Mentor

​Have you ever been mentored? Are you a mentor? First, here’s a story about the origin of the word. Then some etymology and history of the word.
 
The story
 
Once upon a time there was a king who sailed away with his army to fight in a foreign war leaving his wife and son at home to keep order in the kingdom. During the many years he was away, his wife was plagued by numerous suitors who had gambled that he was never coming back. They competed and conspired to marry her and take over the kingdom. But his clever wife never succumbed to their wiles. She trusted that the king would return.
 
After the war, no one knew where the king was or if he was even still alive. His son, Telemachus, a young man full of vim and vigor but more than a bit idealistic and naïve, became increasingly angry at his mother for tolerating these suitors and at his father for his absence.
 
Telemachus had a tutor named Mentor. We do not know much more about Mentor from this story other than that he was a loyal friend of the king and his family.
 
One day Mentor met Telemachus on the beach and suggested that Telemachus ‘borrow’ one of his father’s ships and with some of his friends go over to the next kingdom where they could join up with some of his father’s friends and try to track down his father.
 
But here’s the twist in the story. Mentor was actually the goddess Athena in disguise. As one version of the story says, ““for all the world with Mentor’s build and voice [she] urged him on with winging words” (The Odyssey, Book 2, lines 301 – 302). Not only does she urge him on, she also says, “the journey that stirs you now is not far off, not with the likes of me, your father’s friend and yours, to rig you a swift ship and be your shipmate too” (Lines 318 – 320). Athena was keeping an eye on Telemachus as a favour for her good friend, the king.
 
I’ll let you read the rest of the story for yourself. Sex and violence are involved.
 
What I find fascinating and intriguing about this story is that the goddess Athena, no slouch in the self-esteem department, chose to disguise herself as Mentor in order to support Telemachus.
 
According to Greek mythology, Athena, the daughter of Zeus and Metis, was born from the skull of her father, clad in full armour and shouting a war cry. She was considered the equal of her father in strength and wisdom. She was called the virgin goddess: “In all things,” she said, “my heart leans towards men, except in marriage.” She was also called the warrior goddess, using strategy, ambush, cunning and magic to achieve her purposes. She was against excess in daily life, teaching men to conquer their savagery, tame nature, and master the elements. She was the patron of weavers, horsemen, blacksmiths, shipbuilders, foresters, and carpenters. She invented the chariot. The city of Athens carries her name.
 
So why would Athena choose to disguise herself as an old man, as Mentor? Why might Mentor and Athena be embodied in one person as this story indicates? What is the ancient storyteller trying to tell us? What might this story tell us about mentor and mentoring? Any ideas?!
 
From what frame of reference would you begin to answer the question: Why did Athena disguise herself as Mentor??
 
The etymology
 
The word mentor has its origins in the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) mon-eyo (advisor) from the PIE root men (to think). PIE mon-eyo is the source of Sanskrit man-tar (one who thinks), Hindi mantra (a chanted hymn or prayer), Greek mentos (intent, purpose, spirit, passion), Latin monitor (one who admonishes), and the word mind which came to English in the late 12th century.
 
The word mentor came to English in 1750 from Homer’s The Odyssey and means wise advisor, sage counsellor, and perhaps intimate friend. To be a mentor; i.e., ‘to mentor’ someone, is from 1888.
 
Two views of Mentor
 
Over the centuries, two views of the word mentor have evolved: a revision of the traditional view of Mentor based on The Odyssey and a more modern view of mentor as used in education and training.
 
The revisionist view suggests that rather than being a protective, guiding, and support figure, Mentor was “simply an old friend of King Ulysses who largely failed in his duties of keeping the King’s household intact” (Roberts, 1999). Other writers suggest that rather than Mentor, it was Penelope, Ulysses’ wife, who kept the kingdom and the household intact.
 
The more modern view of mentor derives from the work of the French writer and educator, Francois de Salignac de La Mothe-Fenelon (1651 – 1715), who was a tutor to the grandson and heir apparent of Louis XIV. Fenelon wrote a book, The Adventures of Telemachus, which became widely popular and continually reprinted during the 18th century, perhaps accounting for the fact that the word mentor comes to English at this time. In contrast to Homer’s Odyssey in which Mentor is more of a background figure, Fenelon’s book portrays Mentor in a much more prominent role as the wise advisor and sage counsellor. It is because of the popularity of Fenelon’s book that our current view of Mentor and mentoring is more a product of the Enlightenment than of ancient Greece!
 
References
Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/
 
Fagles, Robert (Trans.). (1996). The Odyssey. New York: Penguin, 93 – 106.
The Odyssey by Homer (who may have been one or several writers) composed two major works in the 8th century BCE--The Iliad and, its sequel, The Odyssey. The Iliad tells the story of the ancient Greeks and the Trojan War. One of the heroes of The Iliad is Odysseus (or Ulysses, as known in Latin), the king who is the father of Telemachus and the husband of clever and faithful Penelope. The Odyssey tells of Odysseus’s journey and eventual return home to his family after the war. I recommend the translations by Robert Fagles.
 
Hillman, J. (1996). The soul’s code: In search of character and calling. New York: Random House.
See pages 113 – 127, 163 – 165, et al for reflections on mentor and mentoring in terms of the importance of affect in the mentor / mentee relatlonship.  
 
Robert, Andy. (1999). Homer’s Mentor: Duties fulfilled or misconstrued? History of Education Journal. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242760920_Homer's_Mentor_Duties_Fulfilled_or_Misconstrued. Download, 17 Sept 2021.
 
Schon, Donald. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner. San Francisco:  Jossey-Bass.
See especially Schon’s description of the ‘joint experimentation’ style of coaching and communication between trainer and trainee, coach and learner, mentor and mentee.