Telchines
Encyclopedia
In Greek mythology
, the Telchines (Greek
: Τελχῖνες Telkhines) were the original inhabitants of the island of Rhodes
, and were known in Crete
and Cyprus
.
Their parents were either Pontus
and Gaia
, or Tartarus
and Nemesis
, or else they were born from the blood of castrated Ouranos along with the Erinyes
. In another story there were nine Telchines, children of Thalassa
and Pontus
; they had flippers instead of hands and dogs' heads and were known as fish children.
They were regarded as excellent metallurgists: various accounts state that they were skilled metal workers in brass and iron, and made a trident for Poseidon and a sickle for Cronus
, both ceremonial weapons. By some accounts, their children were the goddesses Ialysos (Ἰαλυσός), Kamiros (Κάμειρος) and Lindos
(Λίνδος). The Telchines were entrusted by Rhea
with the upbringing of Poseidon, which they accomplished with the aid of Capheira (Καφείρα), a daughter of Oceanus
. Another version says that Rhea accompanied them to Crete from Rhodes, where nine of the Telchines, known as the Curetes
, were selected to bring up Zeus
.
The Telchines were associated and sometimes confused with the Cyclopes
, Dactyls
and Curetes
.
The gods (Zeus
, Poseidon
or Apollo
) eventually killed them because they began to use magic for malignant purposes; particularly, they produced a mixture of Stygian
water and sulfur, which killed animals and plants (according to Nonnus
, they did so as a revenge for being driven out of Rhodes by the Heliadae
). Accounts vary on how exactly they were destroyed: by flood, or Zeus's thunderbolt, or Poseidon's trident, or else Apollo assumed the shape of a wolf to kill them. They apparently lost one of the titanomachias, the battles between the gods and the Titans.
. In the classical records of the post-catastrophe period, the Telchines tend to play an important part which link them to myths involving Atlantis
. This race of artificers, artists and magicians was connected with the sea at every stage in their history. They were believed to bring about hailstorms, snow, and rain at will, to assume any shape they pleased, and produced a substance poisonous to living things. Their habits have been variously given on most of the islands of the Eastern Mediterranean. It is this ability to cast metal that would make them appear magical to early societies, and may have been a real, but advanced race of people.
Known female Telchines were Makelo, Dexithea (one of Damon's daughters) and probably Lysagora (the attesting text is severely damaged). Ovid
in his Ibis
mentions that Makelo, like the other Telchines, was killed with a thunderbolt; according to Callimachus
and Nonnus
, however, Makelo was the only one to be spared. According to Bacchylides
, the survivor is Dexithea. Bacchylides also mentions that Dexithea later had a son Euxanthios by Minos
. This Euxanthios is also known from Pindar
's works.
, the Telchines appear as Telkines and are powerful enemy sorcerers with grey skin and glowing eyes that act as bosses. Although many Telchines are referenced in the game, only Megalesios, Aktaios and Ormenos are ever encountered (and fought against) by the player.
The three Telchines are assaulting three different locations. Magalesios is attacking Greece, where he destroys the conduit connecting humanity and the gods. Aktaios attacks Egypt to find information about the Sickle
of Cronus
. Ormenos finds the sickle in the Orient, and uses it to free Typhon
.
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
, the Telchines (Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
: Τελχῖνες Telkhines) were the original inhabitants of the island of Rhodes
Rhodes
Rhodes is an island in Greece, located in the eastern Aegean Sea. It is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of both land area and population, with a population of 117,007, and also the island group's historical capital. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within...
, and were known in Crete
Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
and Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
.
Their parents were either Pontus
Pontus (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Pontus or Pontos was an ancient, pre-Olympian sea-god, one of the protogenoi, the "first-born". Pontus was the son of Gaia and according to the Greek poet Hesiod brought forth without coupling...
and Gaia
Gaia (mythology)
Gaia was the primordial Earth-goddess in ancient Greek religion. Gaia was the great mother of all: the heavenly gods and Titans were descended from her union with Uranus , the sea-gods from her union with Pontus , the Giants from her mating with Tartarus and mortal creatures were sprung or born...
, or Tartarus
Tartarus
In classic mythology, below Uranus , Gaia , and Pontus is Tartarus, or Tartaros . It is a deep, gloomy place, a pit, or an abyss used as a dungeon of torment and suffering that resides beneath the underworld. In the Gorgias, Plato In classic mythology, below Uranus (sky), Gaia (earth), and Pontus...
and Nemesis
Nemesis (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Nemesis , also called Rhamnousia/Rhamnusia at her sanctuary at Rhamnous, north of Marathon, was the spirit of divine retribution against those who succumb to hubris . The Greeks personified vengeful fate as a remorseless goddess: the goddess of revenge...
, or else they were born from the blood of castrated Ouranos along with the Erinyes
Erinyes
In Greek mythology the Erinyes from Greek ἐρίνειν " pursue, persecute"--sometimes referred to as "infernal goddesses" -- were female chthonic deities of vengeance. A formulaic oath in the Iliad invokes them as "those who beneath the earth punish whosoever has sworn a false oath"...
. In another story there were nine Telchines, children of Thalassa
Thalassa
Thalassa may refer to:* Thalassa , a primordial Greek sea goddess* Thalassa , a moon of the planet Neptune* Thalassa, a fictional planet in Arthur C...
and Pontus
Pontus (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Pontus or Pontos was an ancient, pre-Olympian sea-god, one of the protogenoi, the "first-born". Pontus was the son of Gaia and according to the Greek poet Hesiod brought forth without coupling...
; they had flippers instead of hands and dogs' heads and were known as fish children.
They were regarded as excellent metallurgists: various accounts state that they were skilled metal workers in brass and iron, and made a trident for Poseidon and a sickle for Cronus
Cronus
In Greek mythology, Cronus or Kronos was the leader and the youngest of the first generation of Titans, divine descendants of Gaia, the earth, and Uranus, the sky...
, both ceremonial weapons. By some accounts, their children were the goddesses Ialysos (Ἰαλυσός), Kamiros (Κάμειρος) and Lindos
Lindos
Lindos is an archaeological site, a town and a former municipality on the island of Rhodes, in the Dodecanese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Rhodes, of which it is a municipal unit. It lies on the east coast of the island...
(Λίνδος). The Telchines were entrusted by Rhea
Rhea (mythology)
Rhea was the Titaness daughter of Uranus, the sky, and Gaia, the earth, in Greek mythology. She was known as "the mother of gods". In earlier traditions, she was strongly associated with Gaia and Cybele, the Great Goddess, and was later seen by the classical Greeks as the mother of the Olympian...
with the upbringing of Poseidon, which they accomplished with the aid of Capheira (Καφείρα), a daughter of Oceanus
Oceanus
Oceanus ; , Ōkeanós) was a pseudo-geographical feature in classical antiquity, believed by the ancient Greeks and Romans to be the world-ocean, an enormous river encircling the world....
. Another version says that Rhea accompanied them to Crete from Rhodes, where nine of the Telchines, known as the Curetes
Curetes
The term Curetes may refer to:*The dancing attendants of Rhea, also known as Korybantes.*An early Hellenic tribe: Curetes....
, were selected to bring up Zeus
Zeus
In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...
.
The Telchines were associated and sometimes confused with the Cyclopes
Cyclops
A cyclops , in Greek mythology and later Roman mythology, was a member of a primordial race of giants, each with a single eye in the middle of his forehead...
, Dactyls
Dactyl (mythology)
In Greek mythology, the Dactyls were the archaic mythical race of small phallic male beings associated with the Great Mother, whether as Cybele or Rhea. Their numbers vary, but often they were ten spirit-men so like the three Curetes, the Cabiri or the Korybantes that they were often interchangeable...
and Curetes
Curetes
The term Curetes may refer to:*The dancing attendants of Rhea, also known as Korybantes.*An early Hellenic tribe: Curetes....
.
The gods (Zeus
Zeus
In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...
, Poseidon
Poseidon
Poseidon was the god of the sea, and, as "Earth-Shaker," of the earthquakes in Greek mythology. The name of the sea-god Nethuns in Etruscan was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology: both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon...
or Apollo
Apollo
Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...
) eventually killed them because they began to use magic for malignant purposes; particularly, they produced a mixture of Stygian
Styx
In Greek mythology the Styx is the river that forms the boundary between the underworld and the world of the living, as well as a goddess and a nymph that represents the river.Styx may also refer to:-Popular culture:...
water and sulfur, which killed animals and plants (according to Nonnus
Nonnus
Nonnus of Panopolis , was a Greek epic poet. He was a native of Panopolis in the Egyptian Thebaid, and probably lived at the end of the 4th or early 5th century....
, they did so as a revenge for being driven out of Rhodes by the Heliadae
Heliadae
In Greek mythology, the Heliadae were the seven sons of Helios and Rhode, brothers to Electryone. They were Ochimus, Cercaphus, Macareus or Macar, Actis, Tenages, Triopas, and Candalus...
). Accounts vary on how exactly they were destroyed: by flood, or Zeus's thunderbolt, or Poseidon's trident, or else Apollo assumed the shape of a wolf to kill them. They apparently lost one of the titanomachias, the battles between the gods and the Titans.
Origins
Research suggests they were the original gods of Rhodes, before the advent of Greek monocultureMonoculture
Monoculture is the agricultural practice of producing or growing one single crop over a wide area. It is also known as a way of farming practice of growing large stands of a single species. It is widely used in modern industrial agriculture and its implementation has allowed for large harvests from...
. In the classical records of the post-catastrophe period, the Telchines tend to play an important part which link them to myths involving Atlantis
Atlantis
Atlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written about 360 BC....
. This race of artificers, artists and magicians was connected with the sea at every stage in their history. They were believed to bring about hailstorms, snow, and rain at will, to assume any shape they pleased, and produced a substance poisonous to living things. Their habits have been variously given on most of the islands of the Eastern Mediterranean. It is this ability to cast metal that would make them appear magical to early societies, and may have been a real, but advanced race of people.
Names
The following individual names are attested in various sources:- Aktaios (Actaeus)
- Argyron
- Atabyrius
- Chalcon
- Chryson
- Damnameneus
- Damon or Demonax
- Hormenius or Ormenos
- Lykos (Lycus) or Lyktos
- Megalesius
- Mylas
- Nicon
- Simon
- Skelmis
Known female Telchines were Makelo, Dexithea (one of Damon's daughters) and probably Lysagora (the attesting text is severely damaged). Ovid
Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...
in his Ibis
Ibis (Ovid)
Ibis is a curse poem by the Latin poet Ovid, written during his years in exile across the Black Sea for an offense against Augustus. It is "a stream of violent but extremely learned abuse," modeled on a poem of the same title by the Alexandrian poet Callimachus.The object of this verbal assault is...
mentions that Makelo, like the other Telchines, was killed with a thunderbolt; according to Callimachus
Callimachus
Callimachus was a native of the Greek colony of Cyrene, Libya. He was a noted poet, critic and scholar at the Library of Alexandria and enjoyed the patronage of the Egyptian–Greek Pharaohs Ptolemy II Philadelphus and Ptolemy III Euergetes...
and Nonnus
Nonnus
Nonnus of Panopolis , was a Greek epic poet. He was a native of Panopolis in the Egyptian Thebaid, and probably lived at the end of the 4th or early 5th century....
, however, Makelo was the only one to be spared. According to Bacchylides
Bacchylides
Bacchylides was an Ancient Greek lyric poet. Later Greeks included him in the canonical list of nine lyric poets which included his uncle Simonides. The elegance and polished style of his lyrics have been a commonplace of Bacchylidean scholarship since at least Longinus...
, the survivor is Dexithea. Bacchylides also mentions that Dexithea later had a son Euxanthios by Minos
Minos
In Greek mythology, Minos was a king of Crete, son of Zeus and Europa. Every year he made King Aegeus pick seven men and seven women to go to Daedalus' creation, the labyrinth, to be eaten by The Minotaur. After his death, Minos became a judge of the dead in Hades. The Minoan civilization of Crete...
. This Euxanthios is also known from Pindar
Pindar
Pindar , was an Ancient Greek lyric poet. Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved. Quintilian described him as "by far the greatest of the nine lyric poets, in virtue of his inspired magnificence, the beauty of his thoughts and figures, the rich...
's works.
Video games
In the PC videogame Titan QuestTitan Quest
Titan Quest is an action RPG developed by Iron Lore Entertainment. It was released worldwide by THQ on June 26, 2006. The game was released on Steam, along with the expansion Titan Quest: Immortal Throne, on July 17, 2007...
, the Telchines appear as Telkines and are powerful enemy sorcerers with grey skin and glowing eyes that act as bosses. Although many Telchines are referenced in the game, only Megalesios, Aktaios and Ormenos are ever encountered (and fought against) by the player.
The three Telchines are assaulting three different locations. Magalesios is attacking Greece, where he destroys the conduit connecting humanity and the gods. Aktaios attacks Egypt to find information about the Sickle
Sickle
A sickle is a hand-held agricultural tool with a variously curved blade typically used for harvesting grain crops or cutting succulent forage chiefly for feeding livestock . Sickles have also been used as weapons, either in their original form or in various derivations.The diversity of sickles that...
of Cronus
Cronus
In Greek mythology, Cronus or Kronos was the leader and the youngest of the first generation of Titans, divine descendants of Gaia, the earth, and Uranus, the sky...
. Ormenos finds the sickle in the Orient, and uses it to free Typhon
Typhon
Typhon , also Typhoeus , Typhaon or Typhos was the last son of Gaia, fathered by Tartarus, and the most deadly monster of Greek mythology. He was known as the "Father of all monsters"; his wife Echidna was likewise the "Mother of All Monsters."Typhon was described in pseudo-Apollodorus,...
.
Modern Literature
- Telchines appear in the fourth book of the Percy Jackson & the OlympiansPercy Jackson & the OlympiansPercy Jackson & the Olympians is a pentalogy of adventure and fantasy fiction books authored by Rick Riordan. The series consists of five books, as well as spin-off titles such as The Demigod Files and Demigods and Monsters. Set in the United States, the books are predominantly based on Greek...
series, The Battle of the LabyrinthThe Battle of the LabyrinthThe Battle of the Labyrinth is a 2008 fantasy-adventure novel based on Greek mythology; it is the fourth novel in the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series by Rick Riordan...
under the name telekhines, where they remade the scythe of Kronos in the fires of Mount St. Helens and claim to have made Poseidon's trident. They are later seen presenting the scythe to Kronos after his rebirth. - A Telchine is a major character in the Orphans of ChaosOrphans of ChaosOrphans of Chaos is a 2005 fantasy novel by John C. Wright. It is the first volume of a trilogy that continues with the novels Fugitives of Chaos and Titans of Chaos .-Plot synopsis:...
trilogy by John C. Wright. - The Telchines are mentioned in David DrakeDavid DrakeDavid Drake is an American author of science fiction and fantasy literature. A Vietnam War veteran who has worked as a lawyer, he is now one of the premier authors of the military science fiction subgenre.-Biography:...
's book The Mirror of Worlds.