T is for… Telesilla

/ historicallywoman

Telesilla was an ancient Greek poet who lived during the 5th century BC. Only fragments of her work have survived to this day, including single-word quotes, many of which are unique words coined by Telesilla herself. One of these words is philhelias, meaning ‘the sun-loving song’, which was preserved by Athenaeus in his Deipnosophists:

‘The song to Apollo is the philhelias,

    [the sun-loving song],’

as Telesilla has it.’

Telesilla was a sickly woman and so she went to various physicians to consult them about cures. One such physician went to the Oracle, who declared ‘you should serve and honour the Muses, and that in doing so you will recover your health’. As a result, she took up poetry and, in her reply to the physician, she said that she ‘began to feel a little spring of happiness in [my] bosom’ and that her health was improving.

Her poetry became well-renowned, and she was even named as one of the Nine Female Lyric Poets of Greece by Antipater of Thessalonica, alongside Sappho. 

But it is not Telesilla’s poetry that has ensured her fame. After all, of complete lines, we have only two. Instead, she is known for her courage and bravery as the warrior who saved Argos from an attack by the Spartans.

“But when the time shall come that the female conquers in battle/Driving away the male, and wins great glory in Argos/Then many wives of the Argives shall tear both cheeks in their mourning”

an oracle told by a Pythian priestess, as quoted by pausanius

There is cause for the accuracy of this story to be questioned, but, as with most legends, there does seem to be at least a grain of truth in it.

In either 494 or 493 BC, Cleomenes I of Sparta marched on Argos. The male warriors were lured out of the city and slaughtered, leaving it solely (probably an exaggeration) populated by women, slaves, children, and the elderly. When Cleomenes moved to invade the city itself, Telesilla took action, mobilising the citizens and arming them with leftovers from the armoury and ceremonial shields. They resolved to hold the city, manning walls which may or may not have actually existed.

Pausanius, whose is the most detailed surviving account of the incident (though also the furthest removed from it), writes that the Spartans were in a difficult situation. Either they surrendered to the women—a disgrace—they fought and beat the women—dishonourable—or they abandoned the attack and preserved their honour.

Perhaps obviously, they chose the third option and left Argos. Telesilla became a heroine; she allegedly wrote to her old physician: 

“And now would you believe, your ignorant and sickly Telesilla is called the saviour of Argos.”

In honour of her heroism, a statue (potentially) of Telesilla was erected near the temple of Aphrodite in Argos, and as god Ares was worshipped by the city as the patron god of women. 

There are some details in this story that probably aren’t true, and modern historians still debate over its authenticity. However, accounts of Telesilla and her deeds are in enough ancient sources that it is generally agreed that she played a pivotal role in a defence of Argos. Indeed, women fighting back against invaders of their cities wasn’t unheard of, so it is entirely plausible to think that the women of Argos would have reacted in this manner to the Spartans.

Whatever the case, Telesilla’s heroism has survived for thousands of years, and a poem was even written about her by Clement of Alexandria seven hundred years after the alleged events in Argos. 

Telesilla’s physician wrote to her: ‘soon I shall expect to see you the leader among the maidens of your famous city.’

And, it turns out, he did.

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