To Pylos and Sparta
Before accompanying Telemachus to Pylos and Sparta, I would like to mention a favourite book from a couple of years ago: the terrific memoir by Daniel Mendelsohn entitled An Odyssey – A Father, A Son and an Epic (Alfred K. Knopf, 2017). One could say: “As if everyone doesn’t have one those! Is in the midst of…” An “odyssey” that is. For each and every life is just that of course; however eventful, however modest, but when one is a classicist and estranged from an aged father and the reconciliation comes to be in a university seminar room and aboard an Aegean cruise ship then there is an added impetus.
Written with honesty and warmth, and garnered with some most extraordinarily poignant moments, I devoured Mendelsohn’s book in few sittings so taken was I by the fine prose. And it was not just the filial interactions between Daniel (Telemachus) and Jay (Odysseus) but the cast of “not just supporting” characters – mother, siblings, grandparents, uncles and aunts and “aunties”, cousins, students – making up a tableau of fellowship every bit as Homeric as the modern world allows.
I mention Mendelsohn’s book here because in the chapter titled “Telemachy” (as such are the first four books of The Odyssey referred to) he provides an interesting appraisal of Books 3 and 4 and the significance of the journeys to Pylos and then to Sparta intertwined with interactions in the seminar room and with Mendelsohn family history – enough myth to go around. And in this context, be it in epic or biography, two central concepts are explored. Firstly, nostos (ie. homecoming), in all its breadth of meaning relating to place and person. And secondly, paideusis (education), formally pursued or personal growth in the course of things – “lifelong learning”.
To Pylos and Sparta!
Book 3: An old king remembers
pp. 135-151
Greeted gracefully by King Nestor and his sons and men, and all finding favour with the gods, Telemachus, encouraged by Athena and growing in confidence, makes his person known and pleads for knowledge of his father’s fate. Nestor tells of the destruction of Troy, of Athena’s wrath, of the death of heroes, of Menelaus and Agamemnon (& Clytemnestra & Aegisthus & Orestes – the whole complicated story of fidelity, betrayal and revenge), and how the gods granted he and his men safe passage, but the fate of Odysseus knows he not. What he does know; is that a wise son should not stay away too long from his father’s land for lurking amongst his mother’s suitors may well be an Aegisthus. Menelaus, Nestor says, may well know more, and when all the rites of hospitality are over, he sends Telemachus on his way to Sparta; honouring him with his son, Pisistratus, as companion.
Book 4: What the sea god said
pp. 152-179
Arriving amidst an elaborate wedding feast, Telemachus and Pisistratus are granted a warm and gracious welcome; “hospitality” sounds so, well, medicinal, better is the German “gastfreundschaft“, a ‘let’s eat and enjoy and ask questions later’ attitude of acquaintanceship begging to be contrasted with our modern manner which is so often conditional on who, when and why.
Menelaus tells of the trials and tribulations of his journey home, reveals his love of Odysseus, later of his encounter with the sea god Proteus and what he told about Agamemnon and Aegisthus and Odysseus being trapped upon Calypso’s island. Telemachus is identified as the hero’s son by Helen, who uses her potions to hold back the young man’s grief and instead to regale him with tales of his famous father, especially that surrounding the Wooden Horse at Troy. Telemachus hopeful now that his father may well live, makes haste to return to Ithaca.
[631-847] The book ends in Ithaca where the suitors, enraged by Telemachus’ mission to find news of his father, make plans to ambush him upon his return. And, Penelope, initially angered at not being made aware of her son’s journey, is placated, firstly, by the loyal Eurycleia and then by a dream construed by the godly powers of Athena.