Odyssey 3.14 · Book 3, lines 14–16
'No need of shyness'
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Athena (as Mentor) — Τηλέμαχʼ, οὐ μέν σε χρὴ ἔτʼ αἰδοῦς, οὐδʼ ἠβαιόν· τοὔνεκα γὰρ καὶ πόντον ἐπέπλως, ὄφρα πύθηαι πατρός, ὅπου κύθε γαῖα καὶ ὅν τινα πότμον ἐπέσπεν.
Telemachus, no need have you any longer of shyness, not even a little. For it was for this that you sailed the sea, so that you might learn of your father — where the earth hid him, and whatever fate he met.
Word by word
The setting
Athena, as Mentor, urges Telemachus forward. This is why he crossed the sea: to find out what became of his father.
A note on this passage
Athena turns coach. She strips away the boy's bashfulness — 'no need of shyness, not even a little' — and reminds him why he crossed the sea at all: to find out about his father, where he lies and what death he met.
Two things press under the encouragement. First, the goddess speaks of Odysseus as likely dead, 'where the earth hid him, what doom he met,' steeling Telemachus for the hardest news — though the reader knows the father is alive. Second, the word she brushes aside, αἰδώς, is exactly the reticence a young man must outgrow to become a man; naming it and dismissing it is itself a nudge across the threshold.
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