Odyssey 1.206 · Book 1, lines 206–207
But tell me — are you his son?
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ἀλλʼ ἄγε μοι τόδε εἰπὲ καὶ ἀτρεκέως κατάλεξον, εἰ δὴ ἐξ αὐτοῖο τόσος πάϊς εἰς Ὀδυσῆος.
But come, tell me this, and recount it truly: whether indeed, so tall, you are the son of Odysseus himself.
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The setting
Athena breaks off the prophecy and turns to Telemachus himself with a direct question, the standard epic request for identity: tall as you are, are you really the son of Odysseus?
A note on this passage
Athena pivots from prophecy to interview. The double imperative — 'tell me' and 'recount it exactly' — is the fixed epic way of asking a stranger to declare himself, and here the goddess turns it on the boy to open the real work of the scene: drawing Telemachus out.
The question is not idle. Telemachus has grown up as the son of a man he cannot remember, in a house that treats his father as good as dead. To be asked, plainly, whether he is Odysseus's son puts the poem's central uncertainty into his own mouth — and his hedging answer, coming next, will show exactly how little the fatherless boy trusts the name he bears.
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