How Does Telemachus Maintain His Identity

By killing the suitors, Telemachus will become a man. Ultimately, it is only through a journey that Telemachus will be able to develop his true identity. Regardless of the significance of inventing and defining identity, maintaining that identity is of the utmost importance.

Throughout his journey from Troy to Ithaca, Odysseus struggles to maintain his identity. Odysseus identifies himself with his homeland and position in society. He is not fully himself until he reclaims his position as King of Ithaca, father of Telemachus, son of Laertes, and husband of Penelope. On his way home from Troy, Odysseus has to resist the temptations to forget his identity and homeland. The encounters Odysseus faces throughout his journey home require his extreme emotional strength. He has to be able to resist his desires in order to maintain his

identity.

For example, Odysseus has to leave the beautiful nymph Calypso and return home in order to re-establish his identity as king, father, son, and husband. Odysseus’ journey from the island is one of the many steps Odysseus has to take in order to maintain his identity. According to the scholar Thomas Schmidt, “The identity of the Homeric hero is agonistic-that is, based on competition. In the motionless torpor of a life on Ogygia, where he cannot strive to be best, the hero is not alive.” In addition, Odysseus can face the potential of losing the memory of his origin and identity. Furthermore, Schmidt describes how the act of Odysseus leaving the island frees him from existing without identity (41-42). The last step of Odysseus’ journey is for Odysseus to re-establish his identity. After returning home to Ithaca after twenty years, Odysseus has the goal of reclaiming the identity he has tried so hard to maintain. Odysseus constantly has to prove himself to his family members in order for them to believe he is truly Odysseus. He does this by revealing his scar, stringing and shooting his bow, and expressing his knowledge of the marriage

bed and royal inheritance. Through revealing his scar and shooting his bow, Odysseus maintains his identity as the “great Odysseus” (1.24). Through showing his knowledge of his marriage bed to Penelope, Odysseus is able to re-establish his identity as the husband of Penelope. Odysseus can also re-establish his identity as a son of Laertes. When Odysseus reveals himself to his father, Laertes asks for authentication. Odysseus recounts the story of receiving trees from his father as a boy, divulging his inheritance. Odysseus would be unable to maintain his identity without going on the long and incredible journey on which he had to embark.
The characters of the Odyssey embark on journeys to develop, define, or maintain their identities. In the Odyssey, Homer conveys this theme through the journeys of Penelope, Telemachus, and Odysseus. Finding out who we are is not only the goal of the characters of the Odyssey. This remarkably complicated goal is the lifelong ambition of all humans. Our true identity can only be divulged through our journeys and life experiences. Each person must embark on their own unique journeys, whether emotional, physical, or psychological. As stated by the scholar Gijs Van Oenen, “Identity is both text and context, self-made as well as imposed, a fragile interaction between surface and background in a continually changing whole of threads and patterns. Identity is thus always ‘in progress’, always being woven and unwoven, by both internal and external forces” (229).