Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Mentor.
The gallery
Telemachus and Mentor
Charles Monnet, late 18th century
Charles Monnet's illustration for Fénelon's Télémaque shows the Ithacan elder with Odysseus' son — the Homeric Mentor whose name Athena borrows when she guides Telemachus. Eighteenth-century engraving culture made this pair the emblem of wise counsel; the print is the visual root of the modern word 'mentor.'
Telemachus, Urged by Mentor, Leaving the Island of Calypso
Charles Meynier, c. 1800
Meynier's neoclassical canvas stages Fénelon's episode in which Mentor (Athena in disguise) pulls Telemachus away from Calypso's isle. The painting belongs to the didactic afterlife of the Odyssey's trusted friend — Mentor as the voice that turns a wandering prince toward duty.
On screen
In play
Les Aventures de Télémaque
François Fénelon
Fénelon's didactic novel made Mentor the tutor of princes — the Homeric name that entered every European language as the word for a wise guide.
mentor (word)
English and many other languages took 'mentor' from the Odyssey figure — Odysseus' Ithacan friend as the common noun for a trusted adviser.