In Book Two of Homer’s The Odyssey Telemakhos gains a significant amount

In Book Two of Homer’s The Odyssey Telemakhos gains a significant amount

of confidence and decides to call an assembly. At the assembly

The Odyssey

In Book Two of Homer’s The Odyssey Telemakhos gains a significant

amount of confidence and decides to call an assembly. At the assembly

a wise man Aigyptios presents the listeners with a rare introduction.

He states that an assembly has not occurred for about twenty years and

commends the individual that had the audacity to call one. At this

assembly Telemakhos protests fervently that his mother’s suitors be

expelled since they have no respect and appreciation for their

generosity “these men spend their days around our house killing our

beeves and sheep and fatted goats , carousing , soaking up our good

dark wine, not caring what they do”.

At the end of Telemakhos’s first battle to persuade the minds of the

Akhaians against the suitors, a fellow leader named Antinoos decides

to defend his fellow suitors. Antinoos counteracts Telemakhous claims

informing everyone that the suitors should not be criticized since

Penelope is the one to blame “you should know the suitors are not to

blame but it is your own dear –incomparably cunning mother “.He

further adds that she has been deceiving them with her clever ability

to avoid any decisions about marriage and gives the example of her

unwoven loom.

The suitors then commands that Telemakhos takes immediate action and

either evict Miss Penelope from the house or compel her to marry the

man her father suggests. Telemakhos makes a firm stance against the

suitor’s suggestions and insists that he will never turn his mother

out.

During Telemakhos’s plead to save his mother; a pair of eagles appears

in the sky. Another heated debate then rises between Halitherses and

Eurymakhos in which Halitherses argues that the sighting of eagles

foretells that Odysseus arrival is near and that the suitors will face

grave danger if they don’t leave, while Eurymachus protests that the

sighting of the birds are insignificant “Bird life aplenty is found in

the sunny air, not all of it is significant”.

Telemakhos concludes that he is finished with appeals and will let the

Gods do the justice. All he desires is to locate a fast ship and a

crew of men to carry out a voyage and arrive at a conclusion about his

father whereabouts “If he’s alive and beating his way home you might

hold out for another weary year;…..then I can come back to my own dear

country and raise a mound for him….”.

After the assembly Telemakhos feels a sense of defeat and decides to