Telesilla of Argos was a lyric poet of the 5th century BCE, listed by Antipater of Thesalonike (c. 15 BCE) as one of the great Nine Female Lyric Poets of Greece (along with Praxilla, Moiro, Anyte, Sappho, Erinna, Corinna, Nossis, and Myrtis). She was responsible for the metrical innovation of lyric poetry known as the Telesillean Metre. Antipater writes:
These are the divinely tongued women who were reared
on the hymns of Helicon and the Pierian Rock of Macedon:
Praxilla, Moiro, Anyte the female Homer,
Sappho the ornament of the fair-tressed Lesbian women,
Erinna, renowned Telesilla, and you, Corinna,
who sang of Athena's martial shield,
Nossis the maiden-throated, and Myrtis the sweet-voiced,
All of them fashioners of the everlasting page.
Nine Muses Great Ouranos bore, Nine likewise Gaia,
to be a joy undying for mortals (Anthologia Palatina, 9.26).
In her youth, she was continually sickly and so consulted the gods for help in restoring her to health. The answer came from the oracle that she should devote herself to the Muses, and so Telesilla dedicated herself to the study of poetry and music. She soon found herself healed and, additionally, grew in fame as a great lyric poet. Of the considerable body of work she produced, only two lines remain extant as quoted by the ancient grammarian Hephaistion of Alexandria in his Handbook on Meter (c. 96 CE). References to her, however, appear in the works of Pausanius (c. 110-180 CE), Plutarch (45-120 CE), Athenaeus (c. 3rd century CE), and the work Bibliotheca ascribed (wrongly) to Apollodorus of Alexandria (2nd century CE), among others. She was an extremely influential artist who is always cited with respect by other ancient authors, no matter the subject.
Telesilla & the Salvation of Argos
While she was famous during her life for her poetry, she was equally respected by later writers for driving the Spartan forces from her home city of Argos in 494/493 BCE. Telesilla seems to have been at her work as a poet when the hostilities began. The Spartan king Cleomenes I consulted the Oracle of Apollo on what would happen if he marched on Argos, and he was assured that he would capture it. He was met on the field by the Argives at Sepeia and, through trickery, took the troops by surprise, slaughtered many, and chased the survivors from the field. These Argive soldiers took refuge in the sacred grove of Argus and claimed sanctuary from the god. Cleomenes questioned his Argive prisoners as to the names of those in hiding and, once he had these names, sent a herald to call them out personally and to guarantee their safety. As each man came out of the sanctuary, Cleomenes had him killed. This went on until one of the men remaining in the sacred grove climbed a tree and saw what was going on outside of the sanctuary. Afterwards, of course, no other Argive answered Cleomenes' call. Since he could not get any more Argives to come out willingly, he set fire to the grove and burned the rest of the men to death. Herodotus reports that, as the flames were rising, he asked one of the Argive deserters to which god the grove was sacred. When the man said it was the grove of Argus, Cleomenes groaned and said, “Apollo, god of prophecy, you seriously misled me when you foretold that I would capture Argos; I think your prediction has now come true” (Histories, VI.80).
Even though it seemed the oracle had meant he would only conquer the sanctuary of Argos, he left the grove and marched on the city. Telesilla heard of what had happened to the men of the army and mobilized the women, youth, and elders of Argos for defense. Plutarch writes:
No action taken by women for the common good is more famous than the conflict against Cleomenes by the Argive women, which they fought at the instigation of the poetess Telesilla. When Cleomenes king of Sparta had killed many Argives (but not, as some have imagined, Seven thousand, seven hundred, and seventy-seven) and marched against the city, an impulsive courage, divinely inspired, impelled the younger women to defend their country against the enemy. With Telesilla as general, they took up arms and made their defense by manning the walls around the city, and the enemy was amazed. They drove Cleomenes off after inflicting many losses. They also repulsed the other Spartan king, Demaratus, who (according to the Argive historian Socrates) managed to get inside and seize the Pamphylacium. After the city was saved, they buried the women who had fallen in battle by the Argive road, and as a memorial to the achievements of the women who were spared they dedicated a temple to Ares Enyalius ... Up to the present day they celebrate the Festival of Impudence (Hybristika) on the anniversary putting the women into men's tunics and cloaks and the men in women's dresses and head-coverings (Moralia 245c-f).
Telesilla's actions were interpreted by other writers as the fulfillment of a prophecy by the oracle, referenced by Herodotus, concerning Argos. Pausanius writes:
Above the Theater there is a temple of Aphrodite and in front of the seated statue of the goddess is a stele engraved with an image of Telesilla the writer of poems. These lie as though thrown down beside her feet and she herself is looking at a helmet which she holds in her hand and is about to put on her head. Telesilla was famous among women for her poetry but still more famous for the following achievement.
Her fellow citizens had sustained an indescribable disaster at the hands of the Spartans under Cleomenes son of Anaxandridas. Some had fallen in actual battle and of the others, who took sanctuary in the grove of Argus, some had at first ventured out under a truce, only to be burnt to death when Cleomenes set fire to the grove. By these means Cleomenes, proceeding to Argos, led his Lacedaemonians against a city of women.
But Telesilla took all the slaves and all such male citizens who through youth or age had been unable to bear arms, and made them man the walls, and gathering together all the weapons of war that had been left in the houses or were hanging in the temples, armed the younger women and marshalled them at a place she knew the enemy must pass. There, undismayed by the war cry, the women stood their ground and fought with the greatest determination, until the Spartans, reflecting that the slaughter of an army of women would be an equivocal victory, and defeat at their hands would be dishonor as well as disaster, laid down their arms. Now this battle had been foretold by the Pythian Priestess, and Herodotus , whether he understood it or not, quotes the oracle as follows:
When male by female is put to flight
And Argos' name with honor is bright
Many an Argive wife will show
Both cheeks marred with scars of woe.
Such is the part of the oracle which refers to the women.
