Jon Dunlap3/8/12 Odysseus v TelemachusPeriod 2 “Maturity has more related to what types of experience you’ve got, and what you’ve discovered from them, and fewer to do with how many birthdays you’ve commemorated. ” – Anonymous (Thinkexist. com).
Maturity is a key theme throughout the journeys of Telemachus and Odysseus. In Homer’s Odyssey the trips of Telemachus and Odysseus have many similarities and differences such as their very own common aim and the lessons they learn, and only by overcoming these kinds of obstacles are they able to become psychologically stronger and locate success in Ithaca.
Odysseus and Telemachus’ respective excursions have many similarities such as the prevalent enemy the share and the goal they are really fighting toward. First, due to Odysseus’ lengthy absence following your war, having been thought to be useless, which resulted in a large increase of suitors wishing to get married to Penelope. Through the Odyssey the suitors stand for a common opponent between Telemachus and Odysseus. “The kids … are pestering my own mother to marry them against her will. They are really afraid to visit her dad … clinging about my personal father’s property … under no circumstances giving as much as a considered to the quantity of wine beverages they beverage.
No property can stand such recklessness, we have now simply no [Odysseus] to ward off injury from our gates, and I are not able to hold my against them” (Butler BK 2). The suitors not merely threaten Telemachus’ right while King of Ithaca, but in reality threaten Odysseus’ home and marriage to Penelope. Subsequent, in addition to sharing one common enemy, Telemachus and Odysseus both have a common goal at heart throughout their journeys, to reunite their family. Telemachus sets out to Pylos and Sparta hoping to find his father and drive off the suitors, whilst Odysseus is usually trying to return to Ithaca to view his wife and son after his 20 year deficiency.
He uses his capabilities of marketing to gain Calypso’s favor quickly before leaving her area, “Goddess, ” replied [Odysseus], “do not end up being angry … Penelope is usually nothing like and so tall or so beautiful while yourself … Nevertheless, I have to get home, and can think of nothing at all else” (Butler BK 5). It is this drive and determination that Odysseus and Telemachus ultimately share that eventually capable aids them in reuniting at the end with the Odyssey. Odysseus and Telemachus have one last thing in common on their trips, they are both helped by Athena.
Athena was an ally of Odysseus considering that the Trojan War, mainly because your woman reminded him of himself. Throughout The Odyssey Athena aides both heroes on several occasions, Athena begs her father Zeus to allow her to aid Odysseus, so they can go home to his friends and family, “Father, kid of [Kronos], California king of nobleman, it served Aegisthus proper … it is for [Odysseus] that my own heart bleeds, when I think of his sufferings in that lonely sea-girt island, far, poor guy, from every his friends” (Butler BK 1).
Athena helps Telemachus by getting him his ship and crew before the journey to search for word of Odysseus, and develops a bond with both of them through the story. In spite of the many commonalities, Odysseus and Telemachus are incredibly different, as evidenced moreover they react, their particular upbringings, plus the lessons that they learn. The first key difference between Odysseus and Telemachus is a way they will behave under pressure. Odysseus, having many years of knowledge and the present of convincing speaking, tends to handle issues with patience and careful preparing.
This can be viewed as he necklaces Nausicaa into aiding him on Scheria, “O california king, ” this individual said, “I implore your aid- but tell me, are you a empress or are you a mortal woman? A high level00 goddess … you will be [Zeus’] daughter Diana, to your face and figure look like not one although hers, in the event that on the other hand you are a human and survive earth, … how happy and happy they must feel when they observe so reasonable a scion as your self going out to a dance , I under no circumstances yet observed any one and so beautiful, none man nor woman, and am lost in love as I view you” (Butler BK 6).
Telemachus, however , lacks this kind of maturity and seems to take action more in impulse. This is often seen when he has an emotional outburst in the Ithacan assembly, “Moreover, if I am to be eaten away of home and house at all, I had rather you did the eating her, for I could then act against you to some goal, and serve you with updates from home to house right up until I got paid in full, whereas now I have zero remedy. ‘ With this kind of Telemachus dashed his personnel to the ground and burst into holes. Everyone was incredibly sorry pertaining to him, but they all sat nonetheless and no one ventured for making him a great angry answer” (Butler BK 2).
One can see that by using his persuasion Odysseus has the capacity to prevail, although Telemachus’ upset outbursts bum but injure his status This lack of maturity connections into the next key big difference between Odysseus and Telemachus, which is just how that they were raised. Odysseus lived a rich and fulfilling the child years as a knight in shining armor on Ithaca under his father Laertes and his mom Anticlea. Having been given every one of the guidance and enrichment needed for him to grow into the hero he’d eventually turn into. Telemachus on the other hand, was raised with out a father.
Odysseus left for the Trojan’s War if he was simply an infant and did not come back for twenty years, which resulted in Telemachus grew up without the assistance he needed to become a gentleman. Athena was eventually forced to step in and help boost his confidence during Telemachus’ voyage, “[Athena] gave the motivation and Telemachus followed her. Presently your woman said, “Telemachus, you must not maintain the least shy or stressed, you have considered this journey to try and find out where your father is definitely buried and exactly how he came by his end, therefore go straight up to Nestor that we may see what this individual has got to show.
Beg of him of talking the truth, and he will inform no is placed, for he can an excellent person” (Butler BK 3). If this weren’t just for this lack of a father, he may have had the courage to stand up to the suitors himself. The final important difference among Odysseus and Telemachus is definitely the lessons that they learn throughout The Odyssey. Odysseus and Telemachus both move through a great deal of transform during their excursions and each benefit from it. Odysseus learns to set his pleasure aside.
This is often seen as Odysseus is found sobbing on the beach of Calypso’s island, a far distinct Odysseus compared to the cunning, arrogant hero imagined in The Iliad, “Ulysses was not within, he was on the sea-shore as usual, looking out upon the barren marine with holes in his sight, groaning and breaking his heart to get sorrow” (Butler BK 5). This signifies his habit death, mainly because not only can be he thought to be dead by Ithaca, nevertheless he is at one of his life’s least expensive points. It is just after conquering this that he will have the ability to return home. Telemachus understands a lessons almost contrary to Odysseus.
Telemachus discovers to be a guy and gains self-confidence. This procedure of maturation is set in motion by the Goddess Athena in book two in which she says to Telemachus, “You’ll lack not courage nor sense from this day upon, not if the father’s soul courses throughout your veins- finally, there was a person, I’d state, in phrases and activities both! , Few kids are equals of their dads, most are unsuccessful, all too couple of surpass these people. But you fearless and proficient from this time on- Odysseus’ cunning has hardly given out in you- there’s just about every hope you will reach your goal” (Butler BK 2).
Here Athena is showing Telemachus that he will be great and can succeed in his ventures as they is his father’s kid. From this second on we all begin to visit a very abrupt transformation or “Rebirth” in terms of Telemachus’ hero’s journey. This individual starts coming from a young defenseless boy, and ends his journey a man. Telemachus and Odysseus’ respective journeys have sufficient similarities and differences ranging from their common enemy, towards the lessons they will learn, although the purpose of these journeys is apparent, to find accomplishment in Ithaca.
Many elements, be it good luck, cunning, or supernatural aid all help both men in these excursions. Telemachus and Odysseus may not be the most related heroes, although through the problems they confront, they become psychologically stronger and reunite their very own family yet again. As a great anonymous intellectual once said, “Anyone will give up, it is the easiest thing to do. But for hold it together the moment everyone else could understand if you fell apart, which true strength” (boardofwisdom. com)
