Telestas of Selinus, a distinguished poet of the later Athenian dithyramb, is mentioned by Diodorus Siculus (xiv. 46) as flourishing at Olympiad 95.3 or 398 BC, with Philoxenus, Timotheus, and Polyeidus and this date is confirmed by the Parian Marble (Ep. 66). according to which Telestes gained a dithyrambic victory in 401 BC. (Comp. Clinton, F. H. vol. ii. s. aa. 401, 398). He is also mentioned by Plutarch (Alex. 8), who states that Alexander had the dithyrambs of Telestes and Philoxenus sent to him in Asia. He is also referred to by the comic poet Theopompus, in his Althaca (Ath. xi. p. 501, f.; Meineke, Frag. Com. Graec. vol. ii. p. 793, where Meineke promises some future remarks upon the poet). Aristoxenus wrote a life of him, which is quoted by Apollonius Dyscolus (Hist. Mirab. 40, in Westermann's Paradoxographi, p. 113); and Aristratus, the tyrant of Sicyon, erected a monument to his memory, adorned with paintings by Nicomachus. (Plin. H. N. xxxv. 10. s. 36. § 22, where the common reading is Telesti, not Telestae ; NICOMACHUS).

The only remains of the poetry of Telestes are some interesting lines preserved by Athenaeus (xiv. pp. 616, foll., 626, a., 637, a), from which we learn that the following were among the titles of his pieces, Argo, Asklepios, Hymenaios; and also that, in his poetry, he praised the music of the flute, and opposed the poet Melanippides respecting the subject of the rejection of that instrument by Athena. These fragments have been metrically analyzed by Böckh (de Metr. Pind. pp. 274, foll.). From the description of Dionysius (C. V. 19), his style appears to have been a mixture of bold and lofty with soft and complex rhythms, passing from one to the other by the most abrupt transitions. The statement of Suidas, that he was a comic poet, is a mere blunder. Athenaeus Suidas avowedly copies, does not specify the kind of his poetry, no doubt because every well-informed [p. 993] person knew that he was a dithyrambic poet; and so Suidas, judging probably from the titles of his pieces, assumed that he was a comic poet. Such blunders are frequent in Suidas, and this specimen would not have required notice, had it not misled several critics. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. pp. 157, 158; Heeren, in the Bibl. f. altc Litt. u. Kunst, vol. iv. pp. 54, foll., Hist. Schrift. vol. iii. pp. 160, foll.; Müller, Hist. Lit. Greece, vol. ii. pp. 59, 60 ; Bernhardy, Gesch. d. Griech. Lit. vol. ii. p. 555 ; Ulrici, Gesch. d. Hell. Dichtk. vol. ii. pp. 610, foll.)