And so begins The Odyssey.
Book 1: It turns out that on his way back from Troy (the war there having ended...even though it didn't end during the Iliad...but whatever) Odysseus was waylaid by the nymph Calypso on an island. Back home his son Telemachus has become a man, but doesn't know his father. What he DOES know is that a bunch of jerks are trying to woo his mother and eating all their goats. ALL OF THEIR GOATS. Athena takes the form of a family friend and comes to tell Telemachus that his father is not dead, and to encourage him to take a journey to find out the truth. Telemachus, tired of the jerks, calls a council of the suitors and elders of the city and asks the jerks to cut the crap.
Book 2: But the elders are also jerks, it turns out. They blame Penelope, who pretended to weave a burial shroud for Laertes for three years (unraveling it each night so she'd never finish). Of course, really this means that the city is full of dummies who think it takes three years to weave a shroud. (On the subject of Penelope, she's probably a little miffed at
Telemachus, who's getting kind of mouthy now that he has a god behind
him.) So Athena arranges a ship for Telemachus and he goes on a journey to Pylos (to find Nestor) and to Sparta (to find Menelaus) and ask for rumors about his father's fate.
Book 3: By the way, the friend Athena is impersonating is called Mentor. I wonder if that's where the word comes from, or if it's just an EXTREME lack of subtlety.
By now they're in Pylos asking Nestor for help. (But first there's a scene in which they have a feast to honor Poseidon. Athena takes a cup and prays to Poseidon, which must be kinda neat for him. I mean, how many gods get prayed to by other gods?) Nestor doesn't know what happened to Odysseus, because he left with Menelaus and Odysseus stayed behind with Agamemnon. Agamemnon, by the way, is TOTES DEAD because while he was gone his wife married this other guy, and the other guy decided to murder Agamemnon when he came back home. Fortunately, Agamemnon's son avenged him. Nestor hopes Telemachus can avenge Odysseus too. "Thanks?" says Telemachus.
Then Nestor sends his son with Telemachus on the journey to Sparta. Athena stays behind.
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