† telesm Obs.
(ˈtɛlɪz(ə)m)
Also 7 telesme, -isme. Also in Gr. form telesma, pl. -mata.
[ad. late Gr. τέλεσµα completion, performance, religious rite (a 200 Clem. Alex.); later, a consecrated object endowed with a magic virtue to avert evil; f. τελεῖν to complete, fulfil, perform (rites), officiate (in the mysteries), consecrate; f. τέλος end, etc.]
= talisman2 1; esp. in Byzantine Greece, and in Asia, a statue set up, or an object buried under a pillar or the like to preserve the community, house, etc. from danger.
| 1646 J. Gregory Notes & Obs. (1650) 33 The Claudi and the Cæci..were no other than those..Statuary Telesmes so much celebrated of old, which unless they kept the City, the watchman laboured but in vaine. Ibid. 38 Apollonius fetching a deep sigh, refused to make any further Telesmes against the Earthquakes. 1660 H. More Myst. Godl. viii. xv. 432 Gaffarel tells us a very reverend story of a Telesme against Fire found under a bridge at Paris. 1693 W. Freke Sel. Ess. iv. 32 Thus Telesmes, or Talismans also,—are a spawn of Astrology. |