Odyssey 2.224 · Book 2, lines 224–228
Mentor rises
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ἦ τοι ὅ γʼ ὣς εἰπὼν κατʼ ἄρʼ ἕζετο, τοῖσι δʼ ἀνέστη Μέντωρ, ὅς ῥʼ Ὀδυσῆος ἀμύμονος ἦεν ἑταῖρος, καί οἱ ἰὼν ἐν νηυσὶν ἐπέτρεπεν οἶκον ἅπαντα, πείθεσθαί τε γέροντι καὶ ἔμπεδα πάντα φυλάσσειν· ὅ σφιν ἐὺ φρονέων ἀγορήσατο καὶ μετέειπεν·
And truly, having thus spoken, he sat down; and among them rose Mentor, who was the companion of blameless Odysseus, and to whom, going in his ships, he had entrusted the whole house, to obey the old man and keep all things secure; he, well-meaning toward them, addressed them and spoke:
Word by word
The setting
Telemachus sits, and a new speaker stands: Mentor, Odysseus's old friend, to whom the king entrusted his household and his aged father Laertes when he sailed for Troy. His name will later become Athena's favorite disguise.
A note on this passage
A clean scene-turn. The reply formula sits Telemachus down and stands Mentor up, and the poem pauses to tell us who he is: the man Odysseus left in charge of the whole house, sworn to obey old Laertes and guard everything intact.
That credential is the point. Of everyone in the assembly, the one who rises to speak is the household's own trustee — the living deputy of the absent king. And the name matters beyond this scene: ‘Mentor’ is the shape Athena will borrow to guide Telemachus, so that the word for a trusted guardian eventually becomes our word for one. Here he is still only the man, keeping a promise no one else remembers.
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