From pgsayre@hotmail.com Fri Oct 1 05:27:17 1999 Received: from mxu3.u.washington.edu (mxu3.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.7]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW99.09/8.9.3+UW99.08) with ESMTP id FAA47902 for ; Fri, 1 Oct 1999 05:27:14 -0700 Received: from hotmail.com (f312.hotmail.com [207.82.251.225]) by mxu3.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW99.09/8.9.3+UW99.08) with SMTP id FAA15775 for ; Fri, 1 Oct 1999 05:27:14 -0700 Received: (qmail 57022 invoked by uid 0); 1 Oct 1999 12:27:10 -0000 Message-ID: <19991001122710.57018.qmail@hotmail.com> Received: from 198.109.96.2 by www.hotmail.com with HTTP; Fri, 01 Oct 1999 05:27:10 PDT X-Originating-IP: [198.109.96.2] From: "pamela sayre" To: classics@u.washington.edu Subject: Telemachus Date: Fri, 01 Oct 1999 05:27:10 PDT Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Fellow List Members, While reading the _Odyssey_ one of my students posed a question that has always bothered me, namely why is Telemachus so ineffective in Ithaca in protecting his mother and his inheritance from the suitors? He acts like he's 15 or 16 rather than over 20 (or do I have his age figured wrong--Odysseus hasn't been home for 20 years and Telemachus is his son, right?). Why don't the suitors bother to get rid of him until he leaves and they think he's bringing back help to get rid of them? My husband suggested that Telemachus may be somewhat mentally impaired, but he doesn't give that impression when he is away from Ithaca, so that explanation falls short. Can anyone help me? Thank you, Pamela G Sayre Instructor in History and World Religions Henry Ford Community College pgsayre@hotmail P.S. I have the same problem with Hamlet: he, too, is over 20 but I have the mental image of a 17-year-old. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com .