In Greek mythology , the Telchines ( Ancient Greek : Τελχῖνες , romanized : Telkhines ) were the original inhabitants of the island of Rhodes and were known in Crete and Cyprus .
48-876: Their parents were either Pontus and Gaia or Tartarus and Nemesis or else they were born from the blood of castrated Uranus , along with the Erinyes . According to Diodorus Siculus , the Telchines were the offspring of Thalassa . They had flippers instead of hands and the heads of dogs and were known as fish children. In some accounts, Poseidon was described as the Telchines' father. The following individual names are attested in various sources: Damon ( Demonax ); Mylas ; Atabyrius ; Antaeus ( Actaeus ), Megalesius , Ormenos ( Hormenus ), Lycus , Nicon and Mimon ; Chryson , Argyron and Chalcon . Known female Telchines were Makelo , Dexithea (one of Damon's daughters), Halia and probably Lysagora (the attesting text
96-530: A date can be assigned is his reference to the death in AD ;23 of Juba II , king of Maurousia ( Mauretania ), who is said to have died "just recently". He probably worked on the Geography for many years and revised it steadily, but not always consistently. It is an encyclopaedic chronicle and consists of political, economic, social, cultural, and geographic descriptions covering almost all of Europe and
144-757: A descriptive history of people and places from different regions of the world known during his lifetime. Although the Geographica was rarely used by contemporary writers, a multitude of copies survived throughout the Byzantine Empire . It first appeared in Western Europe in Rome as a Latin translation issued around 1469. The first printed edition was published in 1516 in Venice . Isaac Casaubon , classical scholar and editor of Greek texts, provided
192-516: A mixture of Stygian water and sulfur, which killed animals and plants (according to Nonnus , they did so as 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 the Titanomachy , the battle between the gods and
240-491: A valuable source of information on the ancient world of his day, especially when this information is corroborated by other sources. He travelled extensively, as he says: "Westward I have journeyed to the parts of Etruria opposite Sardinia; towards the south from the Euxine [Black Sea] to the borders of Ethiopia; and perhaps not one of those who have written geographies has visited more places than I have between those limits." It
288-527: A very rocky mountain, called the Trojan mountain; beneath it there are caves, and near the caves and the river a village called Troy, an ancient settlement of the captive Trojans who had accompanied Menelaus and settled there. Strabo commented on volcanism ( effusive eruption ) which he observed at Katakekaumene (modern Kula , Western Turkey). Strabo's observations predated Pliny the Younger who witnessed
336-582: Is "... pro-Roman throughout the Geography. But while he acknowledges and even praises Roman ascendancy in the political and military sphere, he also makes a significant effort to establish Greek primacy over Rome in other contexts." In Europe , Strabo was the first to connect the Danube (which he called Danouios) and the Istros – with the change of names occurring at "the cataracts," the modern Iron Gates on
384-490: Is not known when he wrote Geographica , but he spent much time in the famous library in Alexandria taking notes from "the works of his predecessors". A first edition was published in 7 BC and a final edition no later than 23 AD, in what may have been the last year of Strabo's life. It took some time for Geographica to be recognized by scholars and to become a standard. Alexandria itself features extensively in
432-431: Is proper,' he observes in continuation, ' to derive our explanations from things which are obvious, and in some measure of daily occurrences, such as deluges, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and sudden swellings of the land beneath the sea; for the last raise up the sea also, and when the same lands subside again, they occasion the sea to be let down. And it is not merely the small, but the large islands also, and not merely
480-430: Is severely damaged). The Telchines were regarded as the cultivators of the soil and ministers of the gods and as such they came from Crete to Cyprus and from thence to Rhodes or they proceeded from Rhodes to Crete and Boeotia . Rhodes, and in it the three towns of Cameirus , Ialysos , and Lindos (whence the Telchines are called Ialysii ), which was their principal seat and was named after them Telchinis ( Sicyon also
528-715: The Roman Republic into the Roman Empire . He is best known for his work Geographica ("Geography"), which presented a descriptive history of people and places from different regions of the world known during his lifetime. Additionally, Strabo authored historical works, but only fragments and quotations of these survive in the writings of other authors. Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus (in present-day Cappadocia ) in around 64 BC. His family had been involved in politics since at least
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#1732772440687576-465: The Titans . 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. In rare accounts,
624-554: The Aegean Sea. Around 25 BC, he sailed up the Nile until he reached Philae , after which point there is little record of his travels until AD 17. It is not known precisely when Strabo's Geography was written, though comments within the work itself place the finished version within the reign of Emperor Tiberius . Some place its first drafts around 7 BC, others around AD 17 or AD 18. The latest passage to which
672-524: The Aristotelian Xenarchus and Tyrannion who preceded him in teaching Strabo, Athenodorus was a Stoic and almost certainly the source of Strabo's diversion from the philosophy of his former mentors. Moreover, from his own first-hand experience, Athenodorus provided Strabo with information about regions of the empire which Strabo would not otherwise have known about. Strabo is best known for his work Geographica ("Geography"), which presented
720-561: The Euxine [Black Sea] was so great, that its bed must be gradually raised, while the rivers still continued to pour in an undiminished quantity of water. He therefore conceived that, originally, when the Euxine was an inland sea, its level had by this means become so much elevated that it burst its barrier near Byzantium, and formed a communication with the Propontis [Sea of Marmara], and this partial drainage had already, he supposed, converted
768-665: The Greek poet Hesiod , he was born without coupling, though according to Hyginus , Pontus is the son of Aether and Gaia. For Hesiod, Pontus seems little more than a personification of the sea, ho pontos ("the sea"), by which Hellenes signified the Mediterranean Sea . After the castration of his brother, Uranus , Pontus, with his mother Gaia, fathered Nereus (the Old Man of the Sea ), Thaumas (the awe-striking "wonder" of
816-481: The Mediterranean and Near East, especially for scholarly purposes, was popular during this era and was facilitated by the relative peace enjoyed throughout the reign of Augustus (27 BC – AD 14). He moved to Rome in 44 BC, and stayed there, studying and writing, until at least 31 BC. In 29 BC, on his way to Corinth (where Augustus was at the time), he visited the island of Gyaros in
864-614: The Mediterranean: Britain and Ireland, the Iberian Peninsula, Gaul, Germania, the Alps, Italy, Greece, Northern Black Sea region, Anatolia, Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa. The Geography is the only extant work providing information about both Greek and Roman peoples and countries during the reign of Augustus. On the presumption that "recently" means within a year, Strabo stopped writing that year or
912-661: The Romanian/Serbian border. In India , a country he never visited, Strabo described small flying reptiles that were long with snake-like bodies and bat-like wings (this description matches the Indian flying lizard Draco dussumieri ), winged scorpions, and other mythical creatures along with those that were actually factual. Other historians, such as Herodotus , Aristotle , and Flavius Josephus , mentioned similar creatures. Charles Lyell , in his Principles of Geology , wrote of Strabo: He notices, amongst others,
960-468: The Sea, embodiment of the sea's dangerous aspects), Phorcys and his sister-consort Ceto , and the "Strong Goddess" Eurybia . With the sea goddess Thalassa (whose own name simply means "sea" but is derived from a Pre-Greek root), he fathered the Telchines and all sea life. In a Roman sculpture of the 2nd century AD, Pontus, rising from seaweed, grasps a rudder with his right hand and leans on
1008-451: The Telchines were originally the dogs of Actaeon , who were changed into men. Pontus (mythology) In Greek mythology , Pontus ( / ˈ p ɒ n t ə s / ; ‹See Tfd› Greek : Πόντος , translit. Póntos , lit. "Sea") was an ancient, pre-Olympian sea-god, one of the Greek primordial deities . Pontus was Gaia 's son and has no father; according to
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#17327724406871056-523: The Titans, Briareus, Gyges, Steropes, Atlas, Hyperion, and Polus, Saturn, Ops, Moneta, Dione; and three Furies – namely, Alecto, Megaera, Tisiphone. Strabo Strabo ( / ˈ s t r eɪ b oʊ / ; Greek : Στράβων Strábōn ; 64 or 63 BC – c. 24 AD ) was a Greek geographer , philosopher , and historian who lived in Asia Minor during the transitional period of
1104-528: The age of 21, Strabo moved to Rome, where he studied philosophy with the Peripatetic Xenarchus , a highly respected tutor in Augustus's court. Despite Xenarchus's Aristotelian leanings, Strabo later gives evidence to have formed his own Stoic inclinations. In Rome, he also learned grammar under the rich and famous scholar Tyrannion of Amisus . Although Tyrannion was also a Peripatetic, he
1152-443: The ceaseless wanderings of people and Palamnaioi for pouring the water of Styx with their palms and hands in order to make the fields infertile. The Telchines were described to have stings and being rough as the echinoid and thus, their names teliochinous that is “having a poisonous telos like an echinoid”. The Telchines were said to have invented useful arts and institutions which were useful to mankind and to have made images of
1200-523: The character of the Telchines seems to have been the reason of their being put together with the Idaean Dactyls and Strabo even states that those of the nine Rhodian Telchines who accompanied Rhea to Crete brought up the infant Zeus and were called Curetes . The Telchines were associated and sometimes confused with the Cyclopes, Dactyls, and Curetes. The Telchines were entrusted by Rhea with
1248-586: The eruption of Mount Vesuvius on 24 August AD 79 in Pompeii : …There are no trees here, but only the vineyards where they produce the Katakekaumene wines which are by no means inferior from any of the wines famous for their quality. The soil is covered with ashes, and black in colour as if the mountainous and rocky country was made up of fires. Some assume that these ashes were the result of thunderbolts and subterranean explosions, and do not doubt that
1296-539: The explanation of Xanthus the Lydian, who said that the seas had once been more extensive, and that they had afterwards been partially dried up, as in his own time many lakes, rivers, and wells in Asia had failed during a season of drought. Treating this conjecture with merited disregard, Strabo passes on to the hypothesis of Strato , the natural philosopher, who had observed that the quantity of mud brought down by rivers into
1344-463: The family's support for Rome might have affected their position in the local community, and whether they might have been granted Roman citizenship as a reward. Strabo's life was characterized by extensive travels. He journeyed to Egypt and Kush , as far west as coastal Tuscany and as far south as Ethiopia in addition to his travels in Asia Minor and the time he spent in Rome . Travel throughout
1392-448: The first critical edition in 1587. Although Strabo cited the classical Greek astronomers Eratosthenes and Hipparchus , acknowledging their astronomical and mathematical efforts covering geography, he claimed that a descriptive approach was more practical, such that his works were designed for statesmen who were more anthropologically than numerically concerned with the character of countries and regions. As such, Geographica provides
1440-540: The gods. Telchines 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. Together with their help and the Cyclopes , the smith god Hephaestus forged the cursed necklace of Harmonia . Because of their excellent workmanship, the Telchines were maligned by rival workmen and thus received their bad reputation. This last feature in
1488-412: The islands, but the continents, which can be lifted up together with the sea; and both large and small tracts may subside, for habitations and cities, like Bure, Bizona, and many others, have been engulfed by earthquakes.' Strabo commented on fossil formation mentioning Nummulite (quoted from Celâl Şengör ): One extraordinary thing which I saw at the pyramids must not be omitted. Heaps of stones from
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1536-464: The last book of Geographica , which describes it as a thriving port city with a highly developed local economy. Strabo notes the city's many beautiful public parks, and its network of streets wide enough for chariots and horsemen. "Two of these are exceeding broad, over a plethron in breadth, and cut one another at right angles ... All the buildings are connected one with another, and these also with what are beyond it." Lawrence Kim observes that Strabo
1584-426: The laws of righteousness, but thinks just and kindly thoughts. And yet again he got great Thaumas and proud Phorcys, being mated with Earth, and fair-cheeked Ceto and Eurybia who has a heart of flint within her. From Aether and Earth [i.e. Gaia]: Grief, Deceit, Wrath, Lamentation, Falsehood, Oath, Vengeance, Intemperance, Altercation, Forgetfulness, Sloth, Fear, Pride, Incest, Combat, Ocean, Themis, Tartarus, Pontus; and
1632-690: The left side into marshy ground, and that, at last, the whole would be choked up with soil. So, it was argued, the Mediterranean had once opened a passage for itself by the Columns of Hercules into the Atlantic, and perhaps the abundance of sea-shells in Africa, near the Temple of Jupiter Ammon , might also be the deposit of some former inland sea, which had at length forced a passage and escaped. But Strabo rejects this theory as insufficient to account for all
1680-458: The legendary story of Typhon takes place in this region. Ksanthos adds that the king of this region was a man called Arimus. However, it is not reasonable to accept that the whole country was burned down at a time as a result of such an event rather than as a result of a fire bursting from underground whose source has now died out. Three pits are called "Physas" and separated by forty stadia from each other. Above these pits, there are hills formed by
1728-522: The next (AD 24), at which time he is thought to have died. He was influenced by Homer , Hecataeus and Aristotle . The first of Strabo's major works, Historical Sketches ( Historica hypomnemata ), written while he was in Rome ( c. 20 BC ), is nearly completely lost. Meant to cover the history of the known world from the conquest of Greece by the Romans, Strabo quotes it himself and other classical authors mention that it existed, although
1776-552: The only surviving document is a fragment of papyrus now in the possession of the University of Milan (renumbered [Papyrus] 46). Strabo studied under several prominent teachers of various specialities throughout his early life at different stops during his Mediterranean travels. The first chapter of his education took place in Nysa (modern Sultanhisar , Turkey) under the master of rhetoric Aristodemus , who had formerly taught
1824-401: The phenomena, and he proposes one of his own, the profoundness of which modern geologists are only beginning to appreciate. 'It is not,' he says, 'because the lands covered by seas were originally at different altitudes, that the waters have risen, or subsided, or receded from some parts and inundated others. But the reason is, that the same land is sometimes raised up and sometimes depressed, and
1872-602: The prow of a ship. He wears a mural crown , and accompanies Fortuna , whose draperies appear at the left, as twin patron deities of the Black Sea port of Tomis in Moesia . She [Gaia] bore also the fruitless deep with his raging swell, Pontus, without sweet union of love. And Sea begat Nereus, the eldest of his children, who is true and lies not: and men call him the Old Man because he is trusty and gentle and does not forget
1920-417: The quarries lie in front of the pyramids. Among these are found pieces which in shape and size resemble lentils. Some contain substances like grains half peeled. These, it is said, are the remnants of the workmen's food converted into stone; which is not probable. For at home in our country (Amaseia), there is a long hill in a plain, which abounds with pebbles of a porous stone, resembling lentils. The pebbles of
1968-655: The reign of Mithridates V . Strabo was related to Dorylaeus on his mother's side. Several other family members, including his paternal grandfather, had served Mithridates VI during the Mithridatic Wars . As the war drew to a close, Strabo's grandfather had turned several Pontic fortresses over to the Romans. Strabo wrote that "great promises were made in exchange for these services", and as Persian culture endured in Amaseia even after Mithridates and Tigranes were defeated, scholars have speculated about how
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2016-401: The sea also is simultaneously raised and depressed so that it either overflows or returns into its own place again. We must, therefore, ascribe the cause to the ground, either to that ground which is under the sea, or to that which becomes flooded by it, but rather to that which lies beneath the sea, for this is more moveable, and, on account of its humidity, can be altered with great celerity. It
2064-453: The sea-shore and of rivers suggest somewhat of the same difficulty [respecting their origin]; some explanation may indeed be found in the motion [to which these are subject] in flowing waters, but the investigation of the above fact presents more difficulty. I have said elsewhere, that in sight of the pyramids, on the other side in Arabia, and near the stone quarries from which they are built, is
2112-627: The sons of the Roman general who had taken over Pontus. Aristodemus was the head of two schools of rhetoric and grammar, one in Nysa and one in Rhodes . The school in Nysa possessed a distinct intellectual curiosity in Homeric literature and the interpretation of the ancient Greek epics. Strabo was an admirer of Homer 's poetry, perhaps as a consequence of his time spent in Nysa with Aristodemus. At around
2160-414: The surname of Telchinia. Nymphs also are called after them Telchiniae. The Telchines were also regarded as wizards and envious daemons. Their very eyes and aspect were said to have been destructive. They had it in their power to bring on hail, rain, and snow, and to assume any form they pleased; they further produced a substance poisonous to living things. Thus, they were called Alastores for supervising
2208-577: The upbringing of Poseidon, which they accomplished with the aid of Capheira , one of Oceanus ' daughters. 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 . However, in other versions of the tale, Rhea, Apollo, and Zeus were described as hostile to the Telchines. The gods ( Zeus , Poseidon or Apollo ) eventually killed them because they began to use magic for malignant purposes; particularly, they produced
2256-628: Was called Telchinia ) and by some accounts, their children were highly worshiped as gods in the said three ancient Rhodian towns. The Telchines abandoned their homes because they foresaw that the island would be inundated and thence they scattered in different directions; Lycus went to Lycia , where he built the temple of the Lycian Apollo . This god had been worshiped by them at Lindos (Apollôn Telchinios) and Hera at Ialysos and Cameiros (Hêra telchinia); and Athena at Teumessus in Boeotia bore
2304-400: Was more relevantly a respected authority on geography, a fact of some significance considering Strabo's future contributions to the field. The final noteworthy mentor to Strabo was Athenodorus Cananites , a philosopher who had spent his life since 44 BC in Rome forging relationships with the Roman elite. Athenodorus passed onto Strabo his philosophy, his knowledge and his contacts. Unlike
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