Book 13
1.69
Between Elaea, Pitane, Atarneus, and Pergamum on this side the Caïcus, is Teuthrania, distant from none of these places above 70 stadia. Teuthras is said to have been king of the Cilicians and Mysians. According to Euripides, Auge, with her son Telephus, was enclosed in a chest and thrown into the sea, by command of her father Aleus, who discovered that she had been violated by Hercules. By the care of Minerva the chest crossed the sea, and was cast ashore at the mouth of the Caïcus. Teuthras took up the mother and her son, married the former, and treated the latter as his own child. This is a fable, but another concurrence of circumstances is wanting to explain how the daughter of the Arcadian became the wife of the king of the Mysians, and how her son succeeded to the throne of the Mysians. It is however believed that Teuthras and Telephus governed the country lying about Teuthrania and the Caïcus, but the poet mentions a few particulars only of this history: as when he slew the son of Telephus, the hero Eurypylns, and many of his companions, the Ceaei, were killed around him for the sake of the gifts of women.Od. xi. 521. Homer here rather proposes an enigma than a clear meaning. For we do not know who the Cetaei were, nor what people we are to understand by this name, nor what is meant by the words, for the sake of the gifts of women.Eurypylus, son of Telephus, being invited by Priam to come to his assistance, answered that he could not do so without the permission of his mother, Astyoche. Priam by rich presents obtained from her this permission. There are other explanations equally uncertain. Bryant asserts that the Cetaei were pirates, and exacted young women as tribute from the people whom they attacked. Grammarians adduce and compare with this other trifling stories, but they indulge in invetion rather than solve the difficulty.
