Odyssey 1.93 · Book 1, lines 93–95
To Pylos and Sparta — for news, and for fame
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πέμψω δʼ ἐς Σπάρτην τε καὶ ἐς Πύλον ἠμαθόεντα νόστον πευσόμενον πατρὸς φίλου, ἤν που ἀκούσῃ, ἠδʼ ἵνα μιν κλέος ἐσθλὸν ἐν ἀνθρώποισιν ἔχῃσιν.
And I will send him to Sparta and to sandy Pylos, to learn of the return of his dear father, if perchance he might hear, and so that he may win noble fame among men.
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The setting
Athena's last move for Telemachus: a journey. She will send him to the mainland courts to seek word of his father — and, whatever he learns, to win a name of his own.
A note on this passage
The last step: Athena will send Telemachus to Sparta and to Pylos to ask after his missing father. The stated aim is news — but she adds a second aim, and it is the one that will matter.
That second aim is κλέος, noble fame among men. The journey is not only a search; it is how a boy becomes a name. The Odyssey borrows the Iliad's supreme value — the glory a hero wins and leaves behind him — and hands it to the son before the father has even come home.
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