Telemachus
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- This article is about the figure in Greek mythology. For the Christian saint, see Saint Telemachus, and for the South African cricketer, see Roger Telemachus.
Telemachus (also transliterated as Telemachos or Telémakhos; literally, "far-away fighter") is a figure in Greek mythology, the son of Odysseus and Penelope. His part in the saga of Odysseus was described by Homer in the epic poems of the Iliad and the Odyssey, in which his part of the story is often portrayed as a passage into manhood from childhood. In particular, the first four books of the Odyssey are sometimes referred to as the Telemachy.
[edit] In the Odyssey
He was born on the day when Odysseus was called to fight in the Trojan War. Attempting to renege on his oath to defend Helen, Odysseus sowed salt into his fields in feigned madness. The emissary Palamedes, who was sent to call Odysseus to battle, placed the infant Telemachus before the plow. Odysseus stopped, proving his sanity and obliging himself to the war.
After his father has been gone for nearly 20 years, young Telemachus is met by Athena, who takes the male disguise of Mentor and accompanies him on a journey in search of news of his father. They travel to Pylos and Lacedaemon. Their rulers, Nestor and Menelaus, are friendly, having held Odysseus in high regard, but do not know what has become of him. Telemachus forms a close friendship with Nestor's son Pisistratus, who accompanies him on the search for his father, however, the two are only able to find out that Odysseus is being held captive by Calypso. When Telemachus returns to Ithaca, Athena in another disguise prompts him to visit the swineherd Eumaeus, instead of returning to his home. At the pigkeeper's cottage he discovers that the beggar staying with Eumaeus is his father. He then accompanies Odysseus and the swineherd into the hall where they kill all the suitors. They then execute the twelve slave women who had slept with the suitors; Odysseus orders Telemachus to stab them, but Telemachus prefers to hang them, an unclean death.
Telemachus's story is mostly separate from the actual main conflict of the story, but also portrays an important event for Telemachus. For most of his life, having been sheltered and raised by his mother and his nurse, he has not gained the masculinity that comes with adulthood. For instance, when Telemachus calls the people of Ithaca for council in the square, after telling the people of his plight, he bursts into tears. Athena pushes Telemachus off into his own transformation in the story. This is another tale that the poet has woven into the Odyssey.
Telemachus however does not greatly achieve manhood in accordance with the Greek tradition of hospitality, and it's debatable whether or not he is a "man" by the end of the epic. His main act of maturation is when he seeks to prevent the suitors from marrying his mother, Penelope.
[edit] Other appearances
- According to Aristotle and Dictys of Crete, Telemachus married Nausicaa, King Alcinous's daughter, and had a son named Perseptolis or Ptoliporthus.
- In The Adventures of Krytolandros, Telemachos also marries Nausicaa, but has a son named Krytolandros who goes on a journey to learn of Odysseus' wanderings.
- According to the Telegony, Telemachus married Circe after his father's death.
- Telemachus is the subject of François Fénelon's The Adventures of Telemachus, Son of Ulysses (1699), a scathing attack on the monarchy of France.
- In James Joyce's Ulysses, Stephen Dedalus is the analogue of Telemachus.
- Appears in the science fiction cartoon Ulysses 31 based on the Odysseus concept as a young boy with his father Ulysses (who is actual a modern Odysseus).
- In Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson's The Illuminatus! Trilogy the fictional book Telemachus Sneezed is described which is a parody of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.
