The Odyssey, is an epic tale of one man’s expedition for nostos. In the beginning of Homer’s Odyssey, it is evident Telémakhos has not yet matured to manhood despite his age. Throughout the first four books, known as “The Telemachy”, he goes through a journey in which he develops and ultimately helps with Odysseus’ nostos. Athena has an important role in Telémakhos growth to manhood. It is Athena who encourages Telémakhos to go on a quest to find his father. Within this quest Telémakhos matures into adulthood. Telémakhos also learns a lot about himself, which helps him with his maturation. He develops some important characteristics that help prove his familial ties with Odysseus. His character growth is extremely important because it helps …show more content…
Telémakhos also has gained courage to call a meeting to confront the suitors. He tells the Akhaians to gather for the assembly: “My distinguished father is lost, who ruled among you once, mild as a father, and there is now this greater evil still: my home and all I have are being ruined. Mother wanted no suitors, but like a pack they came-…” (Od.2.49-54) He tells them of the burdens that the suitors have caused him and his mother, Penelope. He also tells the Akhaians of his plan to get rid of the suitors and find his father, Odysseus, thus helping Odysseus’ nostos. When first meeting Nestor, Telémakhos doubts his ability to say speeches but soon overcomes his fear and learns to speak to elders in a well-mannered way: “Nestor, pride of Akhaians, Neleus’ son, you ask where we are from, and I can tell you: our home port is under Mount Neion, Ithaka. We are not here on Ithakan business, though, but on my own. I want news of my father, Odysseus, known for his great heart and I will comb the wide world for it” (Od.3.86-92) This is important as it plays a role in displaying Telémakhos’ growth. He has learnt the important concept of giving speeches and can take care of himself with speech which in the ancient Greek world was …show more content…
Before Telémakhos takes the journey in which he matures and learns how to take care of himself as well as his similarities with Odysseus, Telémakhos would not be able to help Odysseus with his plan to gain back his kingdom because never he would not have developed courage. During the journey Telémakhos takes part, the suitors become aware that Telémakhos is now a threat and decide they must do something. This is shown in the quote: “Meanwhile the suitors had got under way, planning the death plunge for Telémakhos.” (Od.4.896-897) This displays Telémakhos’ growth because it shows that he has changed from the beginning of the poem as a boy who would not stand up for himself to a man who is viewed as a threat. This is essential to Odysseus’ nostos because without Telémakhos becoming courageous he would not be able to fight the suitors with Odysseus. Telémakhos meets Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, in the swineherd’s shelter at first Odysseus keeps his disguise but after talking to Athena he shows Telémakhos his true appearance, Telémakhos and Odysseus become overjoyed with their reunion. Together Odysseus and Telémakhos make a plan to get rid of the suitors once and for all: “I must put all my mind to it, to see if we two by ourselves can take them on or if we should look round for help.” (Od.16.278-282) Odysseus does not know who they can
At the beginning of the book Telemakhos is troubled with the suitors trying to marry his mother. He tries to keep them in line but they are rampant, especially when they're drunk. They kill Odysseus's herd for their own feedings and disrespect the house of Odysseus. So Telemakhos is obliged to search for his father because he is his last and only hope of keeping the suitors away. He is determined to search for his father and must find him at all costs. When Odysseus is stuck on the island of Kalypso, Athena had obliged him to leave the island in search of his home, Ithaka. She tells him of the memories he had there and he remembered how much he had longed for Ithaka. So he was determined to get home. Just like how Telemakhos was determined to find his father. They were destined by the gods to come together. In book 16, it talks about Telemakhos and his father talking to each other planning how they were going to take over the suitors. They talked and talked and were happy to see each other.
Through Telemachus, Odyssues’ son, the reader sees Odysseus’ utter dependence upon the gods’ aid. During Telemachus’ journey, all those th...
Odysseus’ and Telemachus’ journeys or nostos were both very similar and different. They parallel each other in some ways but they are also completely different at other times. Telemachus starts as a younger, less mature boy, and without the presence of his father during his childhood, he becomes a timid, shy and spineless boy who is greatly pampered by his mother. He has even more to achieve, being the son of a world-famous father, and this is a very difficult reputation to live up to. His journey, and after that the killing of the suitors who took advantage of him really show how his journeys and problems throughout the book mature him from being a shy, timid boy into a mature man. Odysseus’ journey also taught him about many things which he had never really experienced before, including suffering, poverty, and other things of that nature. Telemachus and Odysseus have parallel, but different journeys, which drastically change them throughout the epic and they are influenced by many different forces, both human and supernatural. Telemachus matures into a man while Odysseus becomes more wise, and both journey through Greece in search of one another.
This shows that Athena’s talk with him began to lead him in the direction of maturity. In his speech at the assembly, he says that what the suitors were doing was wrong. Even though he is beginning to act more mature, he reveals his lack of confidence when he says that, if he finds his father is dead, he will make his “mother marry again” (The Odyssey). At that point, he still did not have the courage to take up his father’s place as king of Ithaca. Also, before he said this, he had “dashed his staff to the ground and burst into tears” (The Odyssey). This clearly reveals his lingering immaturity, where “he acts like a child having a temper tantrum, throwing his toy to the ground and crying” (Bartleby). This act of immaturity makes the people gathered for the assembly look on him in pity like an adult would look with pity at a crying baby. Soon after the assembly, Telemachus leaves Ithaca to search for answers and for his missing father, all the while being guided by
Through these voyages certain parallels are drawn concerning Odysseus and Telemachos: the physical journeys, the mental preparations they have produced, and the resulting change in emotional makeup. These play an immense role in the way the story is set up, due to the purpose of each character's journey, their personal challenges, and the difficulties that surround them.
At some point in their life, many people experience feelings of inadequacy or uncertainty. In “The Odyssey” by Homer, one of the main characters Telemachus experiences both of these feelings. He feels that he is not good enough, especially compared to his father, Odysseus, who many people refer to as a great leader. In the beginning of “The Odyssey”, Telemachus’ home has been taken over by suitors, each with the goal of winning over his mother, in hopes to marry her and become king. Telemachus is not fond of these men in his home, but does not have the confidence to get rid of them. Lastly, at this point in the story, Odysseus, Telemachus’ father, has been gone for approximately twenty years, most of Telemachus’ life. Telemachus has been
Throughout the last books of The Odyssey Homer tells us how Odysseus restores his relationships with his friends and relatives at Ithaca. Perhaps one of the most revealing of these restoration episodes is Odysseus' re-encounter with his son, Telemachus. This re-encounter serves three main purposes. First, it serves to portray Telemachus' likeness to his father in the virtues of prudence, humility, patience, and planning. Secondly, it is Odysseus' chance to teach his son to be as great a ruler as Odysseus himself is. Lastly, Homer uses this re-encounter to emphasize the importance of a family structure to a society. To be able to understand the impact that this meeting had on Odysseus it is necessary to see that Telemachus has grown since his first appearances in the poem and obviously since his last contact with his father; Odysseus left Telemachus as an infant now their relationship is a man to man relationship rather than a man to child relationship.
The first step in any hero’s journey is the Call to Adventure, or the seperation from the pack. For Odysseus this call happened while he was on Calypso’s Island. Up on Olympus Athena had convinced Zeus of her case and Hermes was dispatched to free Odysseus from Calypso’s grasp. Odysseus was settled here for quite some time and had no way of escape until Calypso was forced by the gods to let him go. This is where his journey begins. At first Odysseus is very skeptical of this freedom and thinks that it is a trick by Calypso, which is the denial stage that follows the call to adventure. This stage seperates Odysseus once agaian from what has become familiar to him. He is called to journey alone once again to gain what it is that he has wanted for so long. For Telemachus his call came due to the perils he was facing in his own home with suitors competing for his mother’s love. They started to eat him out of house and home and began to disrespect his mother. Before this Telemachus had stayed quiet, and had not taken action. Telemachus got summoned to branch out from his mother and his home to venture out on a journey of his own. It was now his time to become a man.
After he gets together a crew he begins to take charge, and “Telemachus shout[s] out commands to all his shipmates: ‘All lay hands to tackle!’ They [spring] to orders” (106). Telemachus at this point is beginning to find his own voice. He is driven by the desire to find Odysseus and it is bringing out an authoritative side to him which the men seem to respect. Despite some of the crew being older than him they listen and respond positively to his orders. Once they reach their first destination, Pylos, King Nestor addresses Telemachus and his crew. At the start of this interaction Telemachus is quite fearful and intimidated by the king. Thanks to Athena however, “poised Telemachus answer[es], filled with heart, the heart Athena herself inspired, to ask for the news about his father, gone so long, and make his name
The great epic, Homer's Odyssey, is a tale of an adventure; a journey through the mind body and soul. Odysseus was strong throughout his voyage and was able to conquer his obstacles thanks to the help from the Goddess Athena. Athena provided physical and emotional support for this man, to get him on his way home to Ithaka. She also provided this same support for Odysseus' son, Telemakhos. Without her involvement, "The Odyssey" would not have turned out the way it did; because she plays such a crucial role in the story. It is understood that Odysseus is the primary character in this epic; concerning his fears and eventually returning to his home, Ithaka. The only reason this was possible is because he had the help of the clever and intelligent Goddess, Athena.
In the Odyssey, Telemachus, son of great hero Odysseus, who grows up in the world of greed and disrespect where the suitors take over his palace and court his mother, is one of the most significant character throughout the whole epic. His father, Odysseus, leaving the land Ithaca for 20 years, is the only warrior alive in Trojan war who hasn’t make his return home. During Telemachus’ expedition to search for the news of his father, he is under a process of maturation from the beginning in which he is mere a shadow of his father to the end in which he becomes more and more like him in terms of initiative, sensitivity and socialization.
The. " In disguise as an old friend of Odysseus', Athena travels to his manor in Ithaka, now overrun with noisy, lustful suitor's intent on marrying Odysseus' wife, Penelope. Odysseus' son, Telemakhos, unhappy among the suitors, greets Athena warmly as a stranger and invites her to their feast. As the suitors devour Odysseus' oxen, Telemakhos says he believes his father - whom he does not know at all - is dead. "(gradesaver.com/
The relationship between Odysseus and Telemakhos is a blind love. That is because they never really got to know each other because Odysseus has been gone for most of Telemakhos’ life. One example of this blind love is when Odysseus hears about how the suitors are mistreating and stealing from Telemakhos. Odysseus gets so irate that he was then even more determined than ever, to return to his family. Telemakhos also exhibits the same kind of blind love towards his father. Even though people have told him that his father was dead, he never believed it. He felt that his father was alive and was willing to sacrifice his life to prove it. Telemakhos was inexperienced at directing a boat, but he was willing to try because he felt something inside of him that gave him the strength to go on. Thus, this relationship between Odysseus and Telemakhos gave both of them the courage to overcome the hardships ahead of them.
Thus, it is fitting that Homer depicts it as the final step of his endeavors. Certainly, Nestor was a great and wise aid to Telemachus, but his character is not exactly whom he needs imitate at this stage of his life. Rather, it is ultimately Menelaos who will be his prime examples of leadership, aided by the words of Peisistratos. Upon his arrival to Menelaos’ home, the scene is filled with the joys of marriage and wealth. Homer makes a particular effort to portray Menelaos as one Telemachus should look up too. In fact, Menelaos is so intimidating that Telemachus is too shy to speak. Peisistratos, in consequence, initiates the conversation for him, and all three men, Menelaos, Telemachus, and Peisistratos, begin to cry. For the first time, people are truly able to sympathize with Telemachus’ emotions toward his father. This is one of the unique ways Menelaos develops Telemachus’ leadership skills. The consolation from a prime father figure is key to his becoming a man. This emotional setting leads to Menelaos’ memories of Odysseus, lavishing his old friend with compliments and praise when speaking about him to Telemachus. This is something the son of Odysseus is desperate to hear. For he longs to know from a trusted figure the accomplishment and character of his father. Menelaos relays the tales of his wanderings, finally telling Telemachus about his father, who is alive but trapped on
The reader first finds the character of Telemachus sitting among the suitors in his father’s palace. This seemingly unimportant detail yields information regarding his temperament. The suitors, whom Homer portrays as malicious usurpers, continue to take advantage of Telemachus’ hospitality. Instead of defending his home, his mother, and his belongings from these men, Telemachus numbers among them. This lack of assertiveness displays his frailty and his helplessness given the overwhelming circumstances. At this point, Athena, disguised as Odysseus’ old friend Mentes, visits Telemachus in order to “inspire his heart with courage” (I.105). The two share a meal and engage in a lengthy conversation. The goddess discusses how Telemachus should handle the troublesome suitors and suggests a journey to try to ascertain the whereabouts of Odysseus. The conversation appears to immediately galvanize the young man’s resolve. In fact, immediately after her departure, he summons the courage to confront the suitors, demanding that they are to leave his house at once. The assertiveness that Telemachus displays in this instance is a dramatic departure from ...