#telesphoros

«Ὁ Αἰὼν παῖς ἐστι παίζων, πεττεύων· παιδὸς ἡ βασιληίη» · Τελεσφόρος διελαύνων τοὺς σκοτεινοὺς τοῦ κόσμου τόπους, καὶ ὡς ἀστὴρ ἀναλάμπων ἐκ τοῦ βάθους, ὁδηγεῖ «παρ' Ἠελίοιο πύλας καὶ δῆμον ὀνείρων».

mythology aesthetics

TELESPHOROS

Telesphor visits the dream of Aristides the Rhetor, under the guise of a child who prances around with the cheerfulness of his youth: he appeared ... dancing about the nape of my neck. Marinus, in the Life of Proclus, recounts how Telesphor appeared to the philosopher under the appearance of a child in every way youthful and pleasant to look at, a youth perfectly lovely to behold. And it is this loveable young lad that modern erudition has wanted to make into a sickly baby! In 1892, M. Julius Ziehen suggested seeing in Telesphor the spirit of healing dreams, and to consider his costume a sort of garment fit for the night.

Salomon Reinach, TÉLESPHORE

Finding any information on LIMC s.v Telesphoros 85 (= Hygieia 105*) so I can do my citations properly is driving me insane. Either the translation from the entry is shit (our professor is having us use google translate), or the entry itself doesn’t list it... Or its gone completely over my head. I can make a rough guess of the date but the location (the museum) is the bane of my existence. I can’t find it on the digital LIMC at all.

News from June 07, 2015.

Telesphoros/Telesphoron: “The Accomplisher,” “The Completing”

Pausanias mentions this Healing God in his discussion of Sikyon. He compares him to Euamerion of Titane and Akesios of Epidauros, and implies that they are one and the same.

A few copper coins from Mysia and Lydia have survived the ages, each with Telesphoros opposite Pallas or Herakles. He obviously experienced an era of prominence in those regions. A few statues of Him with Asklepios survive. Several terracotta figurines have survived, as have a few cameos. There is one surviving ivory tablet with his image.

Yet little enough survives to speak of his cult practices or any stories that might have been shared about him.

We know that Aristides called Him Pergamenos, and Pergamon is his home city as far as the Athenians were concerned. Yet there is no evidence of his cultus there until Hadrian’s reign (2nd c. CE).  Yet wherever Asklepios travelled, there is always a chance that Telesphoros followed in the Healer’s train.

There was a famous general who carried the same name who Diodoros credits with liberating a succession of Greek cities, but there seems to be no inter-relation between the two. We also know of a priest of Athena who was named Telesphoros.

In imagery the God Telesphoros wears a pointed hood/head covering and a mantle that rarely passes his knees, and is sometimes portrayed as short or childlike. He is youthful, with an open mouth and curly hair. He is usually facing the viewer, and on coins is usually standing upon a pedestal. Occasionally He carries a scroll or tablet or a bunch of grapes. Jung believed that Telesphoros shared much with the popular image of the gnome. There remains one image that may be of him which includes phallic imagery.

His mode of dress suggests that of those who were ill, who wore shawls during their convalescence.

He is associated almost strictly with the healing gods, Asklepios, Hygeia, and Apollon, being seen in imagery as a lesser deity in their services. We have no record of his parentage, but scholars speculate that he was one of the sons of Asklepios. That said, he also appears on one Cybele relief in Hasanoğlan in Turkey in the procession with Asklepios, Cybele, and either Kronos or Attis.

In spite of his status in relation to the others, Telesphoros had his own shrines and statues, and does appear independently in some regions. One inscription tells us that he brings the remedy to pain, and he receives the credit for saving the Athenians from a plague.  Scholars have sometimes described him as a deity of convalescence.

If Pausanias is correct that Telesphoros and Euamerion are the same that lends the God a certain Heroic cast.

Welker believes that Telesphoros is related to Initiation and the Mysteries at Pergamon, where the rites were said to purge the initiate of illness. Yet other scholars are less certain that this role makes sense for the evidence which has survived.

Rather the name itself suggests that this is the God who brings Asklepios’ blessing to perfection. He relieves pain, and medicine is something referred to as ‘the gift of Telesphoros.’ Proclus claims that the young god could heal that which seemed beyond all cure.

Jane Ellen Harrison posited that Asklepios is the old and Telesphoros is the New Year.

As a turn of phrase, the term telesphoros comes up in philosophical treatises as implying endurance.  The term is generally active, and yet also implies favor and grace from the divine which brings fulfillment or accomplishment.

For Jung who played fast and loose with the imagery of the Gods, he believed that Telesphoros was Phanes, the protogenoi of creation. He emphasized Telesphoros as a Kabeiroi, and made much of the one image of the Healer with a phallus.

 Sources:

Theoi.com

Aristotle. The Rhetoric, trans. Thomas Taylor, 1818. Cook, A.B. Zeus: A Study in Ancient Religion, Vol.3, Pt. 2, Cambridge, 2010. Harrison, Jane Ellen. Themis: A Study of the Social Origins of Greek Religion, Cambridge, 2010. Mather, Mathew. The Alchemical Mercurius: Esoteric Symbol of Jung’s Life and Works, Routledge, 2014. Segal, Charles. Tragedy and Civilization: An Interpretation of Sophocles, Univ. of Oklahoma, 1999. Perlman, Paula Jean, City and Sanctuary in Ancient Greece: The Theorodokia in the Peloponnese, Vendenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2000. Vermaseren, Maarten Jozef. Corpus Cultus Cybelae Attidiscque: Asia Minor I, Brill, 1977. Wroth, W. W., “Telesphoros,” in The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. III, Council of the Society, 1882. pg. 283-300

 Images:

Sheet of studies (Telesphoros, notes on spiritual alchemy). 2015