Odyssey 3.79 · Book 3, lines 79–82
Telemachus names himself and his errand
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Telemachus — ὦ Νέστορ Νηληϊάδη, μέγα κῦδος Ἀχαιῶν, εἴρεαι ὁππόθεν εἰμέν· ἐγὼ δέ κέ τοι καταλέξω. ἡμεῖς ἐξ Ἰθάκης ὑπονηίου εἰλήλουθμεν· πρῆξις δʼ ἥδʼ ἰδίη, οὐ δήμιος, ἣν ἀγορεύω.
O Nestor, son of Neleus, great glory of the Achaeans, you ask from where we are; and I will tell you. We have come from Ithaca under Neion. And this errand of mine is private, not public, the one I speak of.
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Emboldened, Telemachus answers the old king with full courtesy. He returns Nestor's grand address, tells him plainly where they are from — Ithaca — and marks his purpose as a private matter, not the business of a people.
A note on this passage
Telemachus answers as a well-raised guest should. He gives Nestor back a full title — son of Neleus, great glory of the Achaeans — promises to answer the question put to him, names his home as Ithaca beneath Mount Neion, and calls his business private, not public.
The careful word is private. He is at pains to say this is his own errand, not the mission of a state — and that is exactly right, because he holds no public office; he is only a son looking for a father. Yet the distinction is quietly false to the facts: his private trouble is Ithaca's public wound, a kingless house eaten by suitors. The boy underclaims, and the poem lets us feel the gap between what he is allowed to say and what is actually at stake.
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