Chapter 3: Olympos, the Underworld, and Minor Divinities
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♠ Pherekydes 3F47 – Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker 1, p. 75, ed. F. Jacoby, 2d ed. Leiden 1957.
♠ Sophokles, Kophoi fr 366 R – Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta vol. 4, p. 328, ed. S.L. Radt. Göttingen 1977.
♠ Sophokles Kophoi fr 365 R – Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta vol. 4, p. 327, ed. S.L. Radt. Göttingen 1977.
♠ Hellanikos 4F89 – Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker 1, pp. 130-31, ed. F. Jacoby, 2d ed. Leiden 1957.
♠ Strabo, Geography 10.3.22
Some call them [the Daktyloi] natives of Ida, others settlers; but all agree that iron was first worked by these on Ida; and all have assumed that they were wizards and attendants of the Mother of the gods, and that they lived in Phrygia about Ida. Greek Text
♠ Diodoros Siculus, Library of History 17.7.5
On this mountain are supposed to have lived the Idaean Dactyls who first worked iron, having learned their skill from the Mother of the Gods. Greek Text
♠ Pausanias, Description of Greece 5.7.6
When Zeus was born, Rhea entrusted the guardianship of her son to the Dactyls of Ida, who are the same as those called Curetes. Greek Text
♠ Stesichoros 265 PMG – Poetae Melici Graeci, p. 132 ed. D. L. Page. Oxford 1962.
♠ Bakchylides fr 52 SM – Bacchylidis Carmina cum fragmentis, p. 111, ed. B. Snell and H. Maehler. Leipzig 1970.
♠ Pindar, Olympian 7.50-53
And the gray-eyed goddess herself bestowed on them every art, so that they surpassed all mortal men as the best workers with their hands; and the roads bore works of art like living, moving creatures, and their fame was profound. Greek Text
♠ Kallimachos, Hymn to Delos 4.30-31
Is it the tale how at the very first the mighty god smote the mountains with the three-forked sword which the Telchines fashioned for him? Greek Text
♠ Kallimachos, Aitia – Callimachus, ed. R. Pfeiffer. Vol 1, p. 1. Oxford 1949.
♠ Kallimachos fr 75.64-69 Pf – Callimachus, ed. R. Pfeiffer. Vol 1, pp. 82-83. Oxford 1949
♠ Xenomedes 442F1 – Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker, pt.3 B, pp. 372-73, ed. F. Jacoby. 2d ed. Leiden 1957.
♠ Pindar, Paian 4.40-45 – Pindarus 2, p. 23, ed. B. Snell and H. Maehler. Leipzig 1975.
♠ Ovid, Metamorphoses 7.365-67
where Telchinian tribes
dwelt, whose bad eyes corrupting power shot forth;—
Jove, utterly despising, thrust them deep
beneath his brother’s waves. Latin Text
♠ Diodoros Siculus, Library of History 5.55.1-3
The island which is called Rhodes was first inhabited by the people who were known as Telchines; these were children of Thalatta, as the mythical tradition tells us, and the myth relates that they, together with Capheira, the daughter of Oceanus, nurtured Poseidon, whom Rhea had committed as a babe to their care. And we are told that they were also the discoverers of certain arts and that they introduced other things which are useful for the life of mankind. They were also the first, men say, to fashion statues of gods, and some of the ancient images of gods have been named after them; so, for example, among the Lindians there is an “Apollo Telchinius,” as it is called, among the Ialysians a Hera and Nymphae, both called “Telchinian,” and among the Cameirans a “Hera Telchinia.” And men say that the Telchines were also wizards and could summon clouds and rain and hail at their will and likewise could even bring snow; these things, the accounts tell us, they could do even as could the Magi of Persia; and they could also change their natural shapes and were jealous of teaching their arts to others. Greek Text
♠ Strabo, Geography 10.3.7
But the variation in these accounts is so small that, whereas some represent the Corybantes, the Cabeiri, the Idaean Dactyli, and the Telchines as identical with the Curetes, others represent them as all kinsmen of one another and differentiate only certain small matters in which they differ in respect to one another; but, roughly speaking and in general, they represent them, one and all, as a kind of inspired people and as subject to Bacchic frenzy, and, in the guise of ministers, as inspiring terror at the celebration of the sacred rites by means of war-dances, accompanied by uproar and noise and cymbals and drums and arms, and also by flute and outcry; and consequently these rites are in a way regarded as having a common relationship, I mean these and those of the Samothracians and those in Lemnos and in several other places, because the divine ministers are called the same. Greek Text
♠ Strabo, Geography 10.3.19
But in the Cretan accounts the Curetes are called “rearers of Zeus,” and “protectors of Zeus,” having been summoned from Phrygia to Crete by Rhea. Some say that, of the nine Telchines who lived in Rhodes, those who accompanied Rhea to Crete and “reared” Zeus “in his youth” were named “Curetes”. Greek Text
♠ Strabo, Geography 14.2.7
In earlier times Rhodes was called Ophiussa and Stadia, and then Telchinis, after the Telchines, who took up their abode in the island. Some say that the Telchines are “maligners” and “sorcerers,” who pour the water of the Styx mixed with sulphur upon animals and plants in order to destroy them. But others, on the contrary, say that since they excelled in workmanship they were “maligned” by rival workmen and thus received their bad reputation; and that they first came from Crete to Cypros, and then to Rhodes; and that they were the first to work iron and brass, and in fact fabricated the scythe for Cronus. Now I have already described them before, but the number of the myths about them causes me to resume their description, filling up the gaps, if I have omitted anything. Greek Text
Edited by Elena Bianchelli, Retired Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, Univ. of Georgia, April 2021
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