Is Telemachus a “Naturally Gifted Orator”? Odyssey 2.40–79 in Its Rhetorical Contexts

Telemachus’s first speech to the Ithacan assembly in Odyssey 2 includes apparent misguided criticism of the very audience he is trying to persuade. This article considers his speech from two perspectives. First, it surveys ancient and Byzantine reception of the speech, showing how initial doubts about Telemachus’s effectiveness shift to Eustathius’s confidence in the “naturally gifted orator.” Second, it argues for a novel interpretation of Telemachus’s criticism as an intelligent but ultimately ineffective incorporation of features of battlefield exhortation into a supplication.