Hidden identities, and the moments they are revealed.
Many characters in the Odyssey are not who they first appear to be: gods visit mortals in the form of old friends, Odysseus enters Troy dressed as a beggar, and Athene sends Penelope a dream in the shape of her sister.
1.96–105 Athene becomes Mentes 1.178–212 a false life story 1.278–279 departure as a bird Bk 1 the secret kept from Eurymachus
Have your Book 1 workbook open alongside this page. Quotations on this page give the workbook’s own line numbers.
Athene could arrive on Ithaca in a blaze of light and order Telemachus to sail. Instead she appears as a plausible old friend and lets Telemachus reach his decision through conversation. The disguise does several things at once.
Common mistake. Students sometimes write that the gods have to disguise themselves. They could appear openly whenever they wished, and they choose disguise because of what it allows the mortals to do.
Book 1 contains one complete disguise, from the moment Athene takes on a mortal form to the moment she drops it, and one recognition that Telemachus keeps to himself. Follow it through in four steps.
Athene flies down from Olympus and stands at Odysseus’s door in the form of Mentes, a Taphian chieftain and family friend.
Asked who she is, “Mentes” gives a father, a homeland, a trading voyage and an old friendship with Laertes.
Athene vanishes like a bird, and Telemachus realises that a god has been with him.
Eurymachus asks about the visitor. Telemachus repeats the false story and keeps what he knows to himself.
She flashed down from the heights of Olympus, and on reaching Ithaca she took her stand on the threshold of the court in front of Odysseus’ house; and to look like a visitor she assumed the appearance of a family friend, the Taphian chieftain Mentes, bronze spear in hand.
Book 1, workbook lines 92–96
The disguise is specific and credible: a name, a homeland and a reason to be passing through. Telemachus has no cause to doubt it, and he does not.
‘I will tell you everything honestly,’ answered the bright-eyed goddess Athene. ‘My father was the wise prince Anchialus. My own name is Mentes, and I am chieftain of the sea-faring Taphians. As for my arrival in Ithaca, I came with my own ship and crew across the wine-dark sea. We are bound for the foreign port of Temesa with a cargo of gleaming iron, which we mean to trade for bronze. … As for our families, the ties between them go a long way back, as the old lord Laertes would tell you if you went and asked him.’
Book 1, workbook lines 158–167
A disguise in the Odyssey comes with a story as well as a face, and the story is what makes it work. “Mentes” supplies a full account: a trading voyage, a cargo of iron, a crew waiting at the ship and an old friendship with Laertes.
The goddess spoke and the next moment she was gone, vanishing like a bird through a hole in the roof. In Telemachus’ heart she had implanted spirit and daring, and had brought the image of his father to his mind even more strongly than before. He felt the change and was overcome with awe, for he realized a god had been with him. Then, godlike himself, he rejoined the Suitors.
Book 1, workbook lines 278–283
This is the Telemachy’s first recognition by revelation. Telemachus realises his guest was divine, and the poem shows the change in him at once, in his new confidence with his mother and with the suitors.
‘… do tell us something about that guest of yours. Where did the man come from? … He looked distinguished, but he jumped up and was gone so suddenly that he gave one no time to get to know him.’
‘… As for my guest, he is an old friend of my father from Taphos. He introduced himself as Mentes, the son of wise Anchialus, and chieftain of the sea-faring Taphians.’ This is what Telemachus said, but in his heart he knew her for an immortal goddess.
Book 1, workbook lines 353–366
When Eurymachus asks about the visitor, Telemachus says only that it was an old friend of his father’s. He has recognised a god and chooses not to say so, while the suitors, who saw the same stranger, recognised nothing.
| Where | Moment | Type | Route and effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.96–105 | Athene as Mentes, with a full false history | Disguise | Tests Telemachus; delivers the plan indirectly |
| 1.278–279 | Athene leaves like a bird | Recognition | Revelation, private; Telemachus changes at once |
| Bk 1 | Telemachus tells Eurymachus it was an old friend | Secret kept | He has recognised; the suitors have not |
| Bk 2 | Athene as Mentor | Disguise | Second mortal face, same method |
| Bk 3 | Nestor notes the likeness to Odysseus | Recognition | By likeness; raises Telemachus’s standing |
| Bk 3 | Athene leaves Pylos as a bird | Recognition | Revelation, public; Nestor sacrifices |
| Bk 4 | Helen names Telemachus on sight | Recognition | By likeness; the sharpest eye in the poem |
| Bk 4 | Helen’s story: Odysseus as a beggar in Troy | Disguise (told) | Rehearsal for Ithaca |
| Bk 4 | Menelaus under sealskins catches Proteus | Disguise v. disguise | Recognition by outlasting every shape |
| Bk 4 | Athene’s dream as Iphthime | Disguise | Comfort offered; full recognition withheld |
The Telemachy teaches the audience how disguise and recognition work before the biggest example arrives. A god has been recognised by a bird’s flight, a son by his father’s face, and a hero, in a story, by a woman’s sharp eye. Each prepares the ground for Odysseus’s own return, when he will come home in a disguise no one on Ithaca expects and be recognised one person at a time.
Because the poem is about homecoming, recognition matters a great deal: Odysseus’s return is only complete once the people of his household know who he is.
These are positions for you to test against the text. Decide how far the text supports each one, and mark your verdict.