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Athena Mentors Telemachus in the Odyssey
The following commentary identifies key passages in the opening books of the Odyssey regarding Athena’s mentorship of Telemachus. [N.B., the following translation is by James Huddleston and is taken from the Chicago Homer website (http://homer.library.northwestern.edu/). The Odyssey is an oral epic poem (c. 600 BCE) composed in the meter known as dactylic hexameter. Here the vertical lines divide each line of poetry. The numbers in red correspond to the lines. All commentary in the Key Passages below is by me unless otherwise cited--Norman Sandridge]
Scroll One [technically, ancient literature was written
on scrolls, not books]
Tell me, Muse, about the wily man who wandered | long and far after he sacked the sacred citadel of Troy. | He saw the cities and knew the minds of many men, | but suffered at sea many sorrows in his heart, | struggling for his life and comrades' return home. | But he didn't save his comrades, much though he wanted to, | for by their own recklessness they perished, | childish fools, who devoured the cattle of the Sun, Hyperion, | who then deprived them of their homecoming day. | Tell us also, goddess, daughter of Zeus, of sundry things. ( 10 ) Then all the rest, all who had escaped sheer destruction, | were home and had escaped both war and sea. | Him only, yearning for his wife and return home, | the nymph, lady Calypso, a goddess divine, | detained in hollow caves, eager that he be her husband. | But as the years went round, there came a year at last | when the gods spun his destiny to return home | to Ithaca, but he wasn't safe from trials there, | even among his loved ones. All the gods felt pity for him | except Poseidon. He
was incessantly incensed ( 20 ) | at godlike Odysseus until he reached his own land. But Poseidon had gone to visit the far-off Ethiopians, | the Ethiopians, most remote of men, who are divided in two, | some at Hyperion's setting, others at his rising, | to partake of a hecatomb of bulls and rams. | He sat there enjoying himself at the feast. The others by now | were together in the halls of Olympian Zeus. | The father of men and gods began speaking to them, | for in his heart he recalled noble Aegisthus, | whom far-famed Orestes Agamemnonides had slain. ( 30 ) | Remembering him, he addressed these words to the immortals: "Humph! How mortals now blame gods, | for they say that evils are from us. Yet they themselves | have woes beyond their lot by their own recklessness, | as even now, beyond his lot, Aegisthus | married Atreides' wedded wife and killed him when he came home, | sure of sheer destruction, after we told him beforehand, | sending Hermes, sharp-sighted Argeiphontes, | to neither woo his wife nor kill him, | for there'd be revenge, from Atreides' son Orestes, ( 40 ) | when he came of age and longed for his own land. | So Hermes said, but he didn't win over the mind of Aegisthus, | though he meant well. Now he's paid for it all all together." Then bright-eyed goddess Athena answered him: | "Our father Cronides, your highness most supreme, | just as that one lies in fitting destruction, | may also any other one who does such things so perish! | But my heart is troubled about skilled Odysseus, the ill-fated one, | who, away from his loved ones a long time already, suffers misery | on a sea-girt island, where the sea's navel is. ( 50 ) | The island is forested, and on it a goddess makes her home, | the daughter of malign Atlas, he who knows the
Key Passage One: 1.88- Athena announces to Zeus, king of the gods, that she will put courage (Greek menos ) in Telemachus, to assert himself before the suitors who are courting his mother Penelope. She will also send Telemachus the homes of two of Odysseus’ closest allies, Nestor in Pylos and Menelaus in Sparta. These visits will increase Telemachus’ reputation ( kleos ). Then I'll go to Ithaca, to spur his son on | more, and I'll put the courage [ menos ] in his heart | to call the hairy-headed Achaeans to assembly | and speak out to all the suitors, who are always slaughtering | his thick-thronging sheep and shambling curved-horned cattle. | I'll send him to Sparta and to sandy Pylos, | to learn of his dear father's return home, in hope he'll somehow hear | and so he'll have good repute [ kleos ] among men." Greg Nagy on menos : “At the council of the gods, Athena lays out her intent, saying that she will put menos into Telemachus. It’s a Greek word that's usually translated as “heroic strength.” But really, menos is not just strength of any kind—it is mental strength. And by that, I mean the kind of surge of power you feel in being able to put things into action. You can see the connection between menos and “mentor.” Menos is mental strength, and a mentor is someone who gives mental strength to someone else” (https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/10/the-odyssey- mentorship/542676/). So saying, beneath her feet she tied fine sandals, | ambrosial, golden ones, that bore her over water | and boundless land, with the breezes of the wind. | She grabbed a sharp spear, edged with sharp bronze, | heavy,
long, and thick, with which she routs regiments of men, ( 100 ) | heroes against whom the great father's daughter bears resentment. | In a rush she came down from the peaks of Olympus, | and in the kingdom of Ithaca stood at the doorway of Odysseus, | at the courtyard's threshold. She held the bronze spear in her palm, | disguised as a stranger, the Taphian chief Mentes. | Next she found the manly suitors, who were then | amusing their hearts with pebbles in front of the gate, | sitting on hides of oxen that they'd killed. | They had heralds and deft henchmen, | some who mixed wine and water in mixing bowls, ( 110 ) | while some, with sponges full of holes, cleaned | and set the tables and others cut up lots of meat. Key Passage Two: 1.113- Telemachus has fantasies of his father’s return to avenge himself against the suitors. And he shows Athena thoughtful hospitality. Godlike Telemachus was first by far to see her, | for he sat among the suitors, dear heart grieving, | seeing in his mind his good father, in hope he'd come from somewhere, | make a scattering of the suitors throughout the house, | and himself have honor and rule over his possessions. | Sitting among the suitors thinking this, he caught sight of Athena. | He made straight for the front doorway, displeased at heart | that a stranger stand a long time at the door. He stood close, | took her right hand, and accepted her bronze spear. | And, voicing winged words, he said to her: | "Welcome, stranger, you'll be treated kindly by us, then | when you've eaten supper, you can tell us what you need." | So saying, he led the way, and Pallas Athena followed. | When they were inside the lofty
of the gift could use the gift to signal his alliance with the giver of the gift and speak of the glory ( kleos ) of its past possessors. Ties of xenia were so important that they could be inherited and might even transcend the hostility that comes with being on opposite sides of a war (cf. the inherited xenia relationship between Diomedes and Glaucus in the Iliad 6.212-236). Beyond the political elites it was important to show xenia to any and all strangers who came to one’s community, as it demonstrated one’s awareness of the trials faced by weary travelers and the vicissitudes of fortune (cf. Odysseus’ speech to the suitor Antinous at Odyssey 17.415-444). The gods themselves were thought to take the disguise of beggars in order to test a community’s commitment to xenia (cf. Odyssey 17.483-487). Telemachus’ exhibition of xenia to Athena-Mentes signifies at least his partial readiness to take over his father’s household, as he is someone who is conscientious (he notices Athena before anyone else) and who is attentive to the needs of others. We might compare this readiness with xenia to a contemporary person’s ability to “network” today. In this scene Telemachus also fantasizes about his father’s return. This fantasy will be made more vivid in the course of his mentoring from Athena (cf. Odyssey 1.321-322). In came the manly suitors. Then, as they | sat down in rows on chairs and couches, | heralds poured water on their hands, | slaves heaped bread in baskets beside them, | and boys filled mixing bowls to the brim with drink. | They threw their hands on the good things laid ready before them. | Then after the suitors had dispatched desire for food ( 150 ) | and
drink, other things caught their minds' attention, | the performance and the dance, for they accompany a feast. | A herald placed a gorgeous cithara into the hands | of Phemius, who sang, under duress, for the suitors. Playing the lyre, he began to sing beautifully, | but Telemachus said to bright-eyed Athena, | holding his head close so others couldn't hear him: | "Dear stranger, will you resent me for what I'm going to say? | These things, the cithara and song, interest them | easily, since they eat without payment the substance of another, ( 160 ) | of a man whose white bones rot somewhere in a storm, | lying on dry land or rolling in the waves of the sea. Key Passage Three: 1.163- Telemachus expresses doubt of Odysseus’ return and then interrogates Athena-Mentes. If they saw that one [Odysseus] returning home to Ithaca, | all would pray to be lighter on their feet | than to be richer in raiment and gold. | Now he's perished by an evil fate, and we have no | comfort, even if some earthly man | tells us he will come. His day of homecoming is done for. | But come, tell me this, and recount it exactly. | What man and from where are you? Where are your city and parents? | In what kind of ship did you arrive and how did sailors | bring you to Ithaca? Who did they claim to be? | For I don't at all think you reached here on foot. | And speak this truly to me, so I may know well | whether you're just visiting or are also a hereditary | guest-friend [ xeinos ], since many other men used to come to
puts food and drink | beside him whenever exhaustion takes hold of his limbs, | as he crawls up the hill of his wine-bearing plot. Key Passage Four: 1.195- Athena-Mentes announces that Odysseus will be returning home and she raises the question of whether Telemachus is indeed Odysseus’ son, noting their physical resemblance. Now I've come, for they said your father was at home, | but, indeed, the gods impede him on his path. | For divine Odysseus has not yet died on land, | but still alive somewhere, he's held back by the wide sea | on a sea-girt island. Hard men hold him, | savages, who detain him against his will. | But I'll now prophesy to you, as the immortals | put it in my heart and as I think that it will happen, | though I'm neither a seer nor clearly know about birds of omen. | He surely won't be away much longer from his beloved | fatherland, not even if bonds of iron hold him. | Since he's resourceful, he'll figure out how to return. | But come, tell me this, and recount it exactly, | whether, big as you are, you're the son of Odysseus himself. | You're terribly like him in your head and fine eyes, | since we every so often got together with each other | before he went to Troy, where the rest | of the best of the Argives went in their hollow ships. | Since then, I've not seen Odysseus nor has he seen me." Athena-Mentes gives Telemachus confidence in himself by drawing natural, hereditary comparisons between him and his father.
Astute Telemachus said back to her in answer: | "Well then, I'll tell you, stranger, quite exactly. | My mother says I'm his, but I don't know, | for no one ever knows for sure his parentage. | Would that I were the blessed son of some man | whom old age came upon among his possessions. | But, he who's been the unluckiest of all men, | his they say I am, since you ask me about this." ( 220 ) Bright-eyed goddess Athena said back to him: | "The gods did not establish your line to be nameless | hereafter, since Penelope gave birth to such as you. | But come, tell me this, and recount it exactly. | What meal, what gathering is this? What has it to do with you? | A banquet or a wedding, since this is not a meal hosted by many? | They seem to me to dine haughtily, like wantons, | throughout the house. Any sensible man who came to visit | would be outraged seeing these many shameful deeds!" Astute Telemachus said back to her in turn: ( 230 ) | "Stranger, since you question me and ask about this, | once upon a time this house was going to be | rich and noble, when that man was at home. | Now the gods, scheming evil, have willed otherwise; | they've made him the most invisible of all | men. I wouldn't grieve so for him even if he'd died, | if he'd been tamed among his comrades in the Trojans' land | or in the hands of loved ones after he wound up the war. | The Panachaeans would have made a grave mound for him | and he'd have won great fame hereafter even for his son. ( 240 ) | But now the Snatchers have snatched him without tidings. | He goes, unseen, unheard of, and has left me pain | and lamentation. But I don't only lament and grieve for him | now, since the gods have made other evil troubles for me, | for all the nobles who rule over the islands | of Doulichion, Same, and wooded Zacynthus, | and all who hold sway throughout rugged Ithaca, | all these woo my mother
daughter. | I'll advise you shrewdly, if you'll trust me. | Rig a ship, the best you can, with twenty oars, | and go inquire about your father, so long on his way. | Perhaps some mortal may tell you, or you may hear a rumor | from Zeus, which very often carries news to men. | First go to Pylos and ask divine Nestor, | and from there go to Sparta, to blond Menelaus, | for of the bronze-clad Achaeans he was last to come home. | If you hear of your father's survival and return, | though you'd be impoverished, you should still hold out a year, | but if you hear he's dead and no longer alive, | you should then return to your beloved fatherland, | pile up a barrow for him on which to pay his last rights, | as many, very many, as are fitting, and give your mother to a husband. | But once you've carried these things out and done them, | consider then in your mind and heart | how to slay the suitors in your palace | by guile or openly. You must not in any way indulge | in childish ways, since you're no longer of an age for that. | Haven't you heard what kind of fame divine Orestes won | among all mankind, after he slew his father's killer, | cunning Aegisthus, who'd slain his famous father? | You too, my friend, for I clearly see you're big and handsome, | be staunch, so those born after will speak well of you. | But I'll go down to my swift ship and comrades, | who are likely quite impatient waiting for me. | Keep this in your mind and heed my words." Athena-Mentor models proper behavior for Telemachus by using the traditional story of Orestes, who slayed his father’s (Agamemnon) murderer Aegisthus, after Aegisthus had seduced Orestes’ mother, Clytaemnestra, while Agamemnon was away leading the Trojan War.
Key Passage Six: 1.306- Telemachus acknowledges the kind (=fatherly) intention behind Athena-Mentes’ admonition and instruction, and he continues to perform gestures of xenia to her, promising a gift to her. Astute Telemachus said back to her in answer: | "Stranger, truly, you say these things with kindly thought, | like a father to his son, and I will never forget them. | But come now, stay a while, though you're eager for your journey, | so that bathed and with dear heart at ease, | you'll go to your ship glad at heart, with a gift, | a precious, very fine one, that you'll have as a keepsake | from me, the kind dear guest-friends give to guest-friends." Then bright-eyed goddess Athena answered him: | "Detain me now no longer, as I do want to be on my way. | Whatever gift your dear heart bids you give me, | give it, to be taken home, on my way back, | and pick a very fine one. You'll get one worth it in exchange." Key Passage Seven: 1.319- Telemachus observes Athena-Mentes’ departure and realizes that he has been visited by a divinity. “So saying, bright-eyed Athena departed, | as a bird flies up and away, and she put in his heart | confidence and courage [ menos again!], and caused him to think of his father | even more than before. When he thought it over in his mind | he
sit beside them, and let them drink | their wine in silence. Cease this sad song ( 340 ) | that ever distresses the dear heart in my chest, | since sorrow not to be forgotten comes especially upon me, | for I always long for such a head, when reminded of my husband, | whose fame is wide from Hellas to the middle of Argos." Key Passage Eight: 1.346- Telemachus “owns the room.” In his first act since his encounter with Athena-Mentes, Telemachus asserts his preeminence ( kratos ) over the household by admonishing his mother Penelope for complaining about the singer Phemius’ choice of song. Astute [ pepnumenos ] Telemachus said back to her in turn: | "My mother, why do you begrudge the trusty singer | entertaining whatever way his mind is spurred? Singers | are not at fault, but Zeus is probably to blame, who gives | to men who work for bread, to each one, however he wishes. | This one's singing Danaans' evil doom is no cause | for reproach, for people more applaud the song | that's newest to float about the hearers. | Let your heart and soul endure the hearing of it. | For Odysseus was not the only one to lose his day of homecoming | in Troy, but many other men also perished. | So go into the house and tend to your own work, | the loom and distaff, and bid your handmaids | go about their work. Speaking [ mythos ] is of concern to men, | to all, especially to me, for the power in this house is mine." The word being translated here as “astute” is pepnumenos , which is the perfect participle of the verb, pepnumai , “to be conscious, in full possession of one’s faculties” ( LSJ ). It may also be a “diachronic etymology” that means something along the lines of “having had menos
(note the ending of the word) breathed into him (from Athena)” (see https://kosmossociety.chs.harvard.edu/?p=45054). Telemachus’ self-assertion here requires that he simultaneously clarify gender roles: it is Penelope’s place to focus on weaving fabrics for the household, while it is the responsibility of men to engage in speech ( mythos ; on which see Clark, M. 2001. “Was Telemachus Rude to His Mother? Odyssey 1.356-59” Classical Philology 96.4: 335-354). Astonished, she went back to the house, ( 360 ) | for she put in her heart the astute words of her son. | When she'd gone up to the upper floor with her handmaid women, | she then wept for Odysseus, her beloved husband, | until bright-eyed Athena cast sweet sleep upon her eyelids. The suitors raised an uproar throughout the shadowy palace, | and all prayed to lie in bed beside her. Key Passage Nine: 1.368- Following Athena’s instructions, Telemachus continues to assert his authority over his house by criticizing the suitors for preying upon Odysseus’ resources, and he announces an assembly on the following day (Ithaca has not had an assembly since Odysseus left for Troy twenty years ago). He then threatens the suitors with death. Then astute Telemachus was first to speak among them: | "Suitors of my mother, with your arrogant wantonness, | let's now enjoy our feasting, and let there be no uproar, | since it is a fine thing, listening to a singer | such as this one is, in voice just like the gods. | But at dawn let's go and sit down in
rule over your house. | For let the man not come, to take by force against your will | your property from you, while Ithaca is still a place to live in. | But I want to ask you, most noble sir, about the stranger. | This man, where is he from, from what country does he claim to be, | where is his father's farm and family, | and did he bring some news of your father's coming, | or did he come here wanting to do business of his own? | How quickly he sprang up and left and didn't hang around ( 410 ) | to be recognized, for he seemed nothing like a coward to my eye." Key Passage Ten: 1.413- Even though Telemachus has had assurances from Athena-Mentes (whom he recognizes as a divinity) that Odysseus is coming home, he pretends to the suitor Eurymachus that he doubts Odysseus’ return and he claims that Mentes is merely a family friend. Astute Telemachus said back to him in turn: | “Eurymachus, my father's return home is surely done for. | So, I neither believe news, if it comes from anywhere, | nor attend to prophecy, whatever my mother | may ask about when she calls a prophet to our hall. | This stranger is of my father's family friend from Taphos | and claims he's Mentes, son of wise Anchialus, | and that he rules the oar-loving Taphians.” | So said Telemachus, but in his heart he recognized the immortal goddess.” Telemachus here is exhibiting Odysseus’ (and Penelope’s) ability to be wily or “of many turns” ( polytropos ; cf. Odyssey 1.1) by saying one thing but knowing another, in order to get the advantage over his enemies.
Turning to dancing and delightful song, | they enjoyed themselves and waited for evening to come. | Dark evening came upon them as they enjoyed themselves. | Then each went home to rest. | Telemachus, where a chamber had been built for him | in an open place high above the gorgeous courtyard, | went to bed, and in his mind he pondered many things. | Devoted Eurycleia, daughter of Ops Peisenorides, | carried burning torches by his side. | Laertes had bought her with his own possessions once upon a time, ( 430 ) | when she was still in the bloom of youth. He'd given twenty oxen, | and in his palace valued her as equal to his devoted wife, | but he avoided his wife's anger and never took her to bed. | She carried burning torches by his side. Of the bondswomen, | she had loved him the most and nursed him when he was little. ( 435 ) | He opened the door of the carefully made room, | sat down on the bed, took off his soft tunic, | and dropped it into the crafty old woman's hands. | Smoothing and folding his tunic, | she hung it on a peg beside the perforated bedframe, ( 440 ) | made her way from the room, pulled the door closed | by its silver handle, and shot the bolt by its strap. | There through the night, wrapped in sheep's wool, | he considered in his mind the path Athena had shown him.
Scroll Two
When early-born rose-fingered Dawn appeared, | Odysseus' beloved son arose from bed, | put on his clothes, slung a sharp sword around his shoulder, | tied fine sandals beneath sleek feet, | and made his way from the bedroom looking like a god. | At once he bid his clear-voiced heralds | to summon to assembly the hairy-headed Achaeans. | They summoned, and they assembled very quickly. | Then after they assembled and were together, | he made his way to the assembly holding a bronze spear in his
