Telephassa:

In Greek mythology, Telephassa, "far-shining", is a lunar epithet like Telephae that is sometimes substituted for Argiope,^[1] the wife of Agenor, according to his name a "leader of men"^[2] in Phoenicia, and mother of Cadmus.^[3] In some cases she is the daughter to Nilus, god of the Nile. She had several children, including Europa, Cilix, Cadmus, Thasus, who gave his name to an island next to Samothrace,^[4] and Phoenix. Her husband was Agenor or perhaps her husband was Phoenix in a version in which Cadmus and Europa and their brothers are sons of Phoenix (see Agenor and Phoenix). Zeus saw Europa gathering flowers and transformed himself into a white bull and carried Europa away to the island of Crete. He then revealed his true identity and Europa became the first queen of Crete.

Telephassa accompanied her son Cadmus on a quest to find Europa. The mother and son traveled to the islands of Rhodes and Thera before arriving in Thrace where Telephassa fell ill and died. "On Samothrace... the mother was called Elektra orElektryone there", Karl Kerenyi notes.^[5] After burying his mother, Cadmus was told of the oracle of Delphi by the Thacians. Upon consulting the oracle, he was advised to travel until encountering a cow. He was to follow this cow and to found a city where the cow would lay down; this city became Thebes. Cilix, Europa's other brother, also searched for her and settled down in Asia Minor. The land was called Cilicia after him.

Many scholars believe that these Greek myths actually show the inter-relationship between Phoenicia and Greece itself, with such ancient antiquities being distantly linked, and historically much more fragmented.

Notes

^ Other mythic figures were also named Argiope.
^ Kerenyi, The Heroes of the Greeks 1959:27.
^ "She bore the lunar name Telephassa or Telephae, 'she who illuminates afar', or Argiope 'she of the white face'", Karl Kerenyi notes in The Heroes of the Greeks 1959:27.
^ Kerenyi 1959:27f.
^ Kerenyi 1959:27.

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