Son of Odysseus
Telegonos: A Tragedy in Verse by Jonathan Golding
Odysseus is one of the most fascinating figures from ancient literature. Rather than embody a single, fixed meaning—as Achilles does wrath unleashed and reconciled, or Antigone unswerving devotion to family, or Aeneas duty over personal happiness—Odysseus's signification as a legendary warrior of the Trojan War shifts considerably from Homer to the Greek tragedians, and again from the tragedians to Dante.
In the Odyssey, Odysseus is a noble, if crafty survivor who just wants to get home. He uses his wits to protect himself, his men, and his family, but he is essentially pious and honorable. He represents the ideal Homeric hero who balances prowess on the battlefield with the gift of persuasion, strength of arm with suppleness of tongue, able equally to manipulate weapons and words to achieve his goals.
THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:
Louis Markos , Professor in English and Scholar in Residence at Houston Baptist University, holds the Robert H. Ray Chair in Humanities. His 19 books include Lewis Agonistes; Restoring Beauty: The Good, the True, and the Beautiful in the Writings of C. S. Lewis; On the Shoulders of Hobbits: The Road to Virtue with Tolkien and Lewis; and From A to Z to Narnia with C. S. Lewis.
subscription options
Order
Print/Online Subscription
Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!
Order
Online Only
Subscription
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more on literature from the online archives
30.5—Sept/Oct 2017
on Costly Grace in Breece D'J Pancake's Flyover Country by Casey Chalk
30.2—March/April 2017
on Reading Don Quixote in Its Original Christian Context by Luis Cortest
24.1—January/February 2011
Ruminations on the Monstrous Envy of the Soul-Devouring State by Anthony Esolen
more from the online archives
16.5—June 2003
on the Importance of Fathers to Churchgoing by Robbie Low
33.1—January/February 2020
on the Consequences of One Birth Before Roe v. Wade by Craig Kellogg Galer
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
