This artwork depicts Hercules finding his son Telephus in the Arcadian mountains. Roman fresco from the site of Herculaneum, 70 AD.

Aleo, king of Arcadia, was warned by an oracle that if his daughter Auge had a son, he would kill his maternal uncles. To prevent this, Aleo made his daughter a priestess of Athena, and she was therefore forbidden to have children.

The hero Heracles, passing through Arcadia, enters the temple and rapes Auge. From this union, the child Telephus is born. The child remains hidden in the temple of Athena until Aleo, a plague ravaging the country, discovers him. He banishes Auge and leaves the child exposed on Mount Parthenius.

It was then that the gods took care of the child, and he survived by being suckled by a doe that had just given birth to a fawn. There are different versions of the story. In one, Heracles finds Telephus and takes him in.

Some time later, as the oracle predicted, Telephus accidentally kills his maternal uncles in battle, and its in Mysia that he is finally reunited with his mother, Auge.