0002Achilles_Westmacott

Marble sculpture of a muscular headless male figure with draped lower body, grasping a smaller kneeling female figure

King Eumenes II of Pergamum exploited the myth of Heracles and Telephos so as to extol his family’s descent from Telephos, a son of Heracles. In the 1^st Century AD, the population of Pergamum was named the Telephidai (descendants of Telephos). The Pergamum Altar and the Telephos Frieze within its upper sanctuary can be dated to about 159 BC.

Telephos was the legendary son of Heracles and Auge. In Euripides’ Auge and Sophocles’ Mysians and Aleadai, Auge was a priestess dedicated by her father to Athena (a measure taken to keep her from having children that might overthrow him). A drunken Heracles violated her and Athena’s sanctuary; and Telephos, exposed in Arcadia, was suckled by a hind. Telephos later followed an oracle to Mysia where he met his mother and recognized her only in the nick of time.