How Does Telemachus Relationship Change

Different experiences change us in ways we would have never expected. When Telemachus leaves his home in Ithaca on a mission to find his father and gain his peace of mind back, these changes are evident. Before meeting Athena, Telemachus was weak and passive towards the suitors. Although, when he begins his journey to find his father he becomes much more assertive rather than passive. When he learns that his father was a well known and very likable man, it gives him the confidence and hope that he can be a true successor to his father.

Before his meeting with Athena, Telemachus is very passive and distant to those around him. He does not have the confidence in himself to know what he should do next, and meeting with Athena helped him to move past these worries. When the suitors run through his home and eat all of his food and drink all of his wine, Telemachus does not stand up for himself, but remains passive, letting them destroy his house as he sits down and watches them. “Prince Telemachus, sitting among the suitors, heart obsessed with grief, he could almost see his magnificent father, here…” …show more content…
Telemachus is also very distant and aloof in a way because he does not know the truth about himself, or the past of his Father. Talking to Athena, he is insecure of his own identity but also of where he comes from. “ I’ll try my friend, to give you a frank answer, Mother has always told me I’m his son, it’s true/ but I am not so certain.” (I.248-250). This shows that Telemachus has been so distant from his own culture that it worries him to realize he does not know of his own truth. Telemachus expresses to Athena that he is uncomfortable because he is still skeptical that his father is even alive, “No Comfort left for us…not even if/ someone, somewhere, say’s he’s coming home, the day of his return will never dawn.”