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Telemachus Journey In Odysseus In Homer's Odyssey

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Towards the middle of Book II, Telemachus feels discouraged about the probability of him being able to successfully complete the quest to retrieve his father. Seeing his distress, Athena attempts to rally him by stating that Telemachus’ quest couldn’t fail because he possessed the distinctive traits of his father that Athena seems to find so admirable.
“Telemachus, you’ll lack neither courage nor sense from this day on, not if your father’s spirit courses through your veins- now there was a man, I’d say, in words and actions both! So how can your journey end in shipwreck or defeat? Only if you we're not his stock, Penelope’s too, then I’d fear you're hopes might come to grief. Few sons are the equals of their fathers; most fall short, all too few surpass them. But you, brave and adept from this day on- Odysseus’ cunning has hardly given out in you- there’s every hope that you will reach your goal.”
(Book II, 302-313) …show more content…

The fact that Athena deigned to intervene directly on Odysseus’ half is remarkable enough, but it seems that she takes every opportunity to sing his praises as well. Her faith in Odysseus is so complete that she believes that Telemachus will prevail merely because he is his son, and in her eyes possesses all of Odysseus’ good qualities in equal measure. This is significant because it helps to further characterize Odysseus as an almost superhuman character with few to no faults, which fits into the traditional epic convention of a larger than life

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