Telemăchus
（
Τηλέμαχος). The son of Odysseus and Penelopé.
He was still an infant when the Trojan War began, and when his father had been absent from
home nearly twenty years, Telemachus went to Pylos and Sparta to gather information concerning
him. He was hospitably received by Nestor , who sent his own son to conduct Telemachus to
Sparta. Menelaüs also received him kindly, and communicated to him the prophecy of
Proteus concerning Odysseus. From Sparta Telemachus returned home; and on his arrival there he
found his father, whom he assisted in slaying the suitors. (See
Odysseus.) According to some accounts, Telemachus became the father
of Perseptolis either by Polycasté, the daughter of Nestor , or by Nausicaa, the
daughter of Alcinoüs (Eustath.
ad Hom. p. 1796; Dict. Cret. vi.
6). Others relate that he was induced by Athené to marry Circé, and
became by her the father of Latinus (see
Circé); or that he married Cassiphoné, a daughter of
Circé, but in a quarrel with his mother-in-law slew her, for which he was in his
turn killed by Cassiphoné (
Tzetz. ad Lyc. 808). The story of Telemachus was taken as a basis for a famous
romance by the great French Archbishop Fénelon, entitled
Télémaque, which Louis XIV. regarded as a satire on his
court, but which was long popular in France as a school-book.
