Telamon

Architectural telamon on the Wayne County, Ohio courthouse.

In Greek mythology, Telamon (in Greek, Τελαμών), son of the king Aeacus, of Aegina, and Endeis and brother of Peleus, accompanied Jason as one of his Argonauts, and was present at the hunt for the Calydonian Boar. In the Iliad he was the father of Greek heroes Ajax the Great and Teucer the Archer by different mothers. He and Peleus were also close friends with Heracles, assisting him on his expeditions against the Amazons and against Troy (see below).

Life

After killing their half-brother, Phocus, Telamon and Peleus had to leave Aegina. King Cychreus of Salamis welcomed Telamon and befriended him. Telamon married Cychreus' daughter Periboea, who gave birth to Ajax. Later, Cychreus gave Telamon his kingdom. In other versions of the myth Cychreus' daughter is named Glauce, and Periboea is Telamon's second wife, and the daughter of Alcathous. Telamon also figures in both versions of Heracles' sacking of Troy, which was ruled by King Laomedon (or Tros in the alternate versions). Before the Trojan War, Poseidon sent a sea monster to attack Troy.

In the King Tros version, Heracles (along with Telamon and Oicles) agreed to kill the monster if Tros would give him the horses he received from Zeus as compensation for Zeus' kidnapping Ganymede, Tros' son. Tros agreed; Heracles succeeded and Telamon married Hesione, Tros' daughter, giving birth to Teucer by her. In the King Laomedon version, Laomedon planned on sacrificing his daughter Hesione to Poseidon in the hope of appeasing him. Heracles rescued her at the last minute and killed both the monster and Laomedon and Laomedon's sons, except for Ganymede, who was on Mt. Olympus, and Podarge, who saved his own life by giving Heracles a golden veil Hesione had made. Telamon took Hesione as a war prize and married her, and she gave birth to Teucer by him.

The Telamon

The Telamon (also Song of Telamon, Telamon Song, Telamon-song) is an ancient Greek song (fl. 5th century BC) only found referred to by name in some ancient Greek plays^[1] and later scholia or commentaries. It is usually thought to be a warlike song^[2] about Telamon's son Ajax,^[3] though some other commentaries thought it to be a mournful song about Telamon himself.^[4] It began with: "Son of Telamon, warlike Ajax! They say you are the bravest of the Grecians who came to Troy, next to Achilles."^[5]

Sources

• Apollodorus. Bibliotheke I, viii, 2 and ix 16; II, vi, 4; III, xii,6-7.
• Apollonius Rhodius. Argonautica I, 90-94.
• Ovid. Metamorphoses, VIII, 309.

Notes