Telete

For other uses, see Elete.

Telete
Goddess of festivity and rituals
Telete and Dionysus in a mosaic from Zeugma Mosaic Museum
Major cult center	Boeotia
Abode	Earth
Symbols	Thyrsus
Genealogy
Parents	Dionysus and Nicaea
Siblings	Satyrus, several paternal half-siblings

In Greek mythology, Telete ( /ˈtɛlɪtiː/ ; Ancient Greek : Τελετή, romanized: Teletḗ, lit.  'consecration') is the daughter of the wine-god Dionysus and Nicaea, a Naiad daughter of the river-god Sangarius and Cybele, a mother goddess.

Mythology

Concerning Telete's birth, it is related that Nicaea was ashamed of having been made pregnant by Dionysus, and even attempted to hang herself; nevertheless, in due time a daughter was born to her. The Horae were said to have served as midwives at Telete's birth. ^[1] Telete was destined by Dionysus to become a follower of himself and his son Iacchus, her half-brother. ^[2]

Pausanias mentions a statue of Telete in the sanctuary of the Heliconian Muses in Boeotia. Her image was next to that of Orpheus. ^[3]

Telete was associated with nighttime festivities and ritual dances in honor of Dionysus, ^[4] and has been interpreted as a goddess of initiation into the Bacchic rites. ^[5]

Notes

1. Nonnus, 16.392-400
2. Nonnus, 48.884-885
3. Pausanias, 9.30.4
4. Nonnus, 16.400-402
5. "TELETE - Greek Goddess of Initiation Rites of the Bacchic Orgies". www.theoi.com. Retrieved 2021-04-15.

References

• Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca translated by William Henry Denham Rouse (1863–1950), from the Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1940. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
• Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca. 3 Vols. W.H.D. Rouse. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1940–1942. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. ISBN   0-674-99328-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
• Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio.3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Vollmer, Wilhelm. (1874). Wörterbuch der Mythologie. Stuttgart, p. 426.