Telemachus (The Odyssey)

"If only the gods would give me such strength as he has to take revenge on the suitors for their overbearing oppression." (The Odyssey)

Telemachus is the son of The Odyssey's protagonist, Odysseus. While half of The Odyssey is dedicated to Odysseus and his quest (both fighting in the Trojan War and subsequently trying to return home), the other half is attributed to Telemachus staying home in Ithaca and undergoing his own bildungsroman. Telemachus starts out as a somewhat feeble and unsure character, being drowned out by two aggressive suitors at a town meeting, but experiences his own quest and finds himself as a man.

While The Odyssey is primarily thought of as Odysseus's quest, it is as much about his son and his coming of age. Telemachus, accompanied by a disguised Athena, goes on a quest to learn about his father from the other kings of the Mediterranean region. In doing so, he learns what it means to be a man and a hero. Upon returning and colluding with his father, the two of them manage to slaughter the hundreds of suitors that have taken up residence in Odysseus's home without invitation. This equivalence, two men being able to defeat hundreds of suitors, shows what a fully realised man is capable of achieving, when compared to the pompous yet weightless strutting of the suitors. Telemachus is one of the first and best examples of a boy becoming a man, with one of the most concise and complete coming of age stories ever told.