Telegŏnus
（
Τηλέγονος). The son of Odysseus and Circé. At
his mother's command he set out to find his father. Landing on the coast of Ithaca, he began
to plunder the fields, and Odysseus came out armed against him. Telegonus did not recognize
his father, and mortally wounded him with the spine of a sting-ray which Circé had
given him to serve as the barb of his lance. When he learned that the wounded man was his
father, he took the body home with him, accompanied by Telemachus and Penelopé, and
subsequently married the latter. He was supposed to be the founder of Tusculum (
Hor. Carm. iii. 29, 8) and Praenesté,
near Rome (
Parall. Min. 41; Propert. ii. 32, 4). The legend of Telegonus was
the theme of the
Telegonea by the Cyclic poet Eugammon of Cyrené.
The strange manner in which Odysseus met his death is also mentioned in Oppian
(
Halieut. ii. 497). Roman tradition ascribed to Telegonus a daughter Mamilia,
the legendary ancestor of the Mamilii.
