Tellen
or TELLIS (Τελλην, Τε.λλις), a wretched flute-player and lyric poet, in the time of Epaminondas. (Plut. Reg. et Imp. Apopththeg. p. 193f.) His name passed into the proverb, ἄειδε τὰ Τέλληνος, mentioned by Zenobius, who says, however, that the songs of Tellen were well composed and graceful, but jocose and licentious, (Zenob. Prov. 1.45, 2.15; Fabric. Bibt. Graec. vol. ii. p. 158).
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.