Book 4: The Red-Haired King and His Lady

Guest Blogger Telémakhos
I finally reached the palace of Meneláos where I found him feasting in celebration of a double wedding. He welcomed me in as an honored guest, as seems proper, and spoke briefly of his adventures after the war. Meneláos angered the gods by not paying them proper homage before the voyage so they stranded him on an island where his crew slowly wasted away. Unable to return home or care for his crew, he found a rare solution from the goddess, Eidothea. She instructed him on how to get valuable information from her father, Proteus. Meneláos successfully captured Proteus who told him how to get home and gave him news of my father. Odysseus is trapped on the island of Kaylpso and unable to return home. I told him, “I find your tales and all you say so marvelous.” (Odyssey 70). I had never heard of any such adventures and the king’s cunning and bravery were certainly unmatched! However, I suppose I should be slightly distraught that Odysseus is detained by a nymph… How will he ever get home now?


Is Telémakhos beginning to see the world in a new light?

Odysseus
I can’t believe my own son hardly cares whether I am dead or alive, home or across the sea! Does he take the news of my plight so lightly? All he says upon hearing this is how marvelous Meneláos’s tales are? He doesn’t seem to care about me at all! But listen to me! I must seem so selfish, I suppose I should be rejoicing that Telémakhos grows less dependent upon me. Something has changed within him, and the fact that he thirsts for knowledge of the world around him rather than for news of me is certainly monumental. It may not be that he cares less about me, but rather that he is beginning to care more about something larger. When he began this voyage, he sought to bring me back so he could hide back inside the “cave” of childhood. But perhaps now he is beginning to see the light outside the cave and is opening his mind to new ideas that are so necessary to growth. If he does grow up, he will not want to return to the cave, even if I do return.