Telchines

Latin

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Τελχῖνες (Telkhînes).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /telˈkʰiː.nes/, [t̪ɛɫ̪ˈkʰiːnɛs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /telˈki.nes/, [t̪elˈkiːnes]

The e in the final syllable of the nominative plural is short in Greek and must be short to scan in the places where it occurs in hexameter in Statius' works.

Proper noun

Telchīnes m pl (genitive Telchīnum); third declension

1. the Telchines, a fabled family of priests in Rhodes
   • 8 CE, Ovid, Metamorphoses 7.365:

     Phoebeamque Rhodon et Ialysios Telchinas, / quorum oculos ipso vitiantes omnia visu / Iuppiter exosus fraternis subdidit undis

     She passed Rhodes, Phoebus' island, and the Telchines of Ialsos, whose all-devastating gaze Jupiter hated and buried beneath his brother's waves. ―Dan Curley, Tragedy in Ovid: Theater, Metatheater, and the Transformation of a Genre

   • Publius Papinius Statius, Thebais 2.274, (dactylic hexameter):

     hoc, docti quamquam maiora, laborant / Cyclopes, notique operum Telchines amica / certatim iuuere manu; sed plurimus ipsi / sudor.

     at this do the Cyclopes toil though they are learned in greater arts; the skillful Telchines lend a hand in friendly rivalry; but the greatest 'sweat' is his own ―Christopher Chinn, "Intertext, Metapoetry, and Visuality in the Achilleid", in Brill's Companion to Statius, edited by William J. Dominik, Carole E. Newlands, and Kyle Gervais, page 175

   • Publius Papinius Statius, Silvae 4.6.47, (dactylic hexameter):

     tale nec Idaeis quicquam Telchines in antris / nec stolidus Brontes nec, qui polit arma deorum, / Lemnius exigua potuisset ludere massa.

     The Telchines in their caves under Mt. Ida could not have created any such thing from a small mass, nor could brutish Brontes have made it, nor the Lemnian who polishes the weapons of the gods. ―Charles McNelis, "Ut Sculptura Poesis: Statius, Martial, and the Hercules Epitrapezios of Novius Vindex", American Journal of Philology, Volume 129, Number 2 (WholeNumber 514), Summer 2008, (pp. 255-276), page 259

   • Maurus Servius Honoratus, In Vergilii Aeneidos Libros 4.377.10:

     idem enim et sol creditur: sive quod transfiguratus in lupum cum / Cyrene concubuit: sive quod in lupi habitu Telchinas occiderit: sive

Declension

Third-declension noun (Greek-type, normal variant), plural only.

Case	Plural
Nominative	Telchīnes
Genitive	Telchīnum
Dative	Telchīnibus
Accusative	Telchīnas
Ablative	Telchīnibus
Vocative	Telchīnes

References

• “Telchines”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press

Further reading

• “Τελχίν”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “Τελχίς”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• Telchines on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Telchis on Wikipedia.Wikipedia