Telemachus1.0007

François de Salignac De La Mothe-Fénelon, 1651-1715, Suite du quatrième livre de l'Odyssée d'Homère, ou, Les avantures de Télèmaque, fils d'Ulysse, didactic prose romance, The Hague: Moetjens, 1699.

In the passage at right — John Hawkesworth's 1847 translation (Manchester) on archive.org — Fénelon describes Telemachus' realization that his duty to the recovery of his lost father is greater than his desire to reside blissfully with Eucharis on Calypso's island.

Homer's so-called "Telemacheia", the education of the son in his fathers' virtues, fills Odyssey 1-4 and 15-24. Ancient myths explained that after Odysseus' death Telemachus married Circe (or Nausicaa).

Fénelon published the work surreptitiously. The publication marked the start of the Telemachus myth's remarkable resurgence during the enlightenment. Fénelon's narrative introduces plenty of non-classical elements to the story of Telemachus' own journey, what he did within the Odyssey's narrative framework before returning in book 15 to purge the house of Penelope's suitors. Fénelon tells how on Calypso's island, the nymph herself falls in love with Telemachus, but he falls for the younger Eucharis, one of Calypso's attendants. See Telemachus1.0007_Fénelon.