Odyssey

Telemachus is unsure about his role as prince. He has always been told he is Odysseus son, but it isn’t etched in stone. His mother could be deceiving him all along. Telemachus is still a young boy and is trying to grow into an adult. He has the potential to become a worthy king. This would be a very difficult task with no one that supports or loves you. Even the finest leaders need help and acceptance from others.

He has to learn to work together with the people of his palace and turn it into something great. This is like the food chain one animal has to have the other animals or they wouldn’t survive. Someone should take the head position and Telemachus is the one. Telemachus obviously believes Odysseys is his father, or else he would have never left to try and find him. His whole life has been centered around his father, and the great legend that he was. These are some big shoes for Telemachus to fill and he is hoping that Athena will guide him on the right path. “Antinous how can I drive my mother from our house against her will, the one who bore me, reared me too. My father is worlds away, dead or alive, who knows imagine the high price I’d have to pay Icarius if all on my own I send my mother home. Oh what I would suffer from her father.” These are the only people Telemachus has known, and whether or not they are his family he will stick by them to the end. They may have some problems, but Telemachus is willing to deal with whatever comes his way.

“Fit out a ship with twenty oars, the best in sight, sail in quest of news of your long-lost father. First go down to Pylos, question old King Nestor, then cross over to Sparta, to red-haired Menelaus, of all the bronze-armored Achaeans the last man back. Now, if you hear your father’s alive and heading home, hard pressed as you are, brave out one more year. If you hear he’s dead, no longer among the living, then back you come to the native land you love, raise his grave-mound, build his honors high with the full funeral rites that he deserves, and give your mother to another husband.” This passage explains Telemachus and his whole dilemma.