# Taphians

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Map of the Tilevoides

In [Homeric Greece](/source/Ancient_Greece), the islands of **Taphos** [/ˈteɪˌfɒs/](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/English) (Τάφος) lay in the [Ionian Sea](/source/Ionian_Sea) off the coast of [Acarnania](/source/Acarnania) in northwestern Greece, home of seagoing and [piratical](/source/Pirate) inhabitants, the **Taphians** [/ˈteɪfiənz/](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/English) (Τάφιοι). [Penelope](/source/Penelope) mentions the Taphian sea-robbers when she rebukes the chief of her [suitors](/source/Suitors_of_Penelope).[1] [Athena](/source/Athena) is disguised as [Mentes](/source/Mentes_(King_of_the_Taphians)), "lord of the Taphian men who love their oars", who accepts the hospitality of [Telemachus](/source/Telemachus) and speeds him on his journey from [Ithaca](/source/Homer's_Ithaca) to [Pylos](/source/Pylos).[2] Although the Taphians dealt in slaves[3], their piratical activities weren't always seen as immoral. In the heroic age, piracy (*leisteia*) was a legitimate means of acquiring resources. Beyond slaves, the Taphians played a crucial role in the trade of metals, and in the context of the transition from Bronze to Iron, control over the distribution of iron—the new strategic metal for weapons and tools—granted the Taphians disproportionate power relative to their limited territorial base. [4]

By the time of [Euripides](/source/Euripides), the islands were identified with the [Echinades](/source/Echinades): in Euripides' *[Iphigeneia at Aulis](/source/Iphigeneia_at_Aulis)* (405 BCE), the chorus of women from Chalcis have spied the Hellenes' fleet and seen Eurytus who "led the Taphian warriors with the white oar-blades, the subjects of [Meges](/source/Meges), son of [Phyleus](/source/Phyleus), who had left the isles of the Echinades, where sailors cannot land."[5] Modern scholars, such as the editors of the *[Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World](/source/Barrington_Atlas_of_the_Greek_and_Roman_World)*, identify the island of Taphos as the island of [Meganisi](/source/Meganisi) just east of the larger island [Lefkada](/source/Lefkada) (Leucas).

The Taphians accounted themselves the descendants of [Perseus](/source/Perseus), for the mother of [Taphius](/source/Taphius), their [eponymous](/source/Eponym) colonizer, was a granddaughter of Perseus and lay with [Poseidon](/source/Poseidon) to beget the heroic founder. Another tradition holds that Taphius was one of the [Leleges](/source/Leleges), and grandson of [Lelex](/source/Lelex). Their most noted king was [Pterelaos](/source/Pterelaos), rendered immortal by Poseidon by the single golden hair among the hairs of his head, but undone by his faithless daughter ([Comaetho](/source/Comaetho)) who plucked it while he slept, so that the Mycenaean adventurer [Amphitryon](/source/Amphitryon) of [Tiryns](/source/Tiryns) could overcome and kill him and retrieve the cattle Pterelaos' sons had rustled from [Mycenae](/source/Mycenae), along with many spoils besides. As he was returning with his spoils to his bride at [Thebes](/source/Thebes%2C_Greece), [Zeus](/source/Zeus) preceded him by one night: taking Amphitryon's shape, and brandishing a Taphian cup as a sign of his success, the king of gods fathered [Heracles](/source/Heracles).

They are often identified with the **Tilevoides** (Τηλεβόιδες), islands in the [Ionian Sea](/source/Ionian_Sea).

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** Homer. *[Odyssey](/source/Odyssey)*, Book XVI

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Homer. *Odyssey*, Book I.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Homer. *Odyssey*, Book XV.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Markessinis, Andreas. ["Lords of the Sea: The Taphians From Homeric Memory to Archaeological Reality – Archæologia Cephallonica"](https://andreasmarkessinis.pro/archaeology/taphians-teleboans-pirates-late-bronze-age/). Retrieved 2026-01-04.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** [Iphenigea](http://www.zona-pellucida.com/texts/iphenigeia.html)

## Sources

- [Richard Talbert](/source/Richard_Talbert). [Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World](/source/Barrington_Atlas_of_the_Greek_and_Roman_World), p. 54. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-691-03169-X](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-691-03169-X)

## External links

- [Dick Caldwell, "The myths of Argos":](http://www.sporadestours.com/argolis.html) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20050913120501/http://www.sporadestours.com/argolis.html) 2005-09-13 at the [Wayback Machine](/source/Wayback_Machine) Amphitryon and Pterelaos

Authority control databases International VIAF National France BnF data Geographic Pleiades

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Taphians](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taphians) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taphians?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.