by the great French Archbishop Fénelon, entitled Télémaque, which Louis XIV. regarded as a satire on his court, but which was long popular in France as a school-book.
- Olympic victor: Paus. 6.13.11
- Apollod. E.3.5
- talks with Nestor: Paus. 10.25.2, Hdt. 2.116
- returns from Pylos: Paus. 9.41.4
- Odysseus reveals himself to: Apollod. E.7.29
- helps Odysseus to shoot the suitors: Apollod. E.7.32