Building a Novel— the Bildungsroman In the epic poem The Odyssey, Homer portrays Telémakhos, the son of Odysseus, as a young man trying to find his place in the world. The opening part of the book, the Telemachiades (the first four books of the poem) is perhaps intended to be a Bildungsroman, which studies the maturation of a young character by focusing on this maturation in relation to his traits and his environment, in turn, forcing him to face a series of social encounters. Initially little more than a boy, Telémakhos matures over the course of the Telemachiad and finds himself close to realizing his implicit dream of being a man, or rather of becoming one like his hero father. Indeed, the Telemachiad, the story of Telémakhos' brief but crucial adventure in search of his father, fits the description of a Bildungsroman; Telémakhos, educated and initiated into the ways of the world by the actions of Athena, matures greatly only at the opening of the book. Although Telémakhos first appears "a daydreaming boy" (I, 145), truly a gamble from what he wants to be, a warrior and hero like Odysseus, about whom he daydreams: Athena stimulates him to action and thus triggers his initiation into the world as a man. In the form of Mentês, Athena advises Telémakhos to stop sitting around daydreaming and start looking for his father, or at least news of him. With her description of Telémakhos as Odysseus' boy by his appearance, Athena makes Telémakhos understand that although he may still be young, he is not a boy: "The shape of your head, the beautiful eyes - yes, / how they resemble him We have eaten meals like this together / many times." (I, 252-254) Her description of him, so close to that of his father, helps Athena to make Telémakhos understand that he is truly the son of the great Odysseus, and can easily become a man like him, who seems to be the young man's dream. Mentês' memory of dining with Odysseus in the old days, connected to eating with Telémakhos, also makes this statement of his resemblance to Odysseus more real to the young man. Before Athena speaks to Telémakhos, as far as one can tell, Telémakhos is nothing more than a boy, which means he has not yet traveled by sea and has yet to resist grown men who wrong him..