AUGE (daughter of Aleus)

While Heracles passed through Tegea seeking Laomedon's horses, he seduced Auge in the valleys of Arcadia without knowing her parentage.^1,3,4,5 She secretly bore a son, Telephus, who strongly resembled his father.^2,6,7,8,9 Accounts differ on the birthplace, with one saying she gave birth near Mount Parthenium and another placing it at the Eileithyia sanctuary.^10,2 In one version, she hid the infant in bushes near Mount Parthenium, while in another she concealed him in the precinct of Athena.^1,7,2

Aleus discovered her motherhood after investigating a pestilence in the region.¹ He ordered Nauplius to drown Auge in the sea, or to sell her far away in a foreign land.^7,2,1 One account states that Aleus placed her and her infant son in a chest and sent them to sea.¹¹ As she was carried to her execution, she knelt down, and one account says she gave birth without her father knowing at that moment.¹⁰

Athena guided the chest containing her and her son across the sea to the Caïcus mouth.⁸ The abandoned child Telephus was exposed on Mount Parthenius, where a deer suckled him in one account.¹⁰

Telephus later discovered his mother in Mysia after consulting the oracle at Delphi.² Auge’s tomb stands at Pergamus above the Calcus, marking the end of her wandering.¹¹ She quickly fell away from Heracles' heart and retained no traces of his love, a sentiment echoed in later accounts of her story.^3,12