en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telemachus
1 correction found
In this account, Telemachus still marries Circe, but Odysseus is resurrected by Circe at some point.
This sentence conflates two different traditions. In the later Cassiphone/Tzetzes version, Odysseus is revived and Telemachus marries Cassiphone, not Circe.
Full reasoning
The sentence mixes up the standard Telegony ending with a later variant.
In the usual Telegony tradition, Telemachus marries Circe after Odysseus is killed. A compilation of ancient sources states: “Telegonos … transports his father's body with Penelope and Telemakhos to his mother's island, where Kirke makes them immortal, and Telegonos marries Penelope, and Telemakhos Kirke.”
But the later tradition involving Cassiphone is different. Tzetzes' scholia on Lycophron say that after Odysseus was killed, Circe revived him, and Cassiphone was married to Telemachus. The same scholia then explain that Telemachus killed Circe, who in this version is his mother-in-law, and Cassiphone killed Telemachus in revenge.
So once the article switches to the Cassiphone/revived-Odysseus variant, it is no longer correct to say that Telemachus “still marries Circe.” In that account, he marries Cassiphone instead.
2 sources
- CIRCE (Kirke) - Greek Goddess of Sorcery, Sorceress of Aeaea
“Telegonos … transports his father's body with Penelope and Telemakhos to his mother's island, where Kirke makes them immortal, and Telegonos marries Penelope, and Telemakhos Kirke.”
- Tzetzes, Ad Lycophronem (ToposText)
“Others say that Odysseus, having been killed by Telegonus, was again raised by Circe with a potion and married Cassiphone to Telemachus … Telemachus married Cassiphone … Telemachus kills Circe … and he himself is killed by Cassiphone, his wife.”