The Odyssey Telemachus Quotes

First by far to see her was Prince Telemachus,
sitting among the suitors, heart obsessed with grief.
He could almost see his magnificent father, here…
in the mind’s eye – if only he might drop from the clouds
and drive these suitors all in a rout throughout the halls
and regain his pride of place and rule his own domains!

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 1, lines 132-137. We are introduced to Odysseus’ son Telemachus for the first time. We are told by way of a heart metaphor that he is full of grief for his absent father. He is the first to notice Athena, who appears in the form of Mentes. We get foreshadowing in this passage of what will happen when Odysseus routs the suitors.

Daydreaming so as he sat among the suitors,
he glimpsed Athena now
straight to the porch he went, mortified
that a guest might still be standing at the doors.
Pausing beside her there, he clasped her right hand
and relieving her at once of her long bronze spear,
met her with winged words: "Greetings, stranger!
Here in our house you’ll find a royal welcome.
Have supper first, then tell us what you need."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 1, lines 138-146. Telemachus is sitting among Penelope’s suitors when he spots a guest left standing at the doors unattended. Immediately he runs to greet the disguised Athena and offer supper, even before he asks his guest’s name. In ancient Greece the code of hospitality, or xenia, was regarded as a sacred duty. Note how Telemachus is the only one in the household to treat the guest with respect, there’s no welcome from the suitors.

"once this house was rich, no doubt, beyond reproach
when the man you mentioned still lived here, at home.
Now the gods have reversed our fortunes with a vengeance –
wiped that man from the earth like no one else before."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 1, lines 270-273. Telemachus confides his troubles to Athena. He laments how the gods have reversed the fortunes of their once rich house and wiped the man of the house from the face of the earth. The fate of humans and divine intervention are major themes in The Odyssey.

"All the nobles who rule the islands round about,
Dulichion, and Same, and wooded Zacynthus too,
and all who lord it in rocky Ithaca as well –
down to the last man they court my mother,
they lay waste my house! And mother…
she neither rejects a marriage she despises
nor can she bear to bring the courting to an end –
while they continue to bleed my household white.
Soon – you wait – they’ll grind me down as well."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 1, lines 285-293. Greed is an important theme in Homer’s epic poem. There is no better illustration of it than the way Penelope’s suitors behave by helping themselves to what they can lay hands on in Odysseus’ home. Telemachus in this speech uses a blood metaphor – "bleed my household white" – to describe their greed.

"Why, mother,"
poised Telemachus put in sharply, "why deny
our devoted bard the chance to entertain us
any way the spirit stirs him on?
Bards are not to blame –
Zeus is to blame. He deals to each and every
laborer on this earth whatever doom he pleases.
Why fault the bard if he sings the Argives’ harsh fate?"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 1, lines 397-403. When Penelope asks Phemius to stop singing about the Achaeans and the Trojan War, Telemachus jumps in to challenge this. The Bard is not to blame for the cruel fates of those who went to war, he asserts, but Zeus is. In The Odyssey the gods are credited with causing a lot of the misfortunes of humans.
Telemachus in The Odyssey

"So, mother,
go back to your quarters. Tend to your own tasks,
the distaff and the loom, and keep the women
working hard as well. As for giving orders,
men will see to that, but I most of all:
I hold the reins of power in this house."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 1, lines 409-414. The roles of each gender come into play early in The Odyssey, as Telemachus tells his mother to go into the house and tend to her womanly tasks of spinning and weaving. In the absence of his father Odysseus, Telemachus asserts his position as head of the household and says that men will give the orders. He is responding to his mother Penelope dissolving into tears at the bard’s song "The Achaeans’ Journey Home from Troy" and asking him to sing a different song. Classicist Mary Beard describes Telemachus telling mother to be silent as Western literature’s "first recorded example of a man telling a woman to ‘shut up.’"

"Eurymachus," Telemachus answered shrewdly,
"clearly my father’s journey home is lost forever.
I no longer trust in rumors – rumors from the blue –
nor bother with any prophecy, when mother calls
some wizard into the house to ask him questions."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 1, lines 470-474. After Telemachus has been told by Athena that Odysseus is still alive, he decides to conceal this from the suitors. Instead he deceives them by announcing that his father is dead. To do otherwise would jeopardize the safety of the young prince and his mother. This is Telemachus showing his independence and taking matters into his own hands.

"As for the stranger, though,
the man’s an old family friend, from Taphos,
wise Anchialus’ son. He says his name is Mentes,
lord of the Taphian men who love their oars."
So he said
but deep in his mind he knew the immortal goddess.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 1, lines 475-479. When Eurymachus questions Telemachus on who his guest is, Telemachus answers that his name is Mentes. Telemachus, aware that Mentes is the disguised goddess Athena, shows cunning by hiding her real identity from the suitors.

When young Dawn with her rose-red fingers shone once more
the true son of Odysseus sprang from bed and dressed,
over his shoulder he slung his well-honed sword,
fastened rawhide sandals under his smooth feet
and stepped from his bedroom, handsome as a god.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 2, lines 1-5.The opening lines of Book 2 features personification, with dawn described as rising like a person. There is a simile comparing the son of Odysseus to the gods, as we are treated to a newly invigorated and more confident Telemachus.

"Suitors plague my mother – against her will –
sons of the very men who are your finest here!
…they infest our palace day and night,
they butcher our cattle, our sheep, our fat goats,
feasting themselves sick, swilling our glowing wine
as if there’s no tomorrow – all of it, squandered.
Now we have no man like Odysseus in command
to drive this curse from the house. We ourselves?
We’re hardly the ones to fight them off. All we’d do
is parade our wretched weakness. A boy inept at battle.
Oh I’d swing to attack if I had the power in me.
By god, it’s intolerable, what they do – disgrace,
my house a shambles!"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 2, lines 54-55, 59-69. Telemachus complains to the men of Ithaca about the suitors plaguing his mother and feasting on their food like there is no tomorrow. The suitors take advantage of the absence of household head Odysseus to eat through the livestock in the hope that Penelope will agree to wed one of them. Telemachus feels unable to do anything about their abuse, describing himself as "a boy inept at battle."

"Antinous, how can I drive my mother from our house
against her will, the one who bore me, reared me too?
My father is worlds away, dead or alive, who knows?
Imagine the high price I’d have to pay Icarius
if all on my own I send my mother home.
Oh what I would suffer from her father –
and some dark god would hurt me even more
when mother, leaving her own house behind,
calls down her withering Furies on my head,
and our people’s cries of shame would hound my heels."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 2, lines 144-153. Telemachus tells Antinous that he cannot drive his mother out of her house, for fear that he would suffer the wrath of the Furies. The Furies were the ancient Greek goddesses of vengeance and retribution who punished people for crimes against the natural order of things.

"And you, if you have any shame in your own hearts,
you must leave my palace! See to your feasting elsewhere,
devour your own possessions, house to house by turns.
But if you decide the fare is better, richer here,
destroying one man’s goods and going scot-free,
all right then, carve away!"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 2, lines 155-160. Telemachus is fed up with the greedy suitors devouring all of Odysseus’ possessions. He stands up to them and asks them to leave. We see here his growing maturity and courage as he develops into a man. The prince is growing into manhood, but without his father, he knows that he doesn’t have the power to make the the suitors leave.

"But I’ll cry out to the everlasting gods in hopes
that Zeus will pay you back with a vengeance – all of you
destroyed in my house while I go scot-free myself!"
And to seal his prayer, farseeing Zeus sent down a sign.
He launched two eagles soaring high from a mountain ridge
and down they glided, borne on the wind’s draft a moment,
wing to wingtip, pinions straining taut till just
above the assembly’s throbbing hum they whirled,
suddenly, wings thrashing, wild onslaught of wings
and banking down at the crowd’s heads – a glaring, fatal sign –
talons slashing each other, tearing cheeks and throats
they swooped away on the right through homes and city."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 2, lines 161-172. The theme of the gods intervening in the affairs of humans is illustrated here. Telemachus prays to Zeus to pay the suitors back for their behavior. Immediately the father of the gods answers his prayer with a "fatal" omen, sending down two fighting eagles tearing at each other over the heads of the crowd. This foreshadows that the suitors will pay the supreme penalty for their crimes. Telemachus demonstrates his courage in standing up to the suitors.

"Dear god, hear me! Yesterday you came to my house,
you told me to ship out on the misty sea and learn
if father, gone so long, is ever coming home…
Look how my countrymen – the suitors most of all,
the pernicious bullies – foil each move I make."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 2, lines 295-299. As he walks along the beach alone, a frustrated Telemachus prays to Athena for help in dealing with the bullying suitors. The young prince is still not fully confident in himself, especially on taking on the role of his father as head of the household.

"Antinous, now how could I dine with you in peace
and take my pleasure? You ruffians carousing here!
Isn’t it quite enough that you, my mother’s suitors,
have ravaged it all, my very best, these many years,
while I was still a boy? But now that I’m full-grown
and can hear the truth from others, absorb it too
while I was still a boy? But now that I’m full-grown
and can hear the truth from others, absorb it too –
now, yes, that the anger seethes inside me…
I’ll stop at nothing to hurl destruction at your heads."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 2, lines 344-351. An emboldened Telemachus, inspired by Athena, displays a man’s courage and determination in this rebuke to suitors’ leader Antinous. As they indulge themselves feasting on the palace food, the young prince lets the suitors know that they are no longer dealing with a timid boy but an angry man. He threatens destruction on their heads. Telemachus is attempting to assume the role of leader of his household.

A wail of grief –
and his fond old nurse burst out in protest, sobbing:
"Why, dear child, what craziness got into your head?
Why bent on rambling over the face of the earth? –
a darling only son! Your father’s worlds away,
god’s own Odysseus, dead in some strange land.
And these brutes here, just wait, the moment you’re gone
they’ll all be scheming against you."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 2, lines 399-401. Eurycleia pleads with Telemachus not to sail to Pylos in search of information about his missing father. She predicts – correctly – that as soon as he is gone the suitors will be scheming against him. This foreshadows the suitors’ plot to kill Telemachus. The passage also shows the great love Telemachus’ old nurse has for him and her loyalty to his family.

"Courage, old woman,"
thoughtful Telemachus tried to reassure her,
"there’s a god who made this plan.
But swear you won’t say anything to my mother.
Not till ten or a dozen days have passed
or she misses me herself and learns I’m gone.
She mustn’t mar her lovely face with tears."
The old one swore a solemn oath to the gods
and voring she would never breathe a word.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 2, lines 410-418. Telemachus makes Eurycleia swear an oath to conceal from his mother his plan to travel to Pylos for information about his missing father. He asks her not to tell Penelope until ten or twelve days after he has departed Ithaca. Eurycleia duly swears an oath not to breathe a word.

"Telemachus,"
the bright-eyed goddess Athena reassured him,
"some of the words you’ll find within yourself,
the rest some power will inspire you to say.
You least of all – I know –
were born and reared without the gods’ good will."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 3, lines 27-32. Athena offers words of encouragement to the shy Telemachus, who is concerned that his powers of speech and eloquence may not be up to addressing an older man of the stature of King Nestor. Telemachus wants to ask the king about his missing father Odysseus. The Odyssey, as well as being about the journey of the wandering Odysseus, is also a coming-of-age story about his son, growing up in a royal household without a father and trying to find his way in the world. That journey to manhood he is now learning to make – with Athena’s help.

"If only the gods would arm me in such power
I’d take revenge on the lawless, brazen suitors
riding roughshod over me, plotting reckless outrage.
But for me the gods have spun out no such joy,
for my father or myself. I must bear up,
that’s all."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 3, lines 233-238. Telemachus wishes that the gods would give him the power of Orestes, who avenged his father’s murder, so he could take his revenge on the shameless suitors. Telemachus believes that the gods have no such plan for his father and himself. We have dramatic irony here, since the reader is in the know about Athena helping Odysseus to return home, where he will be able to deal with the suitors. The passage foreshadows the suitors’ fate.

"Never, your majesty,"
Telemachus countered gravely, "that will never
come to pass, I know. What you say dumbfounds me,
staggers imagination! Hope, hope as I will,
that day will never dawn…
not even if the gods should will it so."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 3, lines 255-260. This is Telemachus’ response to Nestor, who says that if only Athena favored Telemachus as she did his father Odysseus. This is an example of dramatic irony since the reader knows that Telemachus is being guided by Athena, disguised as Mentor, in his search for his father. It also shows Telemachus’ modesty and lack of pride.

With that the bright-eyed goddess winged away
in an eagle’s form and flight.
Amazement fell on all the Achaeans there.
The old king, astonished by what he’d seen,
grasped Telemachus’ hand and cried out to the prince,
"Dear boy – never fear you’ll be a coward or defenseless,
not if at your young age the gods will guard you so.
Of all who dwell on Olympus, this was none but she,
Zeus’s daughter, the glorious one, his third born,
who prized your gallant father among the Argives."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 3, lines 415-424. Athena, disguised as Mentor, reveals herself when she turns into an eagle and flies away. Amazed at what he has seen, King Nestor tells Telemachus that this was none other than Athena who will protect him just as she prized his father Odysseus. So the young son of Odysseus gets the official stamp of approval from the gods.

Such memories
stirred in the young prince a deep desire to grieve
for Odysseus. Tears streamed down his cheeks
and wet the ground when he heard his father’s name,
both hands clutching his purple robe before his eyes.
Menelaus recognized him at once but pondered
whether to let him state his father’s name
or probe him first and prompt him step by step.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 4, lines 126-133. When Menelaus grieves the loss of Odysseus, not knowing if he is dead of alive, Telemachus cries at this mention of his father. An observant Menelaus witnesses this and recognizes who Telemachus is straight away.

"My heart tells me
to come right out and say I’ve never seen such a likeness,
neither in man nor woman – I’m amazed at the sight.
To the life he’s like the son of great Odysseus,
surely he’s Telemachus! The boy that hero left
a babe in arms at home when all you Achaeans
fought at Troy, launching your headlong battles
just for my sake, shameless whore that I was."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 4, lines 155-162. Helen is looking at Telemachus, who is crying at the loss of his father. She immediately recognizes the similarity between between Telemachus and Odysseus. Helen describes herself as a "shameless whore" fought for by the Achaeans who waged a ten-year war when she was abducted by Paris of Troy. This speaks to the power of someone regarded as one of the world’s most beautiful women and great sexual icon.
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