Homer's Odyssey, Book 1

“Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns.”

Art: Young Man with Bow and large Quiver and his Companion with a Shield, formerly entitled Telemachus and Mentor by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, c. 1730-50, via @rijksmuseum , Amsterdam.

Book 1 is all action, right away.

The world of The Odyssey is filled with conflict: between the gods themselves, between the gods and mortals, and between Penelope and Telemachus and the suitors who ravage their home in Ithaca.

First, the council of the gods takes us back to the memory of the Trojan War.

Greece was victorious, but what does that mean? When Troy burned to the ground, many Greeks also died.

Zeus recalls the tragic homecoming of King Agamemnon. When he returned from war, his wife Clytemnestra murdered him with the help of her lover Aegisthus. Orestes, Agamemnon’s son, avenged his father’s death by killing his own mother. And so, the Furies pursued him the ends of the earth. (Orestes also appears in several Greek tragedies, including The Oresteia by Aeschylus, and Electra by Sophocles.)

The contrast could not be more striking.

In Ithaca, Penelope, Odysseus’s loyal wife, is no Clytemnestra. But, like Orestes, Telemachus must now come of age, and in a different way than Orestes did—by helping his long-absent father reclaim his home and throne.

The counsel of the gods also sets up clear allegiances.

Odysseus has angered Poseidon. Athena, meanwhile, champions Odysseus. And since Poseidon is absent, the goddess (of wisdom, war, and weaving) makes her move. She approaches Zeus: it is time, she says, to send Odysseus home.

That is the story that the narrator now asks the Muse (Calliope, Muse of Epic Poetry) to sing: of Odysseus’s homeward journey. He is the cunning “man of twists and turns.”

After the council, Athena wastes no time.

She pays Telemachus a visit in Ithaca, with plans to send him on a sea-journey for news of his father. She disguises herself as one of Odysseus’s old friends, Mentor. (This is the origin of the term “mentor” in English today.) Just as she guided Odysseus through the war at Troy, she is now committed to mentoring his son as he comes of age.

Imagine the scene in the palace at Ithaca. Suitors lounging everywhere. Most of them drunk, some passed out, others rowdy and restless. They have abused Telemachus and Penelope’s hospitality for years. Every single one of them seeks Penelope’s hand in marriage so they might become the next king. None are fit to rule.

In spite of everything the suitors have put this household through, Telemachus receives Mentor according to the Greek tradition of hospitality: before asking questions, he welcomes Mentor in and feeds him. It’s a simple action, but a profound one.

Whereas the suitors abuse the ancient custom and thus fail to honor the gods, Telemachus keeps it, and remains faithful to them.

Then comes the big reveal.

Mentor tells the truth: s/he is one of Odysseus’s oldest friends. S/he recognizes Telemachus because, s/he says, he looks so much like his father.

That single comment prompts Telemachus to speak up and claim his lineage:

“I am his son!” he declares boldly.

His words mark an important turning point that catalyzes the beginning of his character arc. This is when Athena presses in. “It’s time you were a man,” s/he says.

What we’re being asked to notice is something not explicitly written on the page. Penelope has been holding down the fort with her weaving for years, but sooner or later, if Telemachus does not step up, she will be forced to remarry.

Time is running out.

The shift in Telemachus becomes clear when Penelope comes downstairs. He instructs his mother to go back to her chambers. And she obeys his command, not because she is submissive, but because she, too, recognizes the change. Her son is becoming a man.

Perhaps she, too, sees Odysseus in him more than ever before.