Teles – One of the many Sirens in Greek mythology
https://www.wizard101central.com/wiki/Creature:Teles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siren_(mythology)
https://www.wizard101central.com/wiki/Spell:Sirens
One of the first Siren creatures in the game. You face this boss if you fail to solve her puzzle and clear her organ in Atlantea, so that they may pass through the Temple of Sea Songs
Your song is discordant and full of strife, Wizard! Now listen to the final countdown!
Teles
In Greek mythology, the sirens were humanlike beings with alluring voices; they appear in a scene in the Odyssey in which Odysseus saves his crew’s lives. Roman poets placed them on some small islands called Sirenum scopuli. In some later, rationalized traditions, the literal geography of the “flowery” island of Anthemoessa, or Anthemusa, is fixed: sometimes on Cape Pelorum and at others in the islands known as the Sirenuse, near Paestum, or in Capreae. All such locations were surrounded by cliffs and rocks.
The sirens of Greek mythology first appeared in Homer’s Odyssey, where Homer did not provide any physical descriptions, and their visual appearance was left to the readers’ imagination. It was Apollonius of Rhodes in Argonautica (3rd century BC) who described the sirens in writing as part woman and part bird. By the 7th century BC, sirens were regularly depicted in art as human-headed birds. They may have been influenced by the ba-bird of Egyptian religion. In early Greek art, the sirens were generally represented as large birds with women’s heads, bird feathers and scaly feet. Later depictions shifted to show sirens with human upper bodies and bird legs, with or without wings. They were often shown playing a variety of musical instruments, especially the lyre, kithara, and aulos.
Sirens were later often used as a synonym for mermaids, and portrayed with upper human bodies and fish tails. This combination became iconic in the medieval period. The circumstances leading to the commingling involve the treatment of sirens in the medieval Physiologus and bestiaries, both iconographically, as well as textually in translations from Latin to vulgar languages.
Their number is variously reported as from two to eight. In the Odyssey, Homer says nothing of their origin or names, but gives the number of the sirens as two. Later writers mention both their names and number: some state that there were three, Peisinoe, Aglaope and Thelxiepeia or Aglaonoe, Aglaopheme and Thelxiepeia; Parthenope, Ligeia, and Leucosia; Apollonius followed Hesiod gives their names as Thelxinoe, Molpe, and Aglaophonos; Suidas gives their names as Thelxiepeia, Peisinoe, and Ligeia; Hyginus gives the number of the sirens as four: Teles, Raidne, Molpe, and Thelxiope; Eustathius states that they were two, Aglaopheme and Thelxiepeia; an ancient vase painting attests the two names as Himerope and Thelxiepeia.
Siren enchants sailors (Miniature)
A Siren, portrayed with a fish’s tail like a mermaid, lulls sailors to sleep with her song. One sailor stops his ears with his fingers to avoid hearing her.
Their individual names are variously rendered in the later sources as Thelxiepeia/Thelxiope/Thelxinoe, Molpe, Himerope, Aglaophonos/Aglaope/Aglaopheme, Pisinoe/Peisinoë/Peisithoe, Parthenope, Ligeia, Leucosia, Raidne, and Teles.
In Greek mythology, Teles (Ancient Greek: means “accomplish, fulfill”) was also the Thespian son of Heracles and Lysidice, daughter of King Thespius of Thespiae. Though not the inspiration for this character.
Taking all this into consideration, the Storm school spell Sirens is connected to this NPC as well.
The current list of all the (known) Aquila references are located here.
Although I am well versed in Pop Culture references, I do not claim to have caught them all. Let me know your favorites in the comments and if I’ve missed one you caught, let me know so I can add it to the list.
Text for this article is excerpted from the linked wiki pages
Teles and Sirens images are from Wizard101, and are copyright of KingsIsle Entertainment.
Moaning siren statuette image is borrowed from Wikipedia and is in the Public Domain.
The English Bestiary Siren image has been provided by the British Library from its digital collections under the Creative Commons CC0 license. It is borrowed from Wikipedia
Image usage qualifies as fair use under US copyright law.
Vulcan Stev's Database 