The Odyessy 1-8

Who is the hero: Odyessus or Telemakhos?

 

The classical hero, usually the main character, undergoes a journey in which they must combat internal and external obstacles in order to complete and overcome said journey. Clearly, the title The Odyessy is incredibly similar to Odyessus indicating that he is the hero of the epic poem, however, in the first half of the assigned reading Telemakhos is the one on a journey. Although the shift changes from Telemakhos to Odyessus in book 5, we left Telemakhos following snippets of information and rumors about his father in order to pinpoint his location. Based on the first eight books I would say that Telemakhos is the hero. He has a grown up without a father and is now dealing with the sons of Ithaka’s Elders attempting to court his mother and take over his kingdom. He then embarks on a journey to find his father whom is a war hero and anyone would assume was dead. Knowing that it could be a dead end to look for his father, Telemakhos takes it upon himself to put his fears aside, do it anyway, and save his mother and his kingdom.