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Telemachus character development
Telemachus character development
Telemachus character development
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At some point in their life, many people experience feelings of inadequacy or uncertainty. In “The Odyssey” by Homer, one of the main characters Telemachus experiences both of these feelings. He feels that he is not good enough, especially compared to his father, Odysseus, who many people refer to as a great leader. In the beginning of “The Odyssey”, Telemachus’ home has been taken over by suitors, each with the goal of winning over his mother, in hopes to marry her and become king. Telemachus is not fond of these men in his home, but does not have the confidence to get rid of them. Lastly, at this point in the story, Odysseus, Telemachus’ father, has been gone for approximately twenty years, most of Telemachus’ life. Telemachus has been …show more content…
Telemachus’ prayer is asking for assistance in how to initiate this journey. Very early in the book, Telemachus is portrayed as a helpless, immature child. He just allows the suitors to take over his father’s estate. After Athena visits him the first time, Telemachus calls an assembly and tells the suitors to leave, but the suitors do not listen. Telemachus’ confidence level seemed to increase greatly in order to complete this task, but seems defeated after, which would explain why he prayed to Pallas for …show more content…
Lots of ships in seagirt Ithcaca, old and new. I’ll look them over, choose the best in sight, we’ll fit her out and launch her into the sea at once! (3. 322-329) By giving Telemachus a specific task to complete, Athena is decreasing the stress Telemachus has concerning his journey. This is also done by Athena assigning to herself the more difficult tasks that need to be completed, choosing a crew and a ship. The act that gives Telemachus the greatest feeling of support is that Athena is going to set sail with Telemachus, which proves helpful later in the journey. 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
Through Telemachus, Odyssues’ son, the reader sees Odysseus’ utter dependence upon the gods’ aid. During Telemachus’ journey, all those th...
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
Although prayer was a way to get things done, it was not a method used by all the characters in the Odyssey. Each character was different. Telemakhos was a boy and needed help from a higher being in order to defeat the suitors. Penelope was a woman who was strong-minded, but not strong enough to get rid of the suitors.
Right at the beginning of The Odyssey, the reader is shown the hospitality that Telemachus has. Athena arrives, disguised, and he invites her into his home by saying: "'Greetings, stranger! / Here in our house you'll find a royal welcome. / Have supper first, then tell us what you need'" (1.144-46). His address to Athena shows right away that he is an extremely hospitable character. Despite his house being overridden by the suitors, he is still welcoming of this stranger. When she is about to leave, he offers that she stay longer and wants to treat her with honor (1.352-60). Telemachus has no idea who Athena is, yet he still shows extreme generosity towards her. Telemachus is a perfect role model for xenia. Even though the suitors have been pushing him around for years, he still finds it in his heart to provide strangers a lovely experience when they visit him. It seems as though he has seen how terrible it is to be treated with bad xenia and he in turn wants to treat his guests the way that he hopes to be treated.
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.
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.
In the time period of The Odyssey, the people of Greece worshipped the gods for advice and guidance. The gods then decided if they were going to help or ignore their people. This is seen in The Odyssey where Athena decides that she will help save Odysseus. To help save Odysseus, she first decides to talk to his son, Telemachus. Athena, the goddess of wisdom, gives advice to Telemachus. As of this point on, the reader observes a change in Telemachus. From a shy and timid boy now becomes a confident and self-assured man. Telemachus then takes immediate actions and surprises everyone, even his own mother because of his superiority. However Telemachus wouldn't have been responsible for his actions if one individual didn't give advice to him, Athena. Therefore Athena, or the gods in general were responsible for Telemachus' actions by setting up a crew for him to travel and also telling Telemachus to drive away the suitors and to seek information about Odysseus.
To begin with, Telemachus was afraid to even approach the suitors of his mother about his yearning for them to be gone. He has also lost hope that his father is still alive, because he truly does not know him. “My mother says indeed I am his. I for my part do not know. Nobody really knows his own father.” (32. 215-216) He speaks these words to Athena who in turn tells Telemachus about his father, and what he should do to find out some information about his father’s whereabouts. According to Solon, Telemachos should be at his mental and physical prowess but instead he is simply a boy who cannot even lead his own house. He needs the push and advice of a stranger for him to decide what to do.
Consider in the second book where he expresses the problems he faces: “There are two evils. I have lost a noble father, one who was a king once over you here, and was kind to you like a father; and now a greater evil, one which presently will break up the whole house and destroy all my livelihood.” Telemachus conveys to the assembly that the problem of the suitors is the greater evil, because it is the most imminent issue. The root of this problem, however, lies in Telemachus’ inability to lead because he “has lost a noble father.” He has had no training to deal with the situation at hand. Consequently, he acts like a boy, throwing his scepter on the ground in a fit of tears. It is clear from this scene that Telemachus is not ready to lead the people of Ithaka. He throws a tantrum because he has had no training from a father figure. Peisistratos, son of Nestor, says this explicitly to Menelaos in book four: “For a child endures many griefs in his house when his father is gone away, and no others are there to help him.” This is when the role of Menelaos as a father plays a part in his growth as a man. He will show Telemachus, by his stories and example, exactly what it means to be a leader like his
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
She later sparks a flame inside of Telemachus to embark on his journey to find his father. At the first destination Telemachus arrives at, Athena appears once again in the court of King Nestor. She appears in the form of an eagle to represent that she is beside Telemachus in his righteous journey to find his father. When hearing of her son’s departure, Penelope becomes extremely distraught. In an attempt to reassure and comfort her, Athena appears as a “glimmering phantom” and says these comforting words, “Take heart, and don’t be so afraid. The guide who goes with him is one many men pray for to stand at their side, a powerful ally- Pallas Athena. And she pities you in your grief, for it is she who sent me to tell you this” (Homer 342). There are many motivators for Athena in The Odyssey. Some could argue she relates with Penelope, and provides protection for her household throughout the years. Others may say she is enamored with Odysseus because of their relating character traits. Athena basically takes on the motherly role of watching over both Telemachus and Odysseus. She monitors both of the men’s journeys, and allows them to go through tribulations in order to grow emotionally and spiritually. Brian Lower a literature professor from Union College wrote,” Athena allows Odysseus to experience the storm, but not die. She knows that it will make him stronger for it. There is an
The whole point of Telemachus speech is to encourage the people to help him on a voyage to find his father so that they can bring him back so that his father can protect them from the suitors
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.
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.
If not for divine interference, neither Odysseus nor Telemachus would have journeys to make. The gods are first responsible for establishing the conditions under which the story begins. While the Greek soldiers had returned home from Troy, Odysseus remained trapped as “the brightest goddess, Calypso, held him in her hollow grottoes” because “she wanted him as a husband” (Homer, Odyssey 1.5, Translation by Allen Mandelbaum). Calypso traps Odysseus on her island of Ogygia and “keeps the sad Odysseus there—although he weeps. Her words are fond and fragrant, sweet and soft—so she would honey him to cast off his Ithaca” (1.7).