Telemachia Review Post

Book One

Focus Item: The sad state of the kingdom of Ithaca (Taxonomy level: Low)

At the beginning of the Odyssey, Odysseus’ kingdom of Ithaka is in bad shape. Its king has been lost at sea for nearly twenty years. The heir to the throne, Telemakhos, is only 19 years old and cannot take power until his aged grandfather, Laërtes, dies. Laërtes himself shows no ambition to help his kingdom, instead hiding away in his farm in the hills. Telémakhos is weak and uncertain, requiring a visit from the goddess Athena to spur him into action. Penélopê, the queen, is busy mourning her lost husband and lacks the power to affect things anyway. The only ones showing ambition are the suitors, local noblemen and princes who have come for Penélopê’s hand in marriage and her extensive wealth. These men are boorish and rude, abusing the Greek customs of hospitality by slaughtering all the royal family’s oxen and sheep.

“They use/our house as if it were a house to plunder… Meanwhile they eat their way through all we have/ and when they can, they will demolish me,”

in the words of Telémakhos. They spend their time at ease, living off wealthy Odysseus’ plentiful stores (although they are rich men themselves, aristocrats and kings in their own right, who can well afford to feed themselves) and playing at dice on the hides of the oxen they unrightfully slaughtered. Although Penélopê hates the suitors and Telémakhos does as well, neither one can do anything but wait on Odysseus to come home- something they are beginning to despair of. Laërtes, although he keeps the title “lord,” is an old man and broken by the loss of his son. Thus is the state Ithaka is in when Athena descends to counsel Telémakhos.

Book One Text Connection (Taxonomy level: Middle)

This sorry state that Ithaka went into in Odysseus’ absence can be compared to that of the Shire during Frodo’s absence in The Lord of the Rings. In both, while the hero is gone, greedy and rapacious men take over the land, abusing it for personal gain. Since the hero is otherwise occupied, there is no one to rescue the land and drive out the invaders. Although resentment is widespread, no one has the drive or power to act. On the other hand, there are also differences between Tolkien and Homer’s portrayals of the decay destroying their heroes’ societies. Homer focuses almost entirely on how this affects Odysseus’ family, showing how the suitors abuse their hosts by killing off all their livestock for feasts and squandering their riches. What the peasants of Ithaka think of this does not enter into the story. Tolkien, contrarily, shows how the common people are affected, how they are oppressed by Saruman and made to work in factories and how that great and cruel wizard allowed his mercenaries to pillage and abuse them.

Saruman is surrounded by a mob of hobbits

Book Two

Focus Item: Telémakhos’ dangerous journey (Taxonomy level: Low)

After the meeting ends with the bloody omen and an argument over its interpretation, Telémakhos prays to Athena to listen to him and guide him. She appears in the form of Mentor. Athena advises him to go home and get provisions ready. She will provide a crew and choose a ship. Telémakhos follows her advice very secretly. Athena collects a crew, borrows a fast ship, and casts a spell of sleep over the suitors so they will not hinder Telémakhos. Telémakhos and Athena go together to the ship, board it, and give orders for departure. Athena provides them with fair winds. They sail through the night, coming to Pylos in the morning.

A Greek ship

Book Two Text Connection (Taxonomy level: Middle)
Throughout the Telemachia, the hero gets what he wants not so much by his own efforts as by those of the gods. This is reminiscent of the Narnia books, by C. S. Lewis, where the main characters are often aided and even bailed out by the god figure Aslan. This is especially apparent in the second book, where just about all of Telémakhos’ needs are provided by Athena. She gives him a ship, she gives him a crew, she gives him a plan- she even makes the suitors fall asleep so that he will not be intercepted while he escapes the palace. Although Athena continuously praises Telémakhos, so far he has not done much deserving of the praise- while a decent and brave person, he has certainly not done anything to merit Athena’s compliments.

Like the Narnia books, it is shown that the course of the story is not really necessary- the gods in the Odyssey could have simply rescued Odysseus from Kalypso just as soon as he arrived there and brought him back to Ithaka. So, too, they could have directed Telémakhos to his father immediately, dispensing with the journey he takes and his lengthy interviews with Menelaos and Nestor. In the Narnia books, Aslan, being God, could have simply smote and destroyed the various villains of the series, saving time and lives- or, indeed, He could have never allowed the possibility of evil in the first place. But Athena wants to test Telémakhos and help him grow into a man worthy of his illustrious father, and Aslan does not want to destroy free will, and the authors want to have interesting stories to tell, so the god(s) only offer help and advice, not actually solving the problem.

Athena

Aslan

 

 

 

 

 

 

Book Three

Focus Item: Nestor’s story and direction for Telémakhos’ travels (Taxonomy level: Low)
Nestor, the “Prince of Charioteers,” tells Telémakhos the story of how he and Meneláos came home from Troy. Due to a storm, Meneláos was forced to go to Egypt, where he stayed for several years. While he was there, Clytemnestra and Aigísthos killed Agamemnon. When Orestês avenged his father’s death, Meneláos returned with abundant gold. Nestor then urges him to visit Meneláos, then return home with speed lest the suitors squander his wealth. He offers Telémakhos horses, a chariot, and his sons to travel with him.

Book Three Text Connection: The monomyth as featured in the Telemachia (Taxonomy Level: High)
By the third section, it is evident that the Telemachia is following a monomythic structure. The following diagram illustrates their parallels.

Book Four

Focus Item: A fight with an immortal & how Menelaos knows Odysseus’ location
Meneláos asks Telémakhos why he has come to visit him. Telémakhos responds that he has come to see what news he has of Odysseus, complaining that the suitors are ruining him. Meneláos condemns the suitors and says he will tell Telémakhos what the Ancient of the Sea told him. When he was trying to get home from Troy, the gods held him on the island of Pharos, becalmed. As he wandered on the shore, the daughter of Proteus, a shape-shifting sea-god, took pity on him. She told him that if he should take Proteus by surprise and hold him fast, he would tell him how to get home. She also tells him how to catch Proteus. Meneláos follows her instructions and captures Proteus. At last he submits, and Meneláos asks of him why the gods detain him on Pharos and what happened to the generals after the war. He says that the gods are angry because he did not sacrifice enough. He also says, amongst other things, that Odysseus is imprisoned on Kalypso’s isle without any way of escaping. Finally, he tells Meneláos that he is destined for Elysion and dives beneath the waves. Meneláos then made sacrifices to the gods and leaves for home.

Book Four Text Connection (Bloom’s Taxonomy level: Middle)

The story of how Meneláos captured Proteus bears some resemblance to the final scene of the well-known British folk ballad Tam Lin, concerning the romance between the titular Tam Lin and Lady Janet. In the final scene, Janet rescues Tam Lin from being sacrificed to the devil by the evil queen of elves. At Tam Lin’s own instruction, while the elves are in procession, she pulls him down from his horse. The queen of elves changes him successively into various forms- mostly terrifying or loathsome- in an attempt to get Janet to let go. She does not, and at last the queen gives up and Tam Lin returns to his natural form. Janet cloaks him in her mantle, and henceforth the queen is unable to affect him. The part where she turns him into various creatures is similar to when Proteus is trying to escape from Meneláos- even some of the things he becomes are the same: a lion, a serpent, a boar.

The procession of elves