Extract

Telchines (Τελχῖνες), an ancient race of Nibelung-like godlings, inventors of the craft of metalwork (see culture-bringers); associated chiefly with the islands of *Rhodes, *Cyprus, *Ceos, and *Crete, but traces of their folklore are also found in *Boeotia (*‘Athena Telchinia', Paus. 9. 19. 1), *Sicyon, and elsewhere on the mainland. Their ‘magical’ skill brought with it allegations of wizardry, the blighting of crops with their sulphur and foul water (Strabo 14. 654), and the evil eye. Hence their reputation as spiteful, jealous beings whom *Zeus attempted to drown (Ov., Met. 7. 365 ff.) or scatter; hence too, most famously, *Callimachus(3)'s pillorying of his literary enemies under their name (Aetia fr. 1, cf. frs. 75, 64, ed. C. Trypanis (Loeb)). Compare Idaean Dactyls.