Importance Of Telemachus Arête In Homer's Odyssey

Fulfilling one’s arête does not necessarily mean being the best there is at something, but merely being the best you can be at something specific. This could mean a warrior, a wife, a son, a dancer, really just about anything. Throughout Homer’s Odyssey, various characters fulfill certain arêtes of theirs, yet other fail miserably at it, the most important example perhaps being Odysseus himself. Some characters even fulfill one of their arête but fall considerably shorter of fulfilling others, like Penelope. Arête shapes much of the Odyssey, and the motivations of many characters are driven by the concept. Thus the importance of arête in the epic tale simply cannot be denied. There are quite a few characters in the Odyssey that fulfill their arête and make it very clear. Telemachus’ arête can be argued, for much of the story, to simply be the best son. He takes care of his household and mother, as much as he can, in his father’s absence. When prompted, he takes off, looking for news of his father and upon his

His mission is to return home, yet by his own fault instead of being a quick journey, it takes around ten years. Odysseus’ first mistake is not immediately making for him, but deciding to go off pillaging. He later trespasses xenia, breaking into Polyphemus’ home and making himself at home, which leads to the deaths of several of his men, then angers Poseidon by blinding the Cyclops, the god’s son. He even would have gotten away with it after tricking the Cyclops if he had not the extreme hubris that led him to announce that he was the one to blind him: “Cyclops—if any man…should ask you who blinded you…say Odysseus” (9.558-560). He prolongs his journey further by staying with Circe and Calypso and making very little effort to leave. These are but a few examples of Odysseus’s many, many self-inflicted problems through which he manages to force his journey home to be ever