Telesto

Telesto (also Telestho) was one of the Oceanids, the daughters of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys. She is named once, in Hesiod’s catalogue of the Oceanids in the Theogony, as “Telesto of the saffron robe”. Hesiod gives no story about her.

Parents and Sisters

Hesiod says that Tethys bore to Oceanus the swirling rivers (Nile, Alpheus, Eridanus, Strymon, Maeander, Ister, Achelous, Scamander and others) and also a holy race of daughters (Hesiod, Theogony 337–348). In his list of these daughters Telesto stands among the eldest, between Eurynome and Chryseis: Peitho, Admete, Ianthe, Electra, Doris, Prymno, Urania, Hippo, Clymene, Rhodea, Callirhoe, Zeuxo, Clytia, Idyia, Pasithoe, Plexaura, Galaxaura, Dione, Melobosis, Phoe, Polydora, Cerceis, Plouto, Perseis, Ianeira, Acaste, Xanthe, Petraea, Menestho, Europa, Metis, Eurynome, Telesto, Chryseis, Asia, Calypso, Eudora, Tyche, Amphirho, Ocyrhoe and Styx, who is the foremost of them all (Hesiod, Theogony 349–361). Hesiod adds that these are the eldest daughters of Oceanus and Tethys, but that there are many more, three thousand slender-ankled Oceanids in all, who haunt the earth and the depths of the waters everywhere (Theogony 362–366).

What the Oceanids Do

Hesiod gives one task to the Oceanids as a group. Together with lord Apollo and the Rivers, they bring up young men to manhood, and this is a charge they have from Zeus (Theogony 346–348). Telesto shares in this role only as one of the sisters; no source assigns it to her alone.

Telesto in the Theogony

Telesto is one of the Oceanids Hesiod names in the Theogony; he gives her the epithet krokopeplos, “saffron-robed” (Theogony 358). She is not in the list of Oceanids who play with Persephone in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, where Leucippe, Phaeno, Electra, Ianthe, Melite, Iache, Rhodea, Callirhoe, Melobosis, Tyche, Ocyrhoe, Chryseis, Ianeira, Acaste, Admete, Rhodope, Plouto, Calypso, Styx, Urania and Galaxaura are named (Homeric Hymn to Demeter 417–424). No ancient story about Telesto herself survives.

See Also: Oceanus, Tethys, Styx, Eurynome, Metis, Calypso, Persephone