Telegonus’s Family Tree

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Family

• Circe(parent),Odysseus(parent)— Consort

  During his year on Aeaea, Odysseus became Circe's lover. Their son Telegonus later sailed to Ithaca seeking his father and accidentally killed Odysseus, fulfilling Tiresias's prophecy.

• Penelope(spouse)— Marriage

  After Telegonus accidentally slew Odysseus with a stingray-barbed spear, Circe granted Penelope immortality and Telegonus took her as his wife on the island of Aeaea.

Slew

• Odysseus

  Telegonus unknowingly killed his father Odysseus with a spear tipped with a stingray's venomous spine when the aged hero came to defend his flocks from the unknown raider on Ithaca.

Associated with

• Aeaea

  Telegonus was born on Aeaea, the son of Odysseus and Circe. He grew up on the island before sailing to Ithaca in search of his father, according to the epic Telegony.

• Circe

  Circe armed her son Telegonus with a spear tipped with a stingray spine. He unknowingly used it to kill his father Odysseus on Ithaca, fulfilling the prophecy of death from the sea.

• Telemachus

  Telegonus, Odysseus's son by Circe, accidentally killed his father with a stingray-tipped spear on Ithaca. In the Telegony, Telegonus then married Penelope while Telemachus married Circe.

• Tiresias

  Tiresias prophesied that Odysseus's death would come 'from the sea.' Telegonus fulfilled this prophecy literally — the stingray spine on his spear, a creature of the sea, delivered the fatal wound.