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Telemachos in Sparta

Powell summarizes Books 3 & 4, in which Telemachos rebukes the suitors for their profligate ways. They are infuriated, but he takes supplies from the palace stores and escapes by night, sailing to Pylos. There he meets with Nestor, but he has no news about Odysseus, so Telemachos goes inland by chariot to Sparta, to enquire of Menelaos.

Telemachos arrives on the double wedding day of one of Menelaos’ bastard sons, and of Hermione, Helen’s only daughter. He’s unrecognized during the festivities, but Menelaos  sees him weeping when Odysseus is mentioned. Showing deference to him as good hosts should, Menelaos and Helen provide for the comfort of the traveler before enquiring about his business.

Some household items are mentioned, which seem descriptive of Homeric culture: a chair, a rug, and a footstool are brought into the central hall for Helen (there is little permanent furniture here), there are silver baskets, a silver bath tub for the stranger, tripods (for offerings) and ten talents of gold. This is a very wealthy household, a king’s palace, but not so unlike Odysseus’ own palace in Ithaca. Helen spins wool from her silver basket while attending to her guests, and questions her husband on “every matter,” noting the resemblance between Telemachos and his father in their hair, eyes, and hands. Her “words went like arrows” (piercing, straight to the point?) a common tag line used in the Odyssey, but also perhaps showing that she is at least her husband’s equal as a host in her own house. 

Helen takes the initiative to drug the wine with a mild sedative to ease the pain and sadness of her guest. (It’s been suggested this may have been opium, but Powell argues against that, saying it was never mixed with wine in Greece). Helen tells how Odysseus once entered Troy in disguise as a beggar, recognized only by herself, and she gave him inside information to aid in the sacking of the city (it seems a self-serving story, since she was suspected by the Greeks of being a “willing captive”). She says she took him home and bathed and oiled Odysseus while they talked (possibly true, says Powell, but this was a task usually performed by slaves). Menelaos questions her story, telling how she called out to the Greeks hidden in the wooden horse, imitating the voices of each of their wives (this also seem improbable, both for her skill of mimicry and their level of gullibility) asking them to come out and reveal themselves, but Odysseus saved them by keeping them all quiet. Menelaos attributes her action to a “spirit that wished to bring the Trojans glory,” which seems a thinly veiled rebuke.

The next morning, Menelaos rises early to speak to Telemachos alone, and learns of his plight with the suitors in Ithaca. He expresses his hope for Odysseus’ return, and recounts how he was once told by “the knowing goddess how to ambush Proteus, the old man of the sea,” and so he learned the fate of Agamemnon, and that Odysseus was being held by Kalypso (“the unraveled,” meaning he is in Hades, but evidently not yet dead). Menelaos invites Telemachos to stay 10-12 more days in Sparta, and gives him a beautiful bowl as a token of their guest-friendship.

Powell notes that the Elysian fields (“blessed, struck by lightning”) is probably Minoan in origin, in contrast to Hades (“hidden, invisible”). Menalaos is promised a place in Elysium because of his family connections, not because of merit. “Ocean” is the river that surrounds the (flat) world, the primordial waters which gave birth to the gods.