it is generally admitted that the mam theme in the latter half of the Odyssey is derived from the tale of a wanderer's return and reunion with his wife such as would be seen in folk-tales the world over In the Odyssey, however, Penelope knows nothing about her husband's return until the killing of the suitors is over Now there arises a question why Odysseus does not take his wife into his confidence while making himself known to his son Telemachus According to the view of the so-called analysts, there existed another version of the Odyssey where the heio was recognized and helped by his wife before the killing of the suitors If, however, this view were right, there would have been two (') persons who helped Odysseus to kill the suitors Now the situation in the latter half of the Odyssey requires that there should be at least one person who helps the hero from within Then there would be no place for a grown-up son like Telemachus if the wife helps her husband from within as would be seen in folk-tales If, however, the hero's helper is his own son, there would be no place at all for the wife, as in the Odyssey From this and other observations the present writer supposes that in the Odyssey Telemachus must have taken upon himself the role played originally by the wife in folk-tales and that he must have played a very important part in the making of the Odyssey as a heroic epic The view of the analysts, on the one hand, cannot be accepted as a true picture of the Odyssey, as they confuse the element of a folk-tale (i e the wife) with that of a heroicepic (i e the son) When we observe closely the role played by Telemachus in the first half of the poem we find that the main purpose of his journey lies in connecting closely with the heroic world the hero of the Odyssey whose sphere of actions lay originally in the fantastic world of folk-tales Here it is to be noted that the return of the Atreides, especially that of Agamemnon as told in the first four books and then in Books 11 and 24, makes a strong contrast with that of Odysseus Now in Book 11 Agamemnon advises Odysseus to be cautious with his wife when the latter returns home With this warning still fresh in his ear, Odysseus could not have taken his wife into his confidence as the analysts suppose Penelope, on the one hand, could not have easily forgiven her husband who kept not only his own identity secret until the very last moment but also tried to put her faithfulness to the cruel test (19 221 ff) Such psychological conflicts between husband and wife as are found in Book 23 could only be possible when the role of helping wife was given to Telemachus and not to Penelope The present writer, considering in what relation the tale of the Atreides' return as told in the Odyssey would have stood with the so-called νοστοι of Agias, comes to the conclusion that there must have existed another epic poem concerning the Atreides' return before the poet of the Odyssey composed Such an epic must have had two threads, i e that of Agamemnon on the one hand and that of Menelaos on the other, the latter being subordinated to the former Here the present writer supposes that such a constiuction of two threads must have influenced the peculiar structure of the Odyssey which is formed from the stoiy of Odysseus and that of Telemachus And while the tales of the Atreides' and other heroes' return are told again and again, the Odyssey becomes not only a tale of Odysseus' adventures and return, but also an epic of the Greek army's direful return And in this connection Telemachus is seen playing a role which links the world of folk-tale with that of the heroic poetry which developed around the war of Troy
