Telethusa

Family: Phæstian · Role: wife and mother · First appears: Fable 82

Life events

Ligdus orders Telethusa to kill any daughter born to her.(Fable82)
- With: Ligdus
- “if a female should, by chance, be brought forth at thy delivery, (I command it with reluctance, forgive me, natural affection) let it be put to death.”
Isis forbids Telethusa from obeying Ligdus and promises protection for the child.(Fable82)
- With: Isis
- “O Telethusa, one of my votaries, lay aside thy grievous cares, and evade the commands of thy husband; and do not hesitate, when Lucina shall have given thee ease by delivery, to bring up {the child}, whatever it shall be.”
Telethusa gives birth to a daughter, conceals her sex, and raises her as Iphis.(Fable82)
- With: Iphis
- “When her pains increased, and her burden forced itself into the light, and a girl was born to the father unaware of it, the mother ordered it to be brought up, pretending it was a boy; and the thing gained belief, nor was any one but the nurse acquainted with the fact.”
Isis transforms Iphis from a female into a male.(Fable82)
- With: Isis Iphis
- “Iphis follows her, her companion as she goes, with longer strides than she had been wont; her fairness does not continue on her face; both her strength is increased, and her features are more stern; and shorter is the length of her scattered locks. There is more vigour, also, than she had {as} a female. {And} now thou art a male, who so lately wast a female.”

married with Ligdus “For once on a time the Phæstian land[65] adjoining to the Gnossian kingdom produced one Ligdus, of obscure name, a man of the freeborn class of common people. Nor were his means any greater than his rank, but his life and his honour were untainted. He startled the ears of his wife in her pregnancy, with these words”
with Isis (interaction) “O Isis, thou who dost inhabit Parætonium,[75] and the Mareotic fields,[76] and Pharos,[77] and the Nile divided into its seven horns, give aid, I beseech thee, and ease me of my fears. Thee, Goddess, thee, I once beheld, and these thy symbols”

Extracted from the original text of The Metamorphoses of Ovid. Made with Rho MD.