{"id":434,"date":"2022-03-30T23:25:30","date_gmt":"2022-03-30T23:25:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/?p=434"},"modified":"2022-03-30T23:25:30","modified_gmt":"2022-03-30T23:25:30","slug":"coming-of-age-in-the-odyssey-of-homer-book-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/?p=434","title":{"rendered":"Coming-of-Age in The Odyssey of Homer, Book I"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the first book of Homer\u2019s The Odyssey, <\/em>it is evident to the audience that Telemachos, the son of Odysseus, does not embody the necessary characteristics of a man\u2014courage, fierceness, and strength to stand against the impostors in his home. He lacks even the strength to stand up to his own mother, aspects which all emphasize aspects of lingering boyhood. The goddess of wisdom and war, Athene, recognizes his lack and works to carry out the transition in his life by her own means, yet still holding to what appears to be a Grecian standard for the process. \u201cI shall make my way to Ithaka, so that I may stir up his son a little, and put some confidence in him to summon into assembly the flowing haired Achaians\u201d (Homer 1.88-89). Here, she describes the process of strengthening him as a man so that he can take his rightful place, and face the men invading his home. In lines 296-297, Athene (disguised as Odysseus\u2019 friend, Mentes) meets and reprimands Telemachos saying, \u201cYou should not go on clinging to your childhood. \/ You are no longer of age to do that.\u201d These lines, along with the surrounding context, and the cultural evidence of a patriarchal society reveal several elements of the Greek coming-of-age tradition, including a male-centered mentality of the process, the necessity of an authority figure to call a boy into manhood, and an act of valor to render it a success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first is clear through Grecian cultural evidence. Generally every position of mortal authority is held by a man\u2014heading the home, leading the city, and fighting the wars. Even between the gods, it is a male deity that rules over them all. This general evidence leads one to conclude that a male\u2019s experience of transitioning into adulthood is significantly more prominent in ancient Grecian culture than that of a female\u2019s experience, centering the tradition primarily on male influence and action. This leads to the second point that it requires a man of authority to influence and call a boy into manhood. Although it is the goddess, Athene, who calls Telemachos, she disguises herself as a man\u2014as Odysseus\u2019 old friend, Mentes\u2014to honor the traditional role of a masculine authority figure for initiating the transition. The last element is an act of valor that solidifies the boy\u2019s arrival as a man. This is made clear by Athene\u2019s call for Telemachos to remember the story of Orestes who avenged his father, winning this masculine glory. \u201cOr have you not heard what glory was won by great Orestes among all mankind, when he killed the murderer of his father\u2026?\u201d (1.298-299). Here, Athene is making Orestes\u2019 action against his father\u2019s murderers equivalent to the looming action that Telemachos must take against the suitors in his home. It was this act of valor that enabled Orestes to take his father\u2019s place as the head of the family, and this act that Telemachos must carry out to do the same, solidifying his manhood and bringing him the glory that every true man in this time and place requires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

February 27, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Works Cited<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Homer. The Odyssey of Homer<\/em>. Translated by Richmond Lattimore. HarperCollins Publishers, New York, 1965.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the first book of Homer\u2019s The Odyssey, it is evident to the audience that Telemachos, the son of Odysseus, does not embody the necessary characteristics of a man\u2014courage, fierceness, and strength to stand against the impostors in his home. He lacks even the strength to stand up to his own mother, aspects which all…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[353,34,350,344,345,355,341,359,342,358,349,339,346,347,356,354,357,348,351,352,360,343,340,361],"class_list":["post-434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-critical-analyses","tag-achaians","tag-ancient-grecian-culture","tag-ancient-greece","tag-athena","tag-athene","tag-becoming","tag-book-i","tag-bravery","tag-coming-of-age","tag-fight","tag-greek","tag-homer","tag-ithaka","tag-ithica","tag-man","tag-manhood","tag-masculine","tag-mentes","tag-odysseus","tag-orestes","tag-strength","tag-telemachos","tag-the-odyssey","tag-valor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=434"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":503,"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434\/revisions\/503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}