Odyssey 2.35 · Book 2, lines 35–39
The son rises and takes the staff
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ὣς φάτο, χαῖρε δὲ φήμῃ Ὀδυσσῆος φίλος υἱός, οὐδʼ ἄρʼ ἔτι δὴν ἧστο, μενοίνησεν δʼ ἀγορεύειν, στῆ δὲ μέσῃ ἀγορῇ· σκῆπτρον δέ οἱ ἔμβαλε χειρὶ κῆρυξ Πεισήνωρ πεπνυμένα μήδεα εἰδώς. πρῶτον ἔπειτα γέροντα καθαπτόμενος προσέειπεν·
So he spoke, and the dear son of Odysseus rejoiced at the word, and no longer sat still for long, but longed to speak; he stood in the middle of the assembly, and into his hand the herald Peisenor, who knew wise counsels, put the staff. Then, addressing the old man first, he spoke to him:
Word by word
The setting
The summoner was indeed Telemachus. Hearing the old man's kindly words, Odysseus's son rejoices, rises, and receives the speaker's staff from the herald — the token that authorizes public speech. He turns first to Aegyptius.
A note on this passage
A coming-of-age staged in objects. Telemachus rejoices at the 'word' — φήμη, a chance utterance heard as a good omen — rises, and takes the herald's staff, then turns first to the old man who spoke.
The undercurrent is what the staff does. The σκῆπτρον is not a prop but the authorization: whoever holds it holds the right to speak, and Peisenor placing it in the boy's hand marks Telemachus stepping, for the first time, into the public role that was his father's. That the omen he gladdens at is only that someone spoke kindly at all measures how starved of allies the household has become.
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