Telemachus (Ancient Greek: Τηλέμαχος, "far-fighter" or "far from battle") is the son of Odysseus and Penelope and a central figure in Homer's Odyssey. The poem's first four books — the Telemachy — follow his voyage to Pylos and Sparta for news of his father; on Ithaca he later stands with Odysseus in the slaughter of Penelope's suitors. Later tradition pairs him with Nausicaa, Circe, or Polycaste and gives him several sons.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Telemachus" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.In the Odyssey
When the Odyssey opens, Telemachus is about twenty and has never known his father, who left for Troy when the boy was an infant. Ithaca's hall is occupied by suitors courting Penelope. Athena, disguised as Mentes, urges him to call an assembly, rebuke the wooers, and sail for news of Odysseus.
At Pylos, Nestor receives him kindly and tells of the war but can say little of Odysseus's fate; he sends Telemachus on to Sparta with his son Peisistratus. Menelaus and Helen recount complementary yet contradictory stories of Odysseus at Troy, and Menelaus reports that he last heard Odysseus detained by Calypso on Ogygia. Meanwhile the suitors plot to ambush Telemachus on his return.
In Book XV Telemachus reaches the hut of the swineherd Eumaeus, where a disguised Odysseus is already hosted. Athena prompts the recognition; father and son plan the destruction of the suitors. Telemachus returns to the palace to watch them and await the beggar.
When Penelope sets the bow-contest — string Odysseus's bow and shoot through twelve axe-heads — Telemachus tries first and nearly succeeds on the fourth attempt before Odysseus subtly stops him. After the suitors fail, Odysseus reveals himself; with Telemachus he locks the hall and brings bloody death to the wooers.
II.Before Troy
Post-Homeric tradition tells how Palamedes exposed Odysseus's feigned madness: when Odysseus yoked mismatched beasts and pretended idiocy to avoid the war, Palamedes placed the infant Telemachus before the plough, forcing Odysseus to swerve and abandon the pretence.
III.Telegony and later genealogy
The lost cyclic Telegony continues after the Odyssey: Odysseus is accidentally killed by Telegonus, his unknown son by Circe. Telemachus then goes to Aeaea with Telegonus and Penelope and there marries Circe. A later strand introduces Cassiphone, daughter of Odysseus and Circe and thus Telemachus's half-sister; in that version Telemachus still marries Circe, and Circe at some point resurrects Odysseus.
Aristotle and Hellanicus have Telemachus marry Nausicaa, daughter of Alcinous, and father Persepolis; Eustathius instead names Polycaste, daughter of Nestor, as the mother. Others make him father of Latinus by Circe, or of a daughter Roma who marries Aeneas. Servius makes him founder of Clusium in Etruria.
In the Contest of Homer and Hesiod, Hadrian is said to have asked the Delphic Oracle about Homer's birth; the reply placed Homer's origin on Ithaca and named Telemachus his father by Epicasta, daughter of Nestor.
IV.Reception
Telemachus inspired numerous eighteenth-century operas, many based on Fénelon's Les Aventures de Télémaque — among them works by Destouches, Scarlatti, Gluck, Gazzaniga, Le Sueur, Mayr, and Sor. Tennyson's "Ulysses" has the aging hero hand his throne to Telemachus before setting out again. He recurs in Louise Glück's poetry and in modern adaptations such as Epic: The Musical.