Telemachus' dynamic character

Telemachus is one of the most dynamic characters we have seen in the whole book so far. His character not only starts out as fairly pathetic but gains a large amount of confidence and respectability by the point we have read up to now.

Telemachus starts out moping in his house contemplating whether his father will actually return home and not really doing anything substantive. The main good quality that we see he has at this point is the fact that he completely follows the laws of hospitality. He welcomes his guests without any qualms and doesn't even want to hear what he is there about until he has been welcomed.

We first see Telemachus' development with Athena prodding him to go and visit the other islands/states to learn more about where is father is. Although Athena helps him, Telemachus does a large amount of the work himself in terms if the talking and interacting with others.

We really see most of his development in the few chapters where he meets his father. First, he is able to come up with a plan with his dad and begins to put it into motion. There is no  hesitation in him helping his dad with the arms or him not telling his mother or any others what is happening. Telemachus also starts to stand up to the suitors. At one point he threatens to pull his sword out and go at them, but he is laughed at. Although he is laughed at, the fact that he still has the courage to say something like that shows a large amount of character  development.

Overall, Telemachus is one of the more developed characters and we can see this in many ways. It will be interesting to see how he develops in the remaining few chapters of the book.

Odysseus' Heroic Qualities

Odysseus doesn't seem to have many heroic qualities showcased in the first half of the story. He is unfaithful, shows off his power and strength, which ends up hurting him and his troops, and doesn't work that much to get what he wants, in the case of him sleeping during the whole trip from Scheria to Ithaca. One classic heroic trait that he does seem to have is ability to strategize and win battles.

We first see this in the fact that Odysseus basically won the Trojan War for the Greeks. His strategy that entailed acting like the Greeks had left and sending a giant horse into the city, which was designed to look like an offering to Poseidon, and then sack the city from the inside was pretty ingenious. Odysseus also is one of the more respected people during the war, further complimenting his strategic talent.

We can also see Odysseus' strategies taking effect when he has to escape from the cyclops' cave. Although being caught in the cave was his own fault and overconfidence at work, Odysseus is able to get out of the cave successfully by basically drugging the cyclops and then disguising him and his men as sheep.

Odysseus also is fairly strategic in his speech and what he says to people. One example of this is when he convinces Nausicaa to help him while convincing her with words and staying far away instead of trying to beg at her knees. He also is able to convince many others to help him, and this diplomatic skill can also be seen as heroic as he doesn't need to rely on force to get what he wants. His diplomatic skill can also be seen in how Telemachus has similar abilities, in addition to the other ways that he resembles Odysseus.

Overall, Odysseus is not heroic in many of his traits, but he is able to lead people to victory very successfully even with limited options, as with the cyclops. The scale of victories he is able to pull can be seen with his contribution to the Trojan War. His diplomatic skill can also be seen as heroic and thus Odysseus has at least a few heroic qualities to him.