Telephus Cured By The Rust Of The Same Spear That Had Wounded Him

48.5 x 32 cm (19.1 x 12.6 inches).
Telephus Cured By The Rust Of The Same Spear That Had Wounded Him
This spectacular baroque engraving is from Bernard Picart's Le Temple Des Muses.
The engraving was made in 1733, is from the first edition and is an original antique. It has captions in French, English, German, and Dutch.
It is in very good condition for its age.
In Greek mythology, Telephus was the son of Hercules and Auge. Telephus was wounded by Achilles. His wound would not heal. The oracle of Apollo told him "your assailant will heal you". So Telephus went to Argos to be healed by Achilles. In return Telephus agreed to guide the Greeks to Troy. Achilles used rust scraped from his spear to heal him. As the spear was bronze, the rust would have been verdigris. Interestingly, this has medicinal properties!