Similarities And Differences Between Odysseus And Telemachus

Both Odysseus and Telemachus play extremely pivotal and important roles in Homer’s The Odyssey. The phrase “like father like son” can easily describe the similarities between Odysseus and Telemachus’s characters. However, no human beings are exactly alike as both characters also share a great number of differences. So although Odysseus and Telemachus are both similar in the way that they’re great heroic warriors, they differ in craftiness and arrogance which reflect Ancient Greek values. Both Odysseus and Telemachus are similar in the way that they’re great heroic warriors, which reflects the Greek values of Arete. Odysseus is already known as a Greek hero throughout the book, due to his heroics in the Trojan war, but his heroic abilities …show more content…
Odysseus’s arrogance doesn’t show up all the time in The Odyssey, but his arrogance is extremely strong when it does occur. His arrogance is most present during book 9 against the Kyklops. When Odysseus has the Kyklops done with he says to him “Kyklops, if ever mortal man inquire how you were put to shame and blinded, tell him Odysseus, raider of cities, took your eye: Laertes son, whose home is on Ithica,” (9.549-542). Odysseus arrogance completely takes over him in this scene, where instead of escaping he instead taunts the Kyklops. This even happens despite the fact that Odysseus’s own men are yelling things like “He’ll smash our timbers and our heads together.”(9.544). Odysseus’s arrogance definitely affected how fast he and his men were able to get home, as if Odysseus had not told the Kyklops his name, then the Kyklops wouldn’t have told his father Poseidon, that Odysseus angered him. Unlike Odysseus, Telemachus doesn’t seem extremely arrogant, but he rather seems to be more humble, and confident, but not in a boastful way. Telemachus shows this during a conversation with Odysseus before they fight the suitors. When