Telemachus

Telemachus, in Greek mythology, son of the Greek hero Odysseus and his wife, Penelope. He has a central role in Homer’s Odyssey, which relates how he visited Pylos and Sparta in search of his wandering father. The first four books of the Odyssey are collectively known as the Telemachy. According to later tradition, Telemachus married the sorceress Circe (or the nymph Calypso) after Odysseus was accidentally killed by Telegonus, his son by Circe. (Read: Is the Odyssey a True Story?)

Telemachus as a child

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The infant Telemachus appears in a legend about Odysseus’s recruitment into the Greek expeditionary force that was assembled to sail to Troy for the recovery of Spartan queen Helen, who had eloped with (or been abducted by) the Trojan prince Paris. Odysseus, who was obligated to go as one of Helen’s former suitors, had learned from a prophecy that he would not return to his native Ithaca for many years and attempted to avoid military service by feigning insanity. His ruse was revealed when Palamedes, one of the recruiting party, placed Telemachus in harm’s way, forcing Odysseus to abandon the deception. He left Ithaca to fight the 10-year-long Trojan War. His voyage home from Troy was fraught with danger and misadventures and took another 10 years.

Role in the Odyssey

During Odysseus’s 20-year absence Penelope and Telemachus struggled to maintain their authority in Ithaca, where 108 aggressive suitors had gathered to pressure Penelope into remarrying. When Telemachus reached adulthood, he left Ithaca, seeking news of his father. He was accompanied by the goddess Athena, disguised as Odysseus’s friend Mentor. (The character is the basis for the modern use of the word mentor.) Telemachus first went to Pylos, where King Nestor recounted Odysseus’s exploits in the Trojan War but professed ignorance of his current whereabouts. On learning from Nestor how Orestes had avenged Agamemnon’s (Orestes’ father) murder by slaying his killer, Aegisthus, Telemachus wished for Orestes’ courage so that he could kill Penelope’s suitors. Nestor advised Telemachus not to let the suitors prevail and to continue to Sparta for information on Odysseus’s fate.

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From Athena to Zeus: Basics of Greek Mythology

In Sparta Telemachus met King Menelaus and Queen Helen, who regaled him with stories of Odysseus’s contributions to the Trojan War, notably how he masterminded the Trojan horse stratagem that secured the Greek victory. Menelaus later disclosed that Odysseus was alive but was being held captive by the nymph Calypso on the island of Ogygia. On sailing back to Ithaca, Telemachus evaded an ambush set by the suitors and sheltered with the swineherd Eumaeus. There he found an elderly man whom he treated courteously. The stranger then revealed himself as Odysseus, who had been disguised by Athena. After an emotional reunion, father and son devised a plan for a stand against the suitors at an archery contest being held for Penelope’s hand. None of the suitors succeeded in the task, which was to string Odysseus’s bow and shoot an arrow through 12 ax handles. Telemachus attempted to complete the feat but was stopped by a signal from his father. Finally, Odysseus, still in disguise, accomplished the challenge. Helped by Telemachus, who had secreted a cache of weapons, Odysseus slew the suitors and was reunited with Penelope.

In modern literature

François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon’s Les Aventures de Télémaque (1699), which set the fashion for novels about the education of princes or heroes, is about the trials of Telemachus, who is guided by Athena disguised as Mentor. In Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem “Ulysses” (1833), a restless Odysseus outlines his plan for a final adventure, having relinquished the throne of Ithaca to Telemachus. James Joyce’s literary creation Stephen Dedalus appears in the author’s novel Ulysses (1922) as a modern counterpart of Telemachus.