1.280–324

If he discovers that Odysseus is still alive, he must return home to help his father confront the suitors; if he learns of his father’s death, he must set up a suitable grave marker in Ithaka and then take on the suitors alone. Either way, he’ll need to grow up, something that we see is a work in progress right now. To reach maturity, as the early Greeks understood it, a male must separate from the sheltering nurture of his mother and come to terms with the—often hard—wisdom of his father’s world. The first step will be leaving Penelope, who wants to keep him close. Hearing Nestor, Menelaus, and Helen talk about their experiences with Odysseus will expose him, vicariously at first, to the heroic world his father has been negotiating, with the true test coming later in Ithaka. He will learn how to be a man through his father, the requisite path in any patriarchal culture. Meanwhile, Telemachus has already sensed the role that his guest is playing:

ξεῖν᾽ ἦ τοι μὲν αῦτα φίλα φρονέων ἀγορεύεις,
ὥς τε πατὴρ ᾧ παιδί, καὶ οὔ ποτε λήσομαι αὐτῶν.

My guest, your words to me are kind and considerate, 
as a father would speak to his son, and I will never forget them.

Odyssey 1.305–7

For further inspiration, Athena points to the example of Orestes as a model for Telemachus. We have already heard from Zeus about Agamemnon’s disastrous homecoming (31-43). Aegisthus could not control himself around Clytemnestra and now he has paid the price. The message is clear enough: To be a worthy son, Telemachus must resolve to punish those who would take Penelope away from Odysseus. As we have said, (see essay on 1.1–43), the poet means us to measure the actions of Odysseus and his family against those of Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, and Orestes, thereby prompting questions: Will both Odysseus and Telemachus be able to escape the murderous plans of the suitors? Will Telemachus be strong enough to help his father? Will Penelope remain faithful to her long-absent husband, or succumb to the temptations of a man left behind when her husband left for Troy?

Telemachus’s journey will eventually bring him circling back to Ithaka, a miniature nostos to mirror his father’s. But against the recursive rhythm of this return will play a linear, progressive movement, as Telemachus evolves from a boy cowed by the overbearing suitors into a man who can stand beside his father in battle. This evolution could bring conflict to the royal family. The son may be ready to take up his responsibilities as a man, but if Odysseus has returned to reassume his accustomed roles as king, husband, father, and son in Ithaka, there will be no room at the top. Homer uses this incipient standoff to great effect in the contest to string Odysseus’s bow and win his wife in Book 21. Telemachus takes up the challenge, announcing that if he can succeed, then his mother will not have to leave him alone in Ithaka. The poet milks the moment for every last ounce of drama:

τρὶς μέν μιν πελέμιξεν ἐρύσσεσθαι μενεαίνων,
τρὶς δὲ μεθῆκε βίης, ἐπιελπόμενος τό γε θυμῷ,
νευρὴν ἐντανύειν διοϊστεύσειν τε σιδήρου.
καί νύ κε δή ῥ᾽ ἐτάνυσσε βίῃ τὸ τέταρτον ἀνέλκων,
ἀλλ᾽ Ὀδυσεὺς ἀνένευε καὶ ἔσχεθεν ἱέμενόν περ.
τοῖς δ᾽ αὖτις μετέειφ᾽ ἱερὴ ἲς Τηλεμάχοιο:
‘ὢ πόποι, ἦ καὶ ἔπειτα κακός τ᾽ ἔσομαι καὶ ἄκικυς,
ἠὲ νεώτερός εἰμι καὶ οὔ πω χερσὶ πέποιθα
ἄνδρ᾽ ἀπαμύνασθαι, ὅτε τις πρότερος χαλεπήνῃ.
ἀλλ᾽ ἄγεθ᾽, οἵ περ ἐμεῖο βίῃ προφερέστεροί ἐστε,
τόξου πειρήσασθε, καὶ ἐκτελέωμεν ἄεθλον.

Three times he strained to bend the bow, 
and three times his strength gave out. But he still hoped 
to hook the string to the bow and shoot an arrow through the iron. 
And he would have strung the bow on his fourth try, 
but Odysseus warned him off with a nod, eager though he was. 
Then the hallowed prince spoke again to them: 
“Shame on me; I must be a coward and a weakling, 
or I am too young and do not yet trust my hands to fend off a man who attacks me first.
But come now, you who are stronger than I,
try the bow and let us finish the contest.”

Odyssey 21.125-135

Though he does not describe it, Homer wants us to see the string getting tighter and tighter, the tension ratcheting ever higher, until at the last moment it goes slack. With this image, the poet brilliantly brings the submerged struggle of father and son, with all its psycho-sexual undertones, to a peak and then drains the energy from it.

Athena departs in the form of a bird, pumping courage and strength into Telemachus and prompting him to think yet more about his father, which is to say, to move toward adult maturity. Telemachus suspects that his visitor was divine, a perception that would lend weight to her promptings. (Perhaps the poet suggests that some of Athena’s divinity might have rubbed off on the young prince, calling him “a man equal to the gods” (ἰσόθεος φώς, 324), after she flies away.) We have seen that significant events in Homeric epic are often prompted by divine initiative. Athena has supplied the burst of energy that will rouse Telemachus from his childhood and send him out into the world, where he will prepare to take his place beside his father.

Further Reading

Thalman, W. 1992. The Odyssey: An Epic of Return, 116–118. New York: Twayne Publishers.

Van Nortwick, T. 2008. Imagining Men: Ideals of Masculinity in Ancient Greek Culture, 31–38. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.