Auge

Or Augeia (Αὐγεία), a daughter of Aleus and Neaera, was a priestess of Athena, and having become by Heracles the mother of a son, she concealed him in the temple of the goddess. In consequence of this profanation of the sanctuary, the country was visited by a scarcity; and when Aleus was informed by an oracle that the temple of Athena was profaned by something unholy, he searched and found the child in it, and ordered him to be exposed on Mount Parthenion, where he was suckled by a stag (ἔλαφος), whence the boy derived the name of Telephus.

Auge was surrendered to Nauplius, who was to kill her, but he gave her to Teuthras, king of the Mysians, who made her his wife.1

The same story is related with some modifications by Pausanias,2 Diodorus,3 Hyginus,4 and Tzetzes.5

Auge's tomb was shown in the time of Pausanias6 at Pergamus in Mysia.

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Auge was represented by Polygnotus in the Lesche of Delphi.7

References

Notes

  1. Pseudo-Apollodorus. The Library ii, 7.4, iii, 9.1.
  2. Description of Greece viii, 4.6, 48.5.
  3. iv, 33.
  4. Fabulae, 99.
  5. on Lycophron, 206.
  6. viii, 4.6.
  7. x, 28.4.

Source

  • Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.

This article incorporates text from Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) by William Smith, which is in the public domain.