The Mentor In Homer's Odyssey

Historical Perspective Before Greek mythology, the term mentor had its origin in Homer's Odyssey when Odysseus gave Mentor, an insightful and scholarly man, the duty of sustaining and instructing his child, Telemachus. Mentor stayed behind to instruct Telemachus while Odysseus went off to fight the Trojan war. This education included every part of Telemachus’ life. Anderson and Shannon (1988) conclude from The Odyssey that modeling is a standard and style of behavior constituted a central quality of mentoring and that mentoring was intentional, nurturing, insightful, and supportive. Other relationship of mentors and mentees in history included Socrates and Plato, Freud and Jung, and Hayden and Beethoven. Myths and Fairy tales use mentors, as Charlotte in Charlotte’s web and Shazam in “Captain Marvel Comics” (Merriam,1983). In these cases, as per Maddex, the mentor figures showed the attributes of consultants, aides, or backers who offer knowledge and direction

In addition, for some mentors, mentoring was a burden or workload issue that often went unnoticed by others. Mentees, too, were concerned by a lack of mentor interest and training and a host of problematic mentor attributes and behaviors (e.g. critical or defensive behaviors). Professional or personal incompatibility or incompatibility based on other factors such as race or gender was also seen by both mentors and mentees as impediments to the success of the relationship. Organizations, too, were confronted with difficulties arising from mentoring programs. Lack of commitment from the organization, lack of partnership and funding problems were reported in some studies, while in others, cultural or gender biases meant that some mentees’ experiences were not