An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic

by Daniel Mendelsohn

For a boy who never even met his father, the question is, Which is the larger crisis: living out your life without a father, or actually meeting him for the first time twenty years later and having to get to know him? I looked at him and said, Now that is scathingly brilliant. It was at this point that my father jumped in. I just don’t understand why Telemachus is supposed to be getting an “education.” All he does is just follow orders. He doesn’t really think for himself at all. I looked up and down the seminar table, but no one was talking. Well, I finally said, but there is some educational value here, isn’t there? Telemachus travels and sees new cultures and meets new people, and from that he learns. And remember that we are learning, too—we hear stories that fill in some of the blanks about what happened at the end of the Trojan War. So what do we learn in these books? Nina’s eyes met mine. I think it’s interesting that when Telemachus and Athena arrive in Pylos in Book 3, there’s a big ceremony going on. Telemachus and Athena are strangers, but they’re treated with the utmost respect. It’s a big contrast to Ithaca, where there’s a lot of feasting and drinking, but in that case, it’s just freeloading. There’s no mention of sacrificing to the gods on Ithaca. Excellent, I said. Yes. In Nestor’s kingdom there’s proper respect for the gods, something that’s sorely lacking back home.