What is "telesphorus"

In ancient Greek religion, Telesphorus ( Telesphoros) was a son of Asclepius. He frequently accompanied his sister, Hygieia. He was a dwarf whose head was always covered with a cowl hood or cap.

He symbolized recovery from illness, as his name means "the accomplisher" or "bringer of completion" in Greek. Representations of him are found mainly in Anatolia and along the Danube.

Telesphorus is assumed to have been a Celtic god in origin, who was taken to Anatolia by the Galatians in the 3rd century BC, where he would have become associated with the Greek god of medicine, Asclepius, perhaps in Pergamon (an Asclepian cult center) and spread again to the West due to the rise of the Roman Empire, in particular during the 2nd century AD, from the reign of Hadrian.

Telesphorus or Telesphoros can refer to:

• Telesphorus (mythology)
• Pope Telesphorus
• Telesphorus (general)

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Telesphorus (in Greek Tελεσφoρoς; lived 4th century BC) was a general in the service of Antigonus Monophthalmus, the king of Asia, who was sent by him in 313 BC, with a fleet of fifty ships and a considerable army to the Peloponnese, to oppose the forces of Polyperchon and Cassander. His arms were at first very successful; he drove out the Macedonian garrisons from all the cities of the peninsula, except Sicyon and Corinth, which, were held by Polyperchon himself; but having joined with Medius in an attempt to relieve Oreus, to which Cassander had laid siege, they were defeated, with the loss of several ships. The following summer (312 BC) Antigonus having conferred the chief direction of the war in the Peloponnese upon his nephew Ptolemy, Telesphorus was so indignant that he shook off his allegiance, and having induced some of his soldiers to follow him, established himself in Elis on his own account, and even plundered the sacred treasures at Olympia. He was, however, soon after, induced to submit to Ptolemy.