Second Hymn to Telesphorus
Telesphorus · AsclepiusThe second and last hymn of the same Athenian stele — hexameters instead of anapaests, and an entirely different tone. The first hymn asks; this one praises and explains.
It opens with a child: "play, Telesphoros, play". The god here literally plays, and his laughter brightens the faces of his priests — a rare image in ancient prayer, where a god is allowed to be a cheerful boy rather than a power.
Then comes an argument about precedence which the hymn conducts without admitting that it is conducting one. Epidauros, the old centre of Asklepios' cult, calls this god Akesis, "Cure"; the Athenians call him Telesphoros. The hymn accepts both names and so makes a second-century newcomer an original member of Asklepios' circle after the fact.
And at once the name is explained, twice over. Telesphoros means "bringer of fulfilment", telos; hence "brought them to a wheat-bearing fulfilment", that is, carried the year through to harvest. Then a second etymology, by way of zoophoron, "life-bearing" — and it is precisely there that the stone breaks off.
The hymn's last word is Bakchos. The connection is surprising only at first: at Athens Asklepios had long stood close to the Eleusinian circle, and "life-bearing" leads to wine of its own accord. What stood in the gap is unknown: lines 41-42 are left unrestored by both IG and AIO. Kaibel proposed "Bakchos himself [raised] you, life-bearer", Furley and Bremer "created life-bearing [wine]"; both are marked as guesses.