Homer’s Odyssey, one of the earliest classics of Western literature, explores not only Odysseus’ journey back home from the Trojan war but also his son Telemachus’ journey from boyhood to manhood. “You must not cling to your boyhood any longer — / it’s time you were a man,” Athena tells him in the first book. But modern society, unlike any other society throughout human history, offers young men no masculine initiation ritual. As a result, countless adult boys wander aimlessly through a wasteland of effeminacy and insecurity.
The way Telemachus becomes a man has five important lessons to teach them. I first read this poem when I was 17, but I recommend fathers read it to their sons a lot younger in the one of good children’s versions that are available.