The Telemachy & the Odyssey

 

   The Telemachy & the Odyssey

Homer’s Odyssey is the story of the ten year struggle that the Trojan War hero Odysseus endures while he makes his way back home from Troy to Ithaca. He is beset with delays, ravaged by storms, and attacked by monsters, all evils cast upon him by the wrath of the god Poseidon whom he has angered greatly. The Odyssey is comprised of twenty four books, but the first four aren’t even about Odysseus. They ostensibly tell the story of his son Telemachus and the journey that he takes to gather information about his long-lost father, but more importantly, they tell the tale of the journey of Telemachus from boyhood to manhood. These four introductory books to the Odyssey are commonly referred to by Homeric scholars as The Telemachy or Telemacheia.

So what do we know about Telemachus? First of all, his name in Greek means doing battle from afar, with the connotation of fighting from a distance like an archer, rather than one who stays aloof from or avoids the battle. Having a name that is connected to archery would make sense for the boy Telemachus, since his father Odysseus was well-known for his prowess with the bow and arrow. We see later in the epic that Odysseus proves his identity in an archery contest by shooting an arrow through the holes in twelve axe handles. Telemachus is the Prince of Ithaca and his mother is Penelope, queen and wife of Odysseus. He is the only child of the couple named in the Odyssey, but later Greek myths and legends refer to other children fathered by Odysseus with various women. We are told that Telemachus was just an infant when Odysseus left home to go and fight in the Trojan War and so when we combine the length of the war with the reported length of his journey home, we can safely say that Telemachus was in his very early twenties at the time of this story.

The story of the Telemachy is a simple one. Odysseus has been away from home for twenty years and during his absence, his house has been occupied by 108 suitors who are seeking the hand of his mother Penelope. In the meantime, this gang of interlopers are living in the lap of luxury at the expense of the host family, draining the family’s wealth, and paying little attention to the objections of the young prince. He wants to evict the suitors but is not strong enough to do so and is just laughed at. Telemachus decides to go off to visit the kings of Pylos and Sparta in an attempt to find out what has happened to his father and while he is away, the suitors plot his demise and plan an ambush for his return. The first four books of the Odyssey detail the boy’s struggles at home and what he learned about his father while he was away in Pylos and Sparta. While not part of the Telemachy itself, we find out later in the epic that Odysseus returned to Ithaca before his son got back, and that together they kill the suitors who had overtaken their home.

We tend to view Telemachus as just a boy who is trying, with little effect, to push his weight around and who is rebelling against the authority of his mother. In a footnote in his translation of Homer’s Odyssey, Alexander Pope mentions the description of Telemachus provided by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in his writings and commentaries on Homer:

Telemachus is very skilfully drawn, so as to be always subordinate to his father, and yet sufficiently full of promise and opening prowess to justify his heroic blood, and to give him a becoming eminence among the other characters of the poem: and when this is carried so far as to represent him a mere youth, on the point of bending a bow, which the suitors were unable to achieve, the real improbability is lost in sense of poetical propriety, whilst, at the same time, his instantaneous submission to his father’s nod replaces him in the relation of filial inferiority and obedience in which he is always meant permanently to be viewed. Yet Telemachus is not a pleasing character on the whole; his demeanor towards his mother, notwithstanding some occasional expressions of kindness, is generally unaffectionate, and there is sometimes what might be called an interested disposition manifested by him, which prevents us from fully sympathizing in his long-cherished wishes for his father’s return.

We first meet Telemachus when the goddess Athena went to Ithaca and the palace of Odysseus disguised as Mentes. The boy was just sitting there pining for his father and worried about the state of affairs in his own house. Though his house was overrun with suitors gobbling up his inheritance, he bowed to the principle of xenia and welcomed the newcomer.

The goddess first spotted godlike Telemachus for he was sitting among the suitors with a sad heart, thinking about his dear father coming from somewhere and scattering the suitors in the house and reclaiming the mastery of his own domain.

He came up to her and grasped her by the right hand and took the spear of bronze from her and spoke to her with winged words. “Welcome stranger for you are among friends. After you have eaten, you can tell us what you desire.”

Telemachus poured his heart out to the goddess about the loss of his father and we learned from the dialogue that, even though he sought to be reunited with his long-lost father, he was uncertain about his parentage.

I will tell you the entire truth stranger. My mother says that I am his son, but I do not know for sure, nor does any man truly know who his father is. Would that I were the son of some blessed man who grew old among his own possessions, but they say I am the son of the most ill-fated of mortal men, since you ask this of me.

This is an unusual confession for him to make and it makes us wonder whether his chief motivation was to be reunited with his father or to protect the integrity of his inheritance. He later told the goddess that he did not weep and mourn for just his father, but also because the gods had brought other woes upon him like the fact that the suitors were destroying all his wealth and would soon destroy him as well. The lost father seems to take second place to the lost wealth and he said so himself and he also bemoaned the fact that the marital status of his mother could ruin him. To Telemachus, it was all about the money.

First of all, my good and noble father has been utterly destroyed, he who once served you as your king, a most gentle father he was. But now an even bigger evil has arrived which will utterly destroy my household and ruin my livelihood forever.

Antinous, there is no way that I can banish her against her will from the house where she bore and raised me. As for my father, he is alive or dead in some other land. It would be a great price for me to pay back to Icarius if I were to send away my own mother. From her father’s hand I would endure great evil and the gods would send me more for on leaving the house, my mother would call down the terrible Avengers and I will be blamed by men as well. Therefore I will never utter such words.         

            We also saw another side to Telemachus as we watched his interaction with his mother. He was trying to play the big man and strut his stuff and came across as a belligerent teenager striking back at authority. He rebuked his mother soundly and told her that he was the boss around here and sent her to her room. It is interesting that Penelope complied. My Mom would have given me a swift clout to the side of the head and sent me to my room!

Mother dear, why do you bear ill-will towards the minstrel who wishes to sing in whatever way his spirit moves him? It is not the minstrel who is to blame but Zeus who is to blame, he who fetters men who are wage earners, to each one as he pleases. You cannot be angry with this man if he sings about the dreaded fate of the Danaans, for men praise to the highest those songs that are newest to their hearing. For yourself, submit your heart and your mind to what you hear, for not only Odysseus lost the day of his return home in Troy, but many other men were also destroyed there. So go to your room and busy yourself with your work at the loom and the distaff and bid your handmaidens to be busy at their tasks. Speaking shall be the realm of men only and especially for me, since I am the lord of this domain.

Athena then advised Telemachus to journey to Pylos and Sparta to seek news of his father and offered him the following advice which in turn, becomes the central rationale for the Telemachy:

If you hear that your father lives and is returning home, then you could stand it, even if it was for another year. But if you hear that he is dead and gone, then return to your dear fatherland and erect a funeral barrow for him, give him the funeral rites that are due to him and give your mother over to some man to marry. When all this has been done and fully accomplished, then come up with a plan in your mind how all you can slay all these suitors in your hall, either openly or by deception for you are no longer of an age where you can continue to cling to your childhood.

The goddess predicted that the journey that Telemachus would undertake to find out about his father, would become the boy`s own journey from boyhood to manhood and it is upon this theme that the Telemachy revolves.

Telemachus, from this point onwards you will be neither an inferior man nor lack understanding if you have any of your father’s spirit in you, he who did much in word and deed. Your journey shall be accomplished and not be in vain. But if you are not the child of that man and Penelope, then I have no hope that you will do what you desire eagerly. Few sons are truly like their fathers and most of them are worse and very few of them are better than their fathers. But since from now on you will not be inferior nor lack understanding and the wisdom of Odysseus has not abandoned you, then there is hope that your work will be accomplished.

            The first stop that Telemachus made was in Pylos where he visited with wise old King Nestor. The boy was able to hold his own with the aged and revered king. Telemachus behaved with reverence, respect, and growing confidence when with Nestor, showing piety and good sense by observing the religious rituals and displaying tact when addressing the elder statesman. Encouraged by the goddess Athena in her disguise, he overcame initial shyness to ask for news of his father, impressing Nestor with his eloquent speech and demonstrating a deep desire to learn about Odysseus. He participated fully in the traditional rituals of hospitality, and after hearing Nestor's story of Agamemnon's demise at the hands of his wife and her lover, he also requested more information about it, showing his own developing wisdom. 

            Telemachus was a boy at heart when he addressed Nestor, but the request that he made of Menelaus came from the mouth of a man. His words are filled with wisdom and understanding and it is obvious to the listener that he grew in maturity during the time of his journey.

Then the wise Telemachus answered him. “Menelaus, god-fostered son of Atreus and leader of the people, I came here happily in the hope that you might be able to give me some news about the fate of my father. My home is being ravaged, my rich lands are being ruined, and hostile men crowd my home and are forever killing off my flocks of sheep and my sleek cattle with their shambling gait, all these suitors of my mother who are overbearing in their insolence. For that reason I have come to clasp your knees to see if you might be willing to tell me about my father’s woeful death, whether you witnessed it with your own eyes or if you have heard some other story about his wanderings, for beyond all men did his mother bear him for sorrow. And do not out of concern or pity for me just speak soothing words, but tell me truthfully what you saw face-to-face with him. I beg of you, if ever my father, the noble Odysseus, promised you anything or did a good deed for you in the land of the Trojans where you Achaeans suffered such miseries, remember it now and speak to me only the truth.”

Telemachus behaved with decorum, discretion, and gratitude toward Menelaus, adhering to the principles of xenia (guest-host relationship) and demonstrating newfound maturity and confidence as he asked about his father. He showed respect by insisting on receiving the truth about Odysseus, even if it was harsh, and was deeply moved by Menelaus's stories, particularly when they highlighted Odysseus's past glory and current fate. He was a grateful guest, accepting gifts and hospitality while also taking the initiative to ask for information and make his own decisions, indicating his significant growth from the insecure youth who started his journey. In Book II, the suitors looked on Telemachus as a boy who could bring them no harm, but by the end of Book IV, they feared him becoming a man bent on revenge who would stand up to them and they made plans to ambush him and kill him on his return home.

            So ends the Telemachy but not the controversy surrounding it. Many Homeric scholars have long held that the first four books of the Odyssey were not part of the original epic but a later add-on. In the introduction to his translation of the Odyssey, Robert Fagles presents both sides of the argument about the Telemachy. There are some who hold that the entire epic, as we know it, was composed by a single author. Others contend that three separate epics were written by different authors and then combined by someone else to create the entire work. Fagles says that the main argument against this position is that the story of Telemachus by itself is no fit subject for heroic song, because there is nothing heroic about Telemachus until he stands beside his father to kill the suitors. It is hard to imagine the content of the first four books as a separate standalone heroic epic. Fagles says, “A song celebrating the travels of Telemachus is not easy to imagine in the context of a male audience accustomed to tales of adventure and feats of arms.” But a story about a young boy traveling to find his father and himself and listening to tales about his father does make sense, if it is seen as an introduction to a story about the father, who is the subject of those very tales, traveling to find his family and his home.

            The Telemachy lays the groundwork for the Odyssey and it sets in motion the circumstances that allow for the later confrontation between the hero, his son and the arrogant suitors who seek to destroy their lives. Under the guidance of the goddess, the boy Telemachus comes of age as he journeys between boyhood and manhood. We watch him grow from being a self-centered and petulant youth into a confident and mature man.

            James L. McDonald and Norman G. McKendrick of the University of Detroit wrote the following about the Telemachy in their study of Homer and James Joyce, and in doing so, further positioned the Telemachy as being an integral part of the Odyssey.

Homer's Telemacheia has been analyzed as a bildungsroman (coming of age story). It chronicles the education of a young man - Telemachus's growth to maturity and the assumption of his proper role in society, fulfilling his responsibilities in the aristocratic genealogical line of Laertes and Odysseus. The central focus of the poem is on Odysseus's divinely ordained return and his restoration of order in his household and homeland. This focus controls Telemachus's education—his quest for Odysseus. United in Ithaca, father and son reclaim their rights in the kingdom and re-establish justice by slaying the suitors. The saga centering on the Trojan War is brought to a fitting conclusion. Order, decreed by the gods, is restored.