Source Verification: Telemachus

Every claim below is either what a named ancient source attests, in its own line or section, or a point where the sources themselves disagree.

What the Sources Attest

What was Telemachus known for?

He is known for the search for his father and for fighting beside him. The first four books of Homer's Odyssey, often called the Telemachy, follow him from Ithaca to Pylos and Sparta. Athena sends him there to ask Nestor and Menelaus for news of Odysseus. She also tells him to plan the suitors' deaths, since he is no longer a child. In Books 16 to 22 he meets his disguised father and helps him kill the suitors.

Source: Homer, Odyssey 1.280-297

Who did Telemachus fall in love with?

Homer's Odyssey gives him no love story. It only looks ahead to a marriage: Athena says the gods will show him a noble bride, and Helen gives him a robe for his bride to wear. Later writers disagree about who she was. The Hesiodic Catalogue, quoted by Eustathius, names Polycaste, the daughter of Nestor who bathes him at Pylos. The lost Telegony, as Proclus summarises it, married him to Circe.

Source: Homer, Odyssey 15.120-130

Did Telemachus marry Circe?

Only in a late ending to his story. Proclus's summary of the Telegony, a lost epic by Eugammon of Cyrene, says Circe made Telemachus and Penelope immortal. Then Telegonus married Penelope and Telemachus married Circe. Hyginus's Fabulae 127 agrees and gives Telemachus and Circe a son, Latinus. Homer's Odyssey knows nothing of this. Apollodorus's Epitome tells the same Telegonus story but marries only Telegonus and Penelope, and leaves Telemachus out.

Source: Hyginus, Fabulae 127

Did Odysseus love Telemachus?

The sources show it plainly. In Apollodorus's Epitome, Odysseus drops his feigned madness when Palamedes threatens the baby with a sword, rather than risk his son. In Homer's Odyssey Book 16, Odysseus kisses the young man and lets fall the tears he had held back until then. When Telemachus believes him, both weep aloud like birds robbed of their young. Odysseus also trusts him with the plan against the suitors and tells no one else at first.

Source: Homer, Odyssey 16.186-219

Is Telemachus good or bad?

Homer's Odyssey presents him as loyal and brave, but not gentle. He defends his mother's house, faces down the suitors in assembly, and fights beside his father. In Book 22 he saves the singer Phemius and the herald Medon, who cared for him as a child. Yet he also chooses how the disloyal maids die. Odysseus orders them killed with swords. Telemachus refuses them a clean death and hangs them with a ship's cable.

Source: Homer, Odyssey 22.461-473

Did Telemachus have any brothers?

Not in Homer. In Odyssey Book 16 Telemachus says Zeus made his house run in a single line: Laertes, Odysseus and he were each an only son. Later works gave Odysseus more children. Apollodorus's Epitome names Telegonus by Circe, Polypoetes by the Thesprotian queen Callidice, and Poliporthes, born to Penelope after the return. Eustathius says the Telegony's author gave Odysseus and Penelope a second son, Acusilaus.

Source: Homer, Odyssey 16.117-120

Where Accounts Differ

sword or plough in the madness test
who Telemachus married
how the Telegony ends
whether Telemachus had brothers
late and indirect sources for his marriage

How Palamedes exposed Odysseus's feigned madness differs. Apollodorus (Epitome 3.7) has him snatch the infant Telemachus from Penelope and draw a sword as if to kill him. Hyginus (Fabulae 95) has Odysseus yoke a horse and an ox to a plough, and Palamedes set the baby in front of it.
Telemachus's wife is named two ways. The Hesiodic Catalogue of Women, quoted by Eustathius, gives Polycaste, daughter of Nestor, and their son Persepolis. Proclus's summary of the Telegony and Hyginus (Fabulae 127) give Circe. The Odyssey names no wife, though Polycaste bathes him at Pylos (3.464-468).
The Telegony's ending differs by source. Proclus's summary has Circe make Penelope and Telemachus immortal, with Telegonus marrying Penelope and Telemachus marrying Circe. Hyginus (Fabulae 127) agrees on both marriages and adds a son, Latinus. Apollodorus (Epitome 7.36-37) marries only Telegonus and Penelope, has Circe send them to the Islands of the Blest, and says nothing of Telemachus.
Homer makes Telemachus an only son (Odyssey 16.117-120). Apollodorus (Epitome 7.35) gives Penelope a second son, Poliporthes, born after Odysseus's return, and Eustathius says the Telegony's author gave the couple a son named Acusilaus.
The Polycaste marriage survives only through Eustathius's Byzantine commentary on the Odyssey, which quotes the Hesiodic Catalogue.

Sources

Primary sources

Homer, Odyssey 1.205-220
Homer, Odyssey 1.280-297
Homer, Odyssey 1.345-359
Homer, Odyssey 2.25-27
Homer, Odyssey 2.35-81
Homer, Odyssey 2.267-270
Homer, Odyssey 2.370-420
Homer, Odyssey 3.20-28
Homer, Odyssey 3.184-185
Homer, Odyssey 3.371-379
Homer, Odyssey 3.464-468
Homer, Odyssey 3.475-485
Homer, Odyssey 4.138-146
Homer, Odyssey 4.555-560
Homer, Odyssey 4.660-672
Homer, Odyssey 15.1-35
Homer, Odyssey 15.120-130
Homer, Odyssey 15.550-557
Homer, Odyssey 16.117-120
Homer, Odyssey 16.186-219
Homer, Odyssey 16.299-303
Homer, Odyssey 21.118-135
Homer, Odyssey 21.343-353
Homer, Odyssey 22.89-98
Homer, Odyssey 22.100-111
Homer, Odyssey 22.150-159
Homer, Odyssey 22.354-360
Homer, Odyssey 22.435-473
Homer, Odyssey 24.505-515
Apollodorus, Epitome 3.7
Apollodorus, Epitome 7.32
Apollodorus, Epitome 7.33
Apollodorus, Epitome 7.35
Apollodorus, Epitome 7.36
Apollodorus, Epitome 7.37
Hyginus, Fabulae 95
Hyginus, Fabulae 127