（*Thle/maxos), the son of Odysseus and Penelope (Hom. Od.
1.216). He was still an infant at the time when his father
went to Troy, and in his absence of nearly twenty years he
grew up to manhood. After the gods in council had determined
that Odysseus should return home from the island of Ogygia,
Athena, assuming the appearance of Mentes, king of the
Taphians, went to Ithaca, and advised Telemachus to eject
the troublesome suitors of his mother from his house, and to
go to Pylos and Sparta, to gather information concerning his
father. Telemachus followed the advice, but the suitors
refused to quit his house; and Athena, in the form of
Mentes, accompanied Telemachus to Pylos. There they were
hospitably received by Nestor, who also sent his own son to
conduct Telemachus to Sparta. Menelaus again kindly received
him, and communicated to him the prophecy of Proteus
concerning Odysseus. (Hom. Od. i.--iv.) From Sparta
Telemachus returned home; and on his arrival there, he found
his father, with the swineherd Eumaeus. But as Athena had
metamorphosed him into a beggar, Telemachus did not
recognise his father until the latter disclosed to him who
he was. Father and son now agreed to punish the suitors ;
and when they were slain or dispersed, Telemachus
accompanied his father to the aged Laertes. (Hom. Od. xv.--
xxiv.; comp. ODYSSEUS.) In the Post-Homeric traditions, we
read that Palamedes, when endeavouring to persuade Odysseus
to join the Greeks against Troy, and the latter feigned
idiotcy, placed the infant Telemachus before the plough with
which Odysseus was ploughing. (Hygin. Fab. 95 ; Serv. ad
Aen. 2.81; Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 384 ; Aelian, Ael. VH 13.12.)
According to some accounts, Telemachus became the father of
Perseptolis either by Polycaste, the daughter of Nestor, or
by Nausicaa, the daughter of Alcinous. (Eustath. ad Hom. p.
1796; Dict. Cret. 6.6.) Others relate that he was induced by
Athena to marry Circe, and became by her the father of
Latinus (Hygin. Fab. 127 ; comp. TELEGONUS), or that he
married Cassiphone, a daughter of Circe, but in a quarrel
with his mother-in-law he slew her, for which in his turn he
was killed by Cassiphone. (Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 808.) He is
also said to have had a daughter called Roma, who married
Aeneas. (Serv. ad Aen. 1.273.) One account states that
Odysseus, in consequence of a prophecy that his son was
dangerous to him, sent him away from Ithaca. Servius (Serv.
ad Aen. 10.167) makes Telemachus the founder of the town of
Clusium in Etruria. - A Dictionary of Greek and Roman
biography and mythology, William Smith, Ed.
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Telemachus (pronounced /təˈlɛməkəs/; Greek: Τηλέμαχος,
Tēlemakhos, literally "far-fighter")[1] is a figure in Greek
mythology, the son of Odysseus and Penelope, and a central
character in Homer's Odyssey. The first four books in
particular focus on Telemachus's journeys in search of news
about his father; they are, therefore, traditionally accorded
the collective title the Telemachy.[2]...
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