Homer’s Odyssey is an epic poem that chronicles Odysseus’ ten-year struggle to return to Ithaca following the Trojan War. When Odysseus leaves for Troy, as told in the prequel to The Odyssey, The Iliad, Telemachus, Odysseus’ son, is only a month old. By the time Odysseus does make it home to Ithaca, Telemachus is twenty-years-old, indicating the epic poem spans two decades. Therefore, the abundance of older men, including all of...
Homer’s Odyssey is an epic poem that chronicles Odysseus’ ten-year struggle to return to Ithaca following the Trojan War. When Odysseus leaves for Troy, as told in the prequel to The Odyssey, The Iliad, Telemachus, Odysseus’ son, is only a month old. By the time Odysseus does make it home to Ithaca, Telemachus is twenty-years-old, indicating the epic poem spans two decades. Therefore, the abundance of older men, including all of Odysseus’ men and crew, Nestor the King of Pylos and old friend of Odysseus’, and Eumaeus, Odysseus’ old swineherd, is attributed to the time span of the narrative plot. Odysseus is returning home after being displaced for nearly twenty years, and his previous acquaintances have also aged twenty years. Further, the presence of so many older men also provides a point of contrast between the young Telemachus as he matures without a father figure, modeling a modern notion of a coming-of-age text.
A complete list of the old men in the Odyssey is as follows:
Antiphus: an old friend of Odysseus’
Clytius: an attendant of Telemachus who was the father of Telemachus’ friend, Peiraeus
Demodocus: the blind bard of the court of Alcinous
Eumaeus: Odysseus’ swineherd
Eupeithes: Father of Antinous and leader of the suitors
Eurymachus: Alleged childhood friend of Odysseus and suitor to Penelope
Laertes: Odysseus’ father
Medon: Faithful herald of Odysseus in Ithaca
Melanthius: Odysseus’ disloyal goatherd
Menelaus: Husband of Helen of Troy
Mentes: King of Taphians and old family friend of Odysseus
Mentor: Old aged friend of Odysseus
Perimedes: Odysseus’ companion during the voyage
Philoetius: Odysseus’ loyal cowherd
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