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Essay on the Odyssey books 1-12
Characterization of Telemachus in the Odyssey
Essay on the Odyssey books 1-12
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In Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey the first four books Odysseus, king of Ithaca and the hero of the trojan war, is not introduced, but rather instead Prince Telemachus, his son who has not lived up to his full potential. Odyssey is praised by many people and treated as a god but has been gone for 20 years after the disappearance of his war. Prince Telemachus has been alone his whole life which has had a negative effect on him. Since he has not had a proper role model Telemachus struggle to mature and confront problems. Everything changes the moment the goddess Athena steps in Telemachus life disguised as Mentes, she tells him to grow up and be a man as well giving him advice. Finally Telemachus is taking his power and using it to best ability …show more content…
In the beginning of book 1 telemachus is weak and lacks confidence but by book 4 he is more determined and spirit. “ young Telemachus’’ (bk 1 lns 247) Telemachus is supposed to be around 20 years old since his father has been gone for that one and never met him before. So when it says young telemachus it would mean that he still has not matured and is refered to a child. “ self-possessed Telemachus” (bk2 lns 343) he has set sail to find if his father is alive and now that Athena has given Telemachus confidence he acts on his own thoughts to take action. “Clear-sighted Telemachus’’ ( bk4 lns 325) clear, Telemachus has now illustrated that he has no fear in what he's doing as well taking a leap of faith on no facts. Progress is shown from book 1 to 4 since at first telemachus is represented as young and usually needs help and childish who has no confidence. When it states self-possessed it means that telemachus takes action on his own thought with no help needed. As for clear-sighted adds on to self-possessed by having no thought of consequences and only thinks on the goal set forth. With only the help of Athena, Telemachus can have the courage, confidence , and hope to do
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
In Odyssey, Homer creates a parallel between Odysseus and Telemachos, father and son. The two are compared in the poem from every aspect. One parallel was the quest of Telemachos, in correlation with the journey of his father. In this, Odysseus is developed from a childish, passive, and untested boy, to a young man preparing to stand by his father's side. This is directly connected to the voyage of Odysseus, in that they both lead to the same finale, and are both stepping-stones towards wisdom, manhood, and scholarship.
Given these points, Athena (as Mentor) acts as a mentor and advisor for Telemachus. She is able to greatly increase his confidence, prepare him for his journey to find his father, and make him feel worthy of being his father’s son. In real life, many people have experience with a relationship similar to this, someone who gives them advice and is a positive, guiding influence in their life. This relationship is critical to Telemachus and his growth from an immature child to a man, and also proves to be an important relationship to have in one’s own
Telemachus demonstrates his new maturity when he explains his plan if he discovers his father is dead. “I can come back to my own dear country/ and raise a mound for him, and burn his gear,/ with all the funeral honors that benefit him,/ and give my mother a husband”(2.231-234). Telemachus changes because of the responsibility that he is taking on and the mature decision that he is prepared to make. Telemachus also exemplifies this step into manhood when he acknowledges that he must find a way to overcome his obstacle of the suitors. He takes on the quest to find his father, which is important to him.
Ultimately, Athena has a great effect on all three of the main characters within The Odyssey. She is the one who finally sets in motion the return of the great warrior king Odysseus and helps him attain revenge on the suitors once he arrives in Ithaka. Athena helps to make Telemakhos brave and hopeful for his father to return home, giving him the courage and direction he lacked without his father for the first twenty years of his life. Even Penelope received help from the grey-eyed goddess in finding ways to protect herself from the advances of the suitors. Reading the classic epic poem The Odyssey, one can see how the great goddess Athena's relationship with Odysseus, Telemakhos as well as Penelope exemplifies how she impacted everyone she came across.
The first four books of The Odyssey are all about Telemachos and him figuring out hat he is going to go out and look for his father. He has many dangers because there are 120 or so suitors at his house looking for his mother’s (Penelope) hand in marriage. They disrespect the rules of hospitality, eat his family’s cattle, and drink all of his wine. The suitors have begun to come up with a plot to kill Telemachos because they believe that he is in the way of marrying his mother. The leader of the suitors Antinoos concocts this conspiracy; he is the most manipulative of them all. At the beginning of book one, Telemachos is being taken advantage of and is very passive. But he finally takes a stand when he tells the suitors that they must leave after the next day’s assembly. Not only is Telemachos growing from confronting Antinoos, but also he is growing from calling the assembly. In this part of the book he takes responsibility and leadership roles that he has never done before. He has always been in the shadow of his mother and fallowed her lead, but now he is beginning to break away from that. By doing thins he is becoming more of his own person.
Throughout The Odyssey Telemachus grows in character from an unprepared teen to a young man who could one day rule Ithaca. He has many experiences traveling to learn more about his father and many that occur on Ithaca once Odysseus returns. All of these events help to shape him into the assertive young man he becomes.
Up to this point in The Odyssey, Homer has introduced several characters, including the gods, Telemachus, Odysseus, and several more. The Gods first appear when they discuss what they should do about Odysseus’s turmoil as he attempts to get home to his wife and, now grown, son. Afterward, Athena appears to Telemachus as Mentor, an old companion of his father, Odysseus. She convinces Telemachus that he should set sail in order to find out if his father is dead or alive and also to take back control of his father’s kingdom from his mother, Penelope’s, suitors. Upon confrontation by Telemachus, Antinous, one of Penelope’s suitors, informs Telemachus of Penelope’s deception toward them. After hearing this, Telemachus continued to stand up for
Her description of him, so close to his father's, helps Athena make Telémakhos realize that he is indeed the son of the great Odysseus, and he can easily become a man like him, which seems to be the young man's dream. Even Mentês' reminiscence of dining with Odysseus in the old days being linked to eating with Telémakhos makes this assertion of his likeness to Odysseus more real for the young man. Before Athena talks to Telémakhos, as far as anyone can tell, Telémakhos is but a boy, meaning that he has not yet traveled the seas and has yet to stand up to the grown men wronging him.
In The Odyssey, Homer highlights the character development of Telemahkos, the son of Odysseus. In the beginning of the book, Telemahkos is described as, “...for he, too, /was sitting there unhappy among the suitors,/ a boy, daydreaming.” (1, 144-146) He doesn’t know much about his identity, and doubts that he is the son of the great Odysseus. With some help from Athena, by the end of the book Telemahkos is sure of who he is, and takes pride in knowing that he is the son of Odysseus. When given a challenge, Telemahkos is able to thrive and prove he is strong, brave, and a leader.
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.
At the end of book four, the reader is left to feel that Telemachus is a good and, in all likelihood, a virtuous young man. Athena, it is assumed, would not have gone to the trouble to assist in his cause if this were not the case. By the time he reaches Sparta, however, he remains untested. Athena tells him where to go and with whom to meet, she teaches him what to say, and she even physically grooms him for the role. One suspects that there are likely to be trials that lie ahead for him. Athena tells Telemachus that his actions will be a combination of instinct and divine guidance. One can only hope, if the goddess is not by his side, that these instincts will see him through these upcoming struggles.
Of the many proofs of Telemachus' maturation three are sufficient to render an accurate account of what virtues he gained. The gained virtues shown are courage, wisdom, and prudence. Courage is shown when Telemachus decides to go around Nestor's house rather than passing through it, for Telemachus goes out to sea knowing that an ambush awaits him. This wisdom is manifested in his knowledge that if he stops Nestor's hospitality will delay him even more. And prudence is shown in Telemachus' ability to control his desires for comfort in Nestor's house and his decision to endure hardship at sea. Next Telemachus' confidence and hospitality are shown when he takes in Theochlamenos the seer. In the beginning of the poem Telemachus is not confident enough in his ability to provide hospitality to Athena disguised as Mentor, but now Telemachus is happy to provide the seer with refuge. Another proof of Telemachus' virtues is his confidence in ordering his mother and her maids to comply with his will; their obedience shows us that he is worthy of respect. Thus Telemachus possesses the virtues necessary to be a ruler: courage, wisdom, prudence, confidence, and hospitality.
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.
middle of paper ... ... In Homer’s Odyssey, both Odysseus and his son Telemachus embark on long, difficult journeys; Odysseus trying to return from Troy to his home in Ithaca, escaping Calypso and the island of Ogygia, and Telemachus from Ithaca to Pylos and Sparta in search of his lost father. While The Odyssey tells of the courage both men demonstrate during their respective travels, their quests are the results of the intentions and desires of gods. Odysseus is trapped in exile on Ogygia by the will of Poseidon, whose anger Odysseus attracts when he blinds the Cyclops Polyphemus, son of Poseidon, and by the love of Calypso, who wishes to make Odysseus her husband.