Odyssey 3.208 · Book 3, lines 208–209
Now I must endure it
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ἀλλʼ οὔ μοι τοιοῦτον ἐπέκλωσαν θεοὶ ὄλβον, πατρί τʼ ἐμῷ καὶ ἐμοί· νῦν δὲ χρὴ τετλάμεν ἔμπης.
But the gods have spun no such happiness for me, both for my father and for me; but now I must endure it all the same.
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The setting
Telemachus's wish gives way to resignation: the gods gave neither his father nor himself the power to strike back, so for now he can only endure the suitors' outrages.
A note on this passage
The wish collapses into resignation. The gods, Telemachus says, spun no such good fortune for his father or for himself; and so, for now, he must simply bear it. The reply that began by celebrating vengeance ends by admitting he can take none.
The image is of fate as thread on the loom — the gods ‘spun’ his portion, and it did not include the strength Orestes had. What he is left with is τετλάμεν, the hard Homeric verb of endurance that shadows Odysseus himself, the man ‘of many sufferings.’ Before Telemachus can act like his father, he must first learn to endure like him — and that, the poem hints, is where growing up begins.
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